Inspiring Future Teachers

Inspiring Future Teachers

Address: c/o HISP Multi Academy Trust, Winchester Road, Chandler's Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO53 2DW Unique reference number (URN): 2783657

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees are very well prepared for the realities of the primary classroom. They develop skills in managing behaviour early in the programme and refine these over time. Trainees also develop a secure understanding of the subject-specific components of the primary curriculum alongside a clear focus on child development and how children learn. Trainees develop a secure understanding of how to keep pupils safe.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees become highly reflective practitioners. They take every opportunity to identify how well they are progressing through the curriculum and to hone their teaching practice. As a result, trainees are very clear about what they need to do to prepare for their next steps. High completion rates reflect the extent to which trainees develop the expertise necessary for the next stage of employment. Leaders routinely reflect on and refine their support to ensure that trainees are increasingly well skilled and qualified to gain employment.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders are precise in their planning and sequencing of the initial teacher education (ITE) curriculum to ensure trainee knowledge builds coherently. The careful design of the curriculum ensures that the centre-based and placement-based training mesh together seamlessly. For example, weekly ‘bridging the gap’ tasks ensure that trainees apply and explore their theoretical learning in their teaching practice. Trainees learn about an ambitious range of concepts that prepare them well for the realities of teaching, including their role in keeping pupils safe.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders exploit the high levels of expertise within the partnership to ensure that high-quality research underpins this curriculum. For example, they work with experts from teaching and research schools to provide trainees with a relevant and evidence-based curriculum. Trainees are supported to explore research in increasingly creative ways, which means they quickly become skilful in applying what they learn.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders ensure that intensive training and practice (ITAP) opportunities are well integrated so that trainees can deepen their understanding and experience as they progress. Trainees benefit from targeted support, which is timed very well to fit with key aspects of the programme. For example, trainees engage with reflections on hypothetical situations in the early stages of the course, which are gradually replaced by their own classroom examples as their experience grows. Consequently, trainees' ability to reflect and refine their thinking and practice is established right from the very start, enabling the trainees to become increasingly expert in their reflection as they develop.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Trainees develop an increasingly detailed understanding of the barriers that pupils face to their learning. Staff ensure that trainees explore the ways in which adaptations can support learners to thrive in their classrooms. These opportunities are integral to the programme design. As a result of frequent and carefully woven opportunities to develop knowledge and skills in how to adapt teaching, trainees develop clear expertise over time.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Trainees benefit from mentoring of a consistently high quality. Mentors understand their role, the ITE curriculum and the trainees very well. This means that mentors are equipped to provide trainees with tailored support that meets their needs well. For example, mentors make specific adaptations for trainees who are career changers.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Teacher educators use assessment well. They use the information they have to identify where trainees need support to develop aspects of their teaching practice. Trainees value the helpful and supportive feedback they receive throughout the programme and use this well to pinpoint where they need to improve.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Trainees feel very welcome and included in this provider. From the outset, staff get to know the individual trainees very well. Trainees develop a clear sense of identity with both the provider as a whole and the local hubs in which they are based. This culture means that trainees feel safe to share any additional needs they have to ensure they receive the right support at the right time.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Trainees benefit from bespoke and tailored support to meet their individual needs. As a result of highly positive relationships with staff, trainees are comfortable to discuss any additional needs they may have. Leaders ensure that any reasonable adjustments or adaptions to programmes are thoughtful and well judged in order to reduce any barriers trainees may have and support them to thrive. Staff routinely review support plans to ensure they remain appropriate and continue to provide the intended support.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Trainees are confident about where they can find additional help should they need it, both within and external to the provider. Trainees are consistently positive about support they receive from across the partnership.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders are passionate about creating the 'next generation of superheroes' to succeed as teachers in classrooms. They clearly articulate this vision and ensure that staff from across the partnership are united in their pursuit of this. Those with oversight for the provision hold leaders to account very effectively. This includes ensuring that their statutory duties are met and appropriate mandatory requirements of their programmes are enacted.

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Leadership Strong standard

Rigorous quality assurance processes are woven throughout the course. This assures leaders that their provision is as effective as intended. Leaders have a highly accurate understanding of the strengths of their provision. They identify and act quickly where they feel this could be further developed. Leaders are highly responsive to feedback, which is sought frequently from all stakeholders, refining their programme as it develops. This ensures programmes provide the best experience they can for trainees, whose interests are central to any decisions taken.

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Leadership Strong standard

Well-developed communications and quality assurance methods ensure that, despite the programme being delivered across different hubs, there is a highly consistent and high- quality experience for trainees.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders give careful thought to the ongoing professional development needs of staff and mentors. As well as well-designed and regularly refined training materials to ensure mentor quality, leaders take appropriate steps to ensure that the ongoing expertise of staff is maintained.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders ensure that bullying or harassment of staff is never tolerated. They have clear systems and processes to deal with any issues, were they to occur. Leaders have a secure understanding of safer recruitment processes and make the appropriate checks they need to for all trainees.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders have high expectations for their trainees and the calibre of their work. Trainees readily rise to meet these expectations. Adept oversight by leaders, early identification of

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Next steps

Leaders, and those responsible for oversight, should continue to strengthen and refine their highly effective provision, and further embed their inclusive approaches to teacher training so as to have a transformative impact on primary phase trainees and the pupils they go on to teach. need and rapidly planned adaptations mean that trainees get the support they need to complete their programmes successfully. All trainees are clear that bullying, harassment and discrimination are never tolerated. They are clear on how they would raise concerns, if they needed to.

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Next steps

Trainees speak very highly of the pastoral support they receive from staff across the partnership. This includes the high levels of support they receive to help them manage their workload. Leaders proactively seek the views of trainees to make ongoing refinements to the delivery of the programme. As a result, trainees feel more able to manage the requirements of the course. Leaders and staff support trainees to build their resilience as part of the preparations for a successful career in teaching.

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Next steps

Trainees receive strong support to develop the professional behaviours that are required of them when they become teachers. This is both explicitly taught and role modelled to them through the mentors and sector experts they encounter throughout their teaching practice.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees develop high levels of confidence in teaching their subject. Teacher educators ensure that trainees build their knowledge and skills systematically. As a result, trainees are adept in supporting pupils who face barriers to their learning. Trainees improve their practice in managing behaviour as they move through the course and understand very well their role in keeping pupils safe.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees critique their own practice very skilfully. Frequent reflection sessions ensure trainees know their professional strengths and priorities for improvement. Together with their mentors, trainees create precise targets that enable them to build their knowledge and expertise over time.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees learn to be inquisitive and resilient. This prepares them for the realities of teaching and the next phase of their training. Leaders systematically support trainees and remove any barriers to learning they may face, resulting in high completion and achievement rates.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders have developed a curriculum that is research led and highly ambitious. The curriculum is carefully designed to help trainees apply their developing knowledge of effective teaching strategies in their specialist subject. As a result, trainees quickly become accustomed to grounding their developing practice in recent and relevant high-quality professional discourse. For example, in art, science and physical education, trainees learn subject-specific content as well as areas such as behaviour management strategies specific to practical subjects.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders ensure that the curriculum meets both statutory and non-statutory guidance, including the entitlement for trainees. This includes intensive training and practice that enables trainees to deepen knowledge and refine their teaching skills.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

In subject-specific training sessions, teacher educators support trainees very well to compare ideas and experiences. Leaders carefully structure the curriculum and ensure that that trainees can practise and refine their teaching seamlessly. They discuss and refine what they have learned and apply this to their ongoing experiences.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders prepare trainees to teach their subject across different year groups and key stages very effectively. Throughout their training, trainees learn how to support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Similarly, trainees develop a deep understanding of their role in helping to ensure the safety and welfare of pupils. Trainees get to know their pupils' needs well and adapt their teaching to remove barriers to learning. These skills are central to trainees' teaching practice.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

All staff and mentors working with trainees have a detailed knowledge of the curriculum. Leaders communicate frequently with mentors and subject leads, who consider the quality and usefulness of this communication to be one of the strengths of the provision. Consequently, trainees receive consistently high-quality training across different training hubs.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Mentoring of trainees is a clear strength of this provider. Trainees value the professional relationships they have with their mentors, because these allow them to quickly develop their teaching in a supportive but challenging way.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Tutors use assessment very well. Throughout the programme, they check carefully what trainees know and can do. Trainees benefit from continuous and developmental feedback. Mentors and tutors precisely define targets and next steps, which help trainees to master all aspects of the curriculum systematically and over time.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Trainees feel valued and welcomed at the provider. They appreciate the positive culture and feel that leaders and staff get to know them very well. Leaders ensure that trainees know how to raise any worries or concerns.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Staff take appropriate action to provide any support that trainees need to meet additional needs. This includes specific adaptions or reasonable adjustments to enable trainees to access the curriculum and achieve well. In each circumstance, the provider's processes ensure that adaptions are appropriate, and they make careful checks to ensure these work as intended.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Trainees receive helpful information and guidance about a wide range of sources of support for learning and wellbeing. As a result, trainees know how to access additional support if they require individualised support to meet their needs or to support their wellbeing.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders are firmly committed to enabling trainees from a diverse range of backgrounds to be successful in their teacher training. Leaders intentionally design admissions processes to remove barriers without reducing the calibre of applicants. They visit applicant groups to reduce transport or cultural barriers. Leaders carefully and systematically analyse trainees' success, or withdrawals, and use this information to strengthen inclusion and to minimise any potential barriers.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders have a clear vision to train excellent teachers and so safeguard the education of future pupils. Leaders pursue this vision with tenacity and conviction, resulting in a cohesive and shared culture across the partnership, including the training hubs. Leaders work well with a range of partner organisations to provide a high-quality experience for trainees. This includes a close working relationship with their validating university. They use this to ensure trainees who opt to complete a postgraduate certificate in education can do so successfully.

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Leadership Strong standard

Staff value the positive culture that leaders have created. They know that decisions are made in the best interests of trainees and that leaders never tolerate bullying or harassment. Leaders provide staff and mentors with meaningful training to ensure that all those who work with trainees understand and carry out their role in delivering the curriculum very well.

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Next steps

Leaders, and those responsible for oversight, should continue to strengthen and refine their highly effective provision, and further embed their inclusive approaches to teacher training so as to have a transformative impact on secondary phase trainees and the pupils they go on to teach. Leaders recognise the challenge of consistency when delivering training through remote hubs. Clear and consistent communication with training hub staff, and trainees, gives leaders assurances that trainees receive consistently high-quality training. Because leaders carefully design quality assurance systems, these systems are impactful without becoming overbearing. This means that leaders check quality regularly and quickly address any differences, should they arise. Consequently, leaders have a detailed knowledge of the strengths and priorities for the provision.

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Next steps

Leaders, and those responsible for overseeing the provision, ensure that the initial teacher education provision meets all relevant statutory and non-statutory guidance. Leaders match the curriculum to the initial teacher training mandatory criteria and supporting advice for the secondary phase. They are diligent in checking all trainees have received the necessary safer recruitment checks.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders have high expectations for trainees' professional behaviours, attendance and commitment to learning. Leaders communicate these expectations clearly from the very start. They do this through highly effective induction processes and via shared documentation throughout the course. Leaders enact well-considered processes to support any trainees who may find it difficult to meet the high expectations of them.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders prioritise trainees' welfare. They signpost pastoral support clearly to ensure trainees can access this when they need to. Trainees know that leaders will never tolerate bullying or harassment of any kind.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders thread trainees' learning about professional behaviours through the curriculum. Target setting processes focus on professional behaviours alongside subject knowledge and pedagogy. This means that leaders can check how trainees' wider knowledge is developing and provide any additional support that may be required.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Trainees receive comprehensive advice and guidance about managing workload and the next steps in their careers. They develop into resilient and knowledgeable professionals who value the difference they can make to pupils' lives. They are ready to join the profession and enjoy a sustained career on completion of their courses.

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

Trainees across both phases of this provider receive highly effective support and training to develop into reflective and knowledgeable teachers. A well-designed curriculum ensures that they are well prepared for the realities of teaching. This is underpinned by relevant and high- quality research, which trainees delve into and apply to their classroom experiences.

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

Supported ably by well-trained mentors and expert teacher educators, trainees thrive as a result of the training they receive. This is especially the case for their increasingly sophisticated understanding about how to adapt classroom provision to support learners with additional needs.

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

Trainees access their training across local hubs. Wherever they are based, trainees are supported to become consistently reflective practitioners. Staff instil in them a continuous desire to improve their teaching practice. Regardless of which hub they belong to, trainees receive a consistently high-quality training experience. This is reflected in both their achievement across the courses, as well as the high levels of satisfaction they express in their feedback.

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

Trainees are known well and recognised as individuals. They praise the personalised and bespoke nature of their pastoral support, including any adaptions to ensure they can access and complete their courses successfully. This comes as a result of the open culture and positive relationships they have with mentors, hub leads and provider staff.

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

Regardless of their background or individual needs, all trainees flourish as a result of considered systems that are well designed by leaders. Their voice is consistently sought by leaders to ensure that programmes are successful. Leaders act promptly on feedback to ensure that trainees feel valued and increasingly well prepared to offer their contributions to the teaching profession.

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About this inspection

There are several pathways offered by this provider. Primary trainees follow either a 3 to 7 or a 5 to 11 programme. Most secondary trainees follow an 11 to 16 programme, but a small number of trainees follow a 14 to 19 programme.

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About this inspection

Trainees in both the primary and secondary phases study one of two routes. They are either undertaking a PGCE or an employment-based route, either with or without a PGCE qualification.

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About this inspection

There are 3 apprentices studying the secondary apprenticeship route.

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About this inspection

Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspection activities: • Inspectors spoke with the director of Inspiring Future Teachers (IFT), both assistant directors of IFT and the teaching and learning lead for secondary. They also held a meeting

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Team inspectors:

Michelle Payne, His Majesty's Inspector Kate Fripp, His Majesty's Inspector Toby Martlew, His Majesty's Inspector Shazia Akram, 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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Exceptional

with those responsible for governance and oversight of the provision. • Inspectors also spoke with hub leads, subject leads, professional tutors and mentors to gather evidence about the arrangements for mentoring. They also met with a group of headteachers in placement schools. • Inspectors visited trainees in both their main school and second school placements. Inspectors also visited apprentices in their main school and second school placements. • Inspectors spoke to a selection of former trainees to gather evidence about the impact of the training provided. 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.

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Urgent improvement

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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