Tameside College

Tameside College

Address: Beaufort Rd, Beaufort Road, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, OL6 6NX Unique reference number (URN): 2827109

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders foster a highly inclusive culture that permeates throughout the provider. Staff are passionate about providing targeted and useful support for their trainees. They take deliberate steps to ensure that trainees feel safe to disclose barriers to learning and systematically review their practices. Trainees are confident in disclosing any barriers they may have.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Staff understand the needs of their trainees very well. They skilfully use a range of informative information, including ‘getting to know me’ questionnaires to gain a more in- depth understanding of trainees' barriers to learning. This means that staff put in place swiftly reasonable adjustments or adaptations. Trainees with dyslexia, dyspraxia or visual stress receive appropriate adjustments such as broken-down texts, and assistive technologies to convert written text to video or audio. Staff provide highly tailored academic,

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Expected standard

pastoral and practical support. Trainees engage very well with the highly bespoke support provided. This enables them to access learning effectively and work independently.

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Expected standard

Pastoral mentors prioritise the wellbeing of their trainees. They use their fortnightly meetings to skilfully identify where trainees require support, and then signpost them to a range of internal and external support. Staff make a demonstrable difference to trainees' opportunities to access learning. Trainees feel very welcome and highly valued.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders and staff set very high expectations for trainees' professional behaviour and attendance. Trainees conduct themselves maturely in sessions, contribute thoughtfully to discussions and collaborate effectively. They attend regularly and are highly committed to their studies. If attendance falls, leaders act quickly to identify causes and remove barriers. They offer tailored and highly effective support to those trainees returning after suspended study.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Trainees benefit from robust pastoral support that promotes positive mental health and wellbeing. They feel welcome, safe and able to access additional help when needed, reporting no incidents of bullying or harassment. In their teaching, trainees demonstrate high levels of professionalism. They arrive thoroughly prepared, build a positive rapport with learners and create highly respectful learning environments.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Teacher educators and mentors skilfully help trainees manage their workload, stress and wellbeing. They hold fortnightly checks and include strategies such as guided meditation. Additional tutorials or extensions are provided where appropriate. Trainees value this support and recognise the positive culture that enables their personal and professional growth.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders systematically evaluate their pastoral support. As a result, they have increased staffing and adapt the provision during the year. Leaders have enhanced the support for trainees and now include breathwork and strategies to improve trainees' organisation skills.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Pastoral mentors also prioritise trainees' welfare. They respond swiftly to trainees' individual needs, putting appropriate support in place. They provide additional support sessions, such as mindfulness techniques and 'walk and talks', to support trainees that feel overwhelmed.

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Achievement Expected standard

Trainees develop the knowledge and skills they need to teach their subjects well. They plan lessons thoroughly and design activities to promote learners' understanding. In biology, trainees use scenario-based questioning to check learners' recall of key terminology.

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Achievement Expected standard

Trainees are generally well prepared for teaching in further education and skills providers. They understand safeguarding and manage learners' behaviour with growing competence, applying a range of behaviour management techniques. Although trainees understand the principles of how to adapt their teaching, they sometimes lack confidence in meeting the diverse needs of learners.

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Achievement Expected standard

Trainees become reflective practitioners. Leaders have recently introduced a new observation feedback model and digital tools to help trainees analyse their teaching and identify priorities for improvement. Trainees set themselves meaningful targets and actively seek support when they need it.

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Achievement Expected standard

Almost all trainees, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, complete their qualifications and progress into relevant teaching roles. Leaders continue to support those facing temporary barriers to employment.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Expected standard

Leaders ensure that the initial teacher education (ITE) curriculum is ambitious and well structured, aligning fully with statutory and non-statutory guidance. Trainees develop general and subject-specific pedagogical skills. They access weekly professional development to strengthen their subject expertise. Second year trainees take part in a subject-specialist conference, where they attend seminars, work with subject experts and present academic posters.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Expected standard

Leaders ensure that centre-based and the main placement are well integrated, enabling trainees to experience a coherent programme. Subject-specialist mentors support trainees well. They typically understand what has been covered in centre-based sessions and use this to guide focused conversations with trainees. Trainees value the discussions they have about their practice, which helps them to build their confidence and expertise. However, arrangements for the second placement are not as well planned and are less systematic in their approach.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Expected standard

Teacher educators and mentors are experienced and knowledgeable about the ITE curriculum. The curriculum is informed by a wide range of relevant research. Teacher educators effectively model evidenced-based methods so that trainees can see how they work in practice.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Expected standard

Teacher educators break the curriculum into clear, progressive topics, ensuring trainees build their knowledge and skills in a logical sequence. Key themes are revisited to strengthen recall and application. Early in the programme, trainees teach a microlesson to build confidence and practise core skills, including behaviour management and adaptive teaching. Trainees have plentiful opportunities to develop and practise teaching skills. They observe the practice of other teachers across a range of subjects.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Expected standard

Assessment of trainees' teaching and written work is accurate and developmental, helping trainees to understand their strengths and areas for improvement. However, targets set by both mentors and trainees are not routinely precise enough to ensure trainees can rapidly strengthen and improve their skills.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Expected standard

Throughout their training, trainees learn how to meet the needs of learners, including those who are disadvantaged or have special educational needs and/or disabilities. However, trainees report that they receive insufficient training on some specific learner needs. This means that a few trainees do not have the thorough understanding of how to adapt teaching effectively to better meet their learners' needs.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Expected standard

Leaders ensure that training on safeguarding is prioritised. Teacher educators repeatedly cover key safeguarding topics, including trauma, looked-after children and neurodiversity, ensuring trainees can develop a secure understanding.

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Leadership Expected standard

Leaders know the strengths of their initial teacher education (ITE) provision and priorities for improvement. They receive appropriate challenge from those responsible for oversight to ensure that the training they provide remains high quality. Leaders carefully consider the views of their trainees when redesigning the curriculum. For example, trainees now benefit from learning about behaviour management techniques earlier in the course so that they are better prepared when they commence teaching. Leaders have recently strengthened the board to include governors with higher education experience to provide further challenge to leaders on this aspect of their work.

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Leadership Expected standard

Leaders create a welcoming culture for staff. They have put in place a programme of ongoing effective professional learning. They have carefully redesigned their approach to mentoring so that mentors now access comprehensive training throughout the year. Leaders support staff to keep up to date with changes in pedagogical research. Staff attend conferences at the university and take part in relevant scholarly activities. Staff complete research projects, which they present at the college research symposium. This consequently informs their teaching.

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Leadership Expected standard

Leaders' design meaningful quality assurance systems and processes that provide useful information about trainees' experiences and the overall quality of the ITE curriculum. Leaders use this information effectively to put appropriate actions in place to bring about improvements. They have redesigned their approach to mentoring so that trainees now receive high-quality support.

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Leadership Expected standard

Leaders work with stakeholders in the college to enable trainees to apply their teaching knowledge in various contexts. For example, mathematics trainees appreciate the opportunity to explore teaching adults in addition to teaching young people. However, leaders do not make enough use of a range of stakeholders to inform the curriculum further in order to reflect the breadth of further education.

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Next steps

• Leaders should develop the partnerships with stakeholders to ensure that the curriculum fully reflects the realities of teaching in the broad further education and skills sector.

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Next steps

• Leaders should continue to strengthen governance arrangements so that they receive further challenge and support to strengthen the ITE provision.

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Next steps

• Leaders need to ensure that trainees receive further training on how to use the principles of adaptive teaching to ensure that they can confidently meet the diverse needs of their learners.

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Next steps

• Leaders should ensure that mentors refine their target setting further so that trainees can identify and take rapid and effective actions to strengthen and tackle areas to improve.

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What it's like to be a trainee at this provider

Trainees describe the initial teacher education course as well planned and organised, even for those returning after a break. They feel they are progressing well and becoming more confident, reflective teachers. Most trainees achieve their qualification.

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What it's like to be a trainee at this provider

Trainees consistently report that the support they receive is highly effective, with both pastoral and specialist mentors providing regular guidance, encouragement and wellbeing support. Trainees know exactly who to speak to when challenges arise and value the open- door approach from teacher educators.

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What it's like to be a trainee at this provider

Trainees' teaching skills develop noticeably over time. They talk about improved classroom management, better questioning techniques and a clearer understanding of why they teach in particular ways. Building rapport with learners and seeing their progress is a strong source of motivation, and they enjoy becoming more confident practitioners.

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What it's like to be a trainee at this provider

Research-informed practice underpins their experience. Trainees regularly engage with up- to-date educational research, which ensures that they gain a well-informed knowledge of evidence-based practice. Trainees see these approaches modelled by teacher educators before applying them in their own lessons.

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What it's like to be a trainee at this provider

Trainees learn about supporting learners with special educational needs and/or disabilities and have a basic understanding of the needs of other disadvantaged learners.

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What it's like to be a trainee at this provider

Teaching placements expose trainees to different teachers, levels and subject areas in the college. This breadth builds confidence and enables trainees to flourish. However, the second placements are not as coherently planned as the main placements.

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What it's like to be a trainee at this provider

Trainees develop a realistic understanding of the profession. Many say teaching is more challenging than they expected, and managing workload requires organisation and resilience. However, because of the guidance they receive, they feel able to cope and remain highly motivated.

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Lead inspector:

Alison Humphreys, His Majesty's Inspector

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was used by the inspector(s) during the inspection. More recent data may have been published since the inspection took place.

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About this inspection

• At the time of this inspection, Tameside College had 25 trainees on ITE programmes in the further education and skills age-phase. • Almost all trainees completed their placement at Tameside College. One trainee was in a teaching role at an external placement. • All trainees study on a part-time basis. There are 11 trainees studying towards the Postgraduate Diploma in Education, 6 trainees studying towards the Postgraduate Certificate in Education, 5 trainees studying towards the Certificate in Education and 3 trainees studying towards the Professional Graduate Certificate in Education. • There are currently 16 trainees who are pre-service and 9 in-service trainees. • The inspection was conducted by two of His Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs). • Inspectors spoke with senior leaders, leaders of the ITE programmes, course lecturers and subject and pastoral mentors. Inspectors also spoke with staff from the settings where

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About this inspection

trainees were on teaching practice. • Inspectors sampled a wide range of documentation relating to the ITE training programmes. This included curriculum plans, online resources, trainees' assignments and evidence of target setting, inclusion and mentoring. • Inspectors reviewed a wide range of information relating to the leadership and management of the programmes. These documents included leaders' annual evaluation reports, and leaders' improvement planning documents. • Inspectors spoke with 15 trainees and 7 early career teachers. • Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) or Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other providers can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The provider reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The provider is fulfilling the expected standard of training. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The provider needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of training. services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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