South Farnham SCITT

South Farnham SCITT

Address: South Farnham School, Menin Way, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 8DY Unique reference number (URN): 70241

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees develop deep pedagogical and subject knowledge that enables them to teach primary-age pupils with confidence. They understand how to teach essential knowledge, including reading, writing and mathematics, in a systematic and effective way. The provider's clear progression frameworks and regular assessment points provide trainees with precise insight into their development. Timely support and structured reflection help them to identify and act on their next steps.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees are highly motivated and consistently demonstrate the professional behaviours expected of teachers. Behaviour management is embedded throughout the curriculum so that trainees feel confident planning to meet pupils’ needs. Many trainees secure sustained employment and progress into ambitious leadership roles. They are reflective, resilient and very well prepared for teaching. Almost all trainees complete the programme successfully. Leaders analyse reasons for withdrawal and refine support accordingly. They are evaluative about the effectiveness of training and prioritise work to remove barriers for trainees at risk of not completing.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders have designed an ambitious and well ‑ sequenced primary curriculum that is firmly grounded in high ‑ quality research and aligned with statutory guidance. It includes carefully selected topics for intensive training and practice, addressing pivotal teaching skills such as effective questioning. Early career teachers are effusive about the substantial impact this training has had on their readiness to teach.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

The curriculum is constructed intentionally to support trainees to gain a deep understanding of the principles of effective teaching. Developing secure knowledge of the curriculum from early years to key stage 2 is prioritised. This structured approach ensures that trainees build knowledge cumulatively while revisiting important concepts such as adaptive teaching. The curriculum integrates theory with practice effectively, helping trainees apply their learning in real classroom contexts. Safeguarding is embedded throughout, with an emphasis on ensuring that trainees understand how to keep pupils safe, follow procedures and identify concerns.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders prioritise securing and deepening trainees’ awareness of the importance of early reading, phonics and mathematics in the curriculum. Significant emphasis is placed on cognitive science, child development and research ‑ informed strategies, enabling trainees to understand why particular pedagogical decisions matter at various stages of pupils' development.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Training ensures that trainees develop an astute awareness of the barriers that may affect pupils’ learning. From the outset, trainees learn to establish effective strategies that support learning and inclusive teaching. Over time, the programme focuses on helping trainees to deepen their understanding of barriers and how to overcome them, enabling them to design adaptations that meet pupils’ diverse and sometimes complex needs.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Teacher educators who deliver the curriculum are experts. They receive ongoing training, including contributions from specialists such as local special school staff and from mathematics hubs. Cohort leads work closely with placement schools to ensure that the cohesive curriculum reflects the realities of classroom practice and the specific challenges trainees encounter.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

The assessment of trainees is woven throughout the programme. For example, regular module reviews check effectively how well trainees can integrate their knowledge into planning and teaching. Teacher educators use this information very well to identify and address any gaps in learning.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Mentoring is a particular strength. Mentors receive structured and valuable training, ensuring consistency both in the support provided and their knowledge of what trainees are taught. Trainees quickly learn how to act on feedback and use it to refine their teaching. Trainees benefit from developmental feedback that is clear, consistent and focused on helping them to meet their targets.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders foster an inclusive culture rooted in values of professionalism and equality. From the moment trainees join, leaders continuously seek to identify the most appropriate support for trainees' needs. Leaders use this information proactively to tailor support. Reasonable adjustments are reviewed regularly to ensure that adaptations are implemented swiftly, consistently and in an impactful way.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Support systems for trainees with special educational needs and/or disabilities or barriers to their learning are transparent and well communicated. These clear processes ensure that barriers can be reduced while keeping expected standards high. Clearly defined roles of mentor, support tutor, cohort lead and centre staff mean that trainees receive multifaceted support. Leaders monitor the impact of support closely and respond quickly should trainees' needs change.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders seek to recruit an increasingly diverse range of trainees, for example, by working closely with placement schools and understanding the barriers to recruitment. Trainees with additional learning needs receive a range of personalised support, including, for instance, accessible training information and enhanced purposeful support and feedback. Where barriers persist, leaders adjust support accordingly, drawing on formal processes if appropriate. This consistent approach maintains high standards while ensuring that trainees feel that they belong and can succeed.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders successfully enact a clear and ambitious vision underpinned by shared values and strategic priorities. Their commitment to continuous improvement is evident in the quality of their work and the strength in their partnership working. Leaders understand and undertake their statutory responsibilities consistently well, such as those around safer recruitment.

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Leadership Strong standard

Governance arrangements are robust. Trustees provide highly effective challenge and hold leaders to account for meeting strategic priorities. Leaders remain very well informed about the local and national educational landscape, for example through their teaching school networks and national apprentice groups. They regularly engage with professional reading and research to ensure that their actions are evidence informed and impactful.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders have an astute understanding of the aspects of their work that need further development. Strategic plans are well developed with clear success criteria to ensure actions are impactful. Leaders are committed to ensuring that trainees, regardless of barriers or challenges, are supported to fulfil their ambitions to be teachers.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders instil consistency in the quality of the initial teacher education programmes through comprehensive systems and effective communication. Tutors and mentors receive timely, high-quality training so that they can support trainees to achieve well. Leaders pay close attention to the quality of trainees' learning and experiences. They use trainee voice purposefully to inform improvements.

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Next steps

Leaders and those responsible for oversight should continue to strengthen and refine the systems and processes that underpin effective provision, ensuring that their existing priorities are fully implemented so that inclusive approaches have a genuinely transformative impact on schools and the education pupils receive. Leaders create an environment where staff feel safe to raise concerns and do not face undue burden. Staff know how to raise a concern about bullying and harassment should they have one. They feel invested in and have a deep commitment to seeing trainees succeed.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders set clear and ambitious expectations for trainees’ professional conduct, attendance and commitment. These expectations are introduced early through well-sequenced curriculum content on safeguarding, professional behaviour and statutory responsibilities. As a result, trainees develop a secure understanding of the standards required and consistently demonstrate behaviours that reflect their readiness to enter the teaching profession. A significant proportion of trainees successfully sustain employment after they complete their programme of training.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Trainees benefit from timely, well-focused support. Cohort leads and support tutors create a coherent network of guidance that trainees value. They engage confidently in reflective discussions about their professional behaviours and use feedback effectively to identify and work towards their next steps.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders successfully promote a culture of professional safety and mutual respect. Trainees are assured that any concerns about bullying or harassment would be addressed robustly. Wellbeing is prioritised throughout the programme. For example, trainees' 'wellness action plans' are routinely reviewed to ensure that support is meaningful and effective. Trainees also learn a wealth of practical strategies for managing workload and maintaining positive mental health.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

The provider's mental health and wellbeing leads offer accessible guidance for trainees, including signposting to specialist services such as occupational health when needed. This comprehensive approach enables trainees to feel safe, supported and well prepared for the demands of the teaching profession.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees’ understanding of managing behaviour in the classroom is prioritised at the early stages of the programme. As a result, trainees develop increasing confidence in being able to establish and maintain an effective climate for learning for secondary-age pupils.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees are similarly very well prepared for the subject-specific components of their teaching. For example, time spent with their ‘expert subject mentors’ supports them to contextualise their theory-based learning into subject-specific understanding and application for their phase.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees understand clearly how well they are progressing through the curriculum. Clear feedback and precise targets from mentors help to support trainees' ongoing development. In particular, trainees are supported to develop their ability to reflect on and refine their practice. This sets them up very well for the next stage of employment, laying the foundations for trainees to continue this evaluative thinking into the early stages of their teaching careers.

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Achievement Strong standard

While the secondary programme is newer to the provider, leaders have already ensured that completion rates for trainees are high. Trainees develop the expertise necessary for the next stage of employment.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

The secondary curriculum is expertly designed and carefully sequenced to ensure that trainees' knowledge builds effectively. It is underpinned by high-quality research, which trainees explore and apply to their own practice. Seamless curriculum design ensures that trainees learn to apply theoretical learning to their classroom practice in very effective ways. Trainees place a high value on the guidance that they receive from their ‘expert subject mentors’, who support them to apply the educational theory they learn to their subject disciplines. Leaders, in response to trainee feedback, are strengthening this further still, creating more of these opportunities to enhance and deepen trainees' practice.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Intensive training and practice (ITAP) weeks are carefully designed to consider the developing understanding and experience of trainees. Trainees value these opportunities to focus on key areas of practice and learn from expert colleagues before applying this learning themselves. These focus areas have recently been refined as the programme continues to embed. For example, trainees have used their most recent ITAP to explore how the fundamental skill of reading can be supported in the classroom, regardless of subject.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Curriculum content is selected and ordered to ensure that trainees develop an increasingly refined understanding of the classroom experience for pupils who face barriers to their learning. They develop an understanding of the ways in which adaptations support all pupils to thrive in their classrooms. Leaders continually refine and develop curriculum content to increase trainees' knowledge of inclusive practices. For example, a recent focus on ‘typified pupils’ helps trainees to understand the ways that pupils’ barriers to learning may evolve as they move through school. The provider's approach consistently helps trainees to develop expertise over time. Trainees also receive extensive training, both from the provider and in their placement schools, about safeguarding. As a result, they develop a confident understanding of how to keep pupils safe.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders ensure that mentors understand the initial teacher education curriculum well and that they have the necessary expertise to provide a very high level of support to trainees. As a result, trainees benefit from expert mentoring that is of a consistently high quality.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Trainees value the well-focused and supportive feedback they receive throughout their programme to develop their practice. Mentors, teacher educators and provider leaders are adept at monitoring how well a trainee is progressing or where more help might be needed. Leaders ensure that any additional support, where necessary, is provided in a timely way.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Trainees feel welcomed and known as individuals from the very beginning of their programmes. They share a strong sense of identity with both the provider as a whole and the local cohorts that they belong to. Trainees consistently cite the provider's ‘incredible pastoral support’. They benefit from staff's nurturing and supportive approach, particularly valuing how staff are ‘highly approachable’. This culture means that trainees feel safe to disclose any barriers to learning they may have and helps to ensure that they receive the right support where it is needed.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Highly positive relationships with staff encourage trainees to disclose any additional needs that they may have. Trainees form strong relationships within the different geographical cohorts in which they train. Leaders and staff make sure that adaptations to programmes or support are well considered. This enables trainees to thrive in their programmes and reduces any barriers that they may have. The provider also reviews any planned adaptations or support thoroughly to ensure that these continue to provide what trainees need to succeed. Trainees are confident about where to find additional help should they need it, both from the provider and outside. They benefit from highly supportive and personalised relationships with their mentors and cohort leads. This means that they feel safe to raise any concerns or worries they may have.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders and staff share a clear vision and conviction to provide high-quality training to support trainees, schools and the pupils that they will go on to teach. Those with oversight for the provision hold leaders to account very effectively to ensure this vision is realised. Leaders and those responsible for oversight make sure that both the statutory duties and appropriate mandatory requirements of the initial teacher education programmes are met.

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Leadership Strong standard

Quality assurance processes are robust and woven throughout the programme structure. Leaders give careful thought to how best to secure and sustain the quality of the programme across its delivery in different geographical cohorts. Their clarity in communication and careful checks ensure that trainees receive a consistently high-quality experience, regardless of which cohort they train in. Leaders are fully secure in their knowledge of the strengths of their provision, and identify and act quickly where this could be further developed. They frequently seek feedback from all stakeholders, refining their programme in response. Leaders consistently keep trainees’ needs in mind when making decisions, so that their programmes provide the most effective experience that they can for all trainees.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders make the appropriate and necessary checks for all trainees, using their secure understanding of safer recruitment practices.

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Leadership Strong standard

The ongoing professional development needs of staff and mentors are of a high priority. Leaders ensure that staff are very well prepared for the realities of helping trainees to be ready for the teaching profession. For example, all provider staff are trained as mental health first aiders to help enact the provider's commitment to ensuring that trainees feel well supported.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders establish a culture wherein bullying or harassment of staff is never tolerated. They have clear processes to deal with any issues, if they were to arise.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders are unfaltering in their commitment to developing trainees who have the professional attributes necessary to succeed in the education sector and sustain this success over time. Consequently, trainees’ ongoing accrual of knowledge and skills is underpinned by a sharp focus on developing their resilience to adapt to and flourish in different professional contexts.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Trainees receive highly effective support to reflect on and develop the professional behaviours that are required of them when they become teachers. This is both explicitly taught through the curriculum and also modelled by their mentors, cohort leads and provider leaders throughout the programme.

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Next steps

Leaders and those responsible for oversight should continue to strengthen the highly effective provision as the secondary programme embeds. They should further foster their inclusive approaches to teacher training so as to have a transformative impact on trainees and the pupils that they go on to teach. Leaders have consistently high expectations for their trainees. These expectations are partnered with broad-ranging pastoral care and guidance, which puts trainees' wellbeing front and centre. Leaders ensure that trainees are well known as individuals so that any needs can be identified early and any necessary adaptations provided swiftly.

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Next steps

Trainees are clear that bullying, harassment and discrimination are never tolerated. They are also clear on how they would raise concerns, should they need to.

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Next steps

Trainees are very well supported to manage their workload. Leaders regularly seek feedback from trainees so that the programme can be adjusted and refined as needed. For example, leaders recently made changes to the second placement within the course calendar to maximise how well it supported trainees' progression through the curriculum.

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

During their time with South Farnham SCITT, trainees become an integral part of the provider’s community. Trainees value the personal and academic support that often lays the foundations for a long-term relationship with the provider. From the very start of the recruitment process, they appreciate the learning community that leaders cultivate. Trainees feel recognised as individuals and benefit from the continuous opportunities to engage with mentors, support tutors and their cohort lead.

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

Course leaders dedicate themselves to nurturing inclusive and caring practitioners who are fully ready to commence a career in teaching. Trainees develop highly effective subject- specific and pedagogical understanding tailored to the age groups that they will teach. They also solidify their knowledge in teaching pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and learn to adjust their practice so it responds to pupils’ diverse needs.

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

Trainees appreciate leaders' careful monitoring of their progress throughout the programme. They know that their work and reflections are thoroughly reviewed, with support offered as needed to overcome any barriers to their success. For instance, trainees appreciate how their cohort leads identify and sensitively address any misconceptions, which in turn builds their confidence and understanding. Consequently, they become critically reflective teachers and are well equipped to improve throughout their careers.

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

Trainees recognise that their wellbeing and workload are carefully balanced to prepare them for the realities of teaching. They value being part of a supportive network and know exactly whom to approach if they have any concerns. Trainees describe the provider as being open and receptive to their views and how its ‘You said, we did’ approach reinforces this, with even minor suggestions acted upon. Both trainees and school leaders highlight a culture that sets trainees up for success, supported by the provider’s willingness to make adjustments where needed. This reinforces the provider's mantra that 'trainees should thrive, not merely survive' in their future teaching roles.

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About this inspection

There are two main pathways: primary 5 to 11 or secondary 11 to 16. The provider also offers one further secondary subject in the 14 to 19 age range.

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About this inspection

Trainees in both the primary and secondary phases complete a postgraduate course. They can follow either a tuition-fee-funded route or an employment-based route, including apprenticeships. Each route leads to either qualified teacher status (QTS) alone or QTS with a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE).

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About this inspection

There are 63 apprentices studying either the primary or secondary apprenticeship route and there are 127 trainees on the non-apprenticeship route.

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About this inspection

There are a small number of trainees taking the assessment-only route.

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About this inspection

The provider’s secondary teacher training programme is new since the last inspection, starting in 2024/25.

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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

Inspectors spoke with a range of leaders, including the school-centred initial teacher training director and directors for each phase, the chief executive officer and chair of the trust and members of the strategic board during the inspection.

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About this inspection

Inspectors also spoke with trainee teachers, early career teachers, headteachers and mentors, either in person or remotely.

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About this inspection

During the inspection, inspectors reviewed a wide range of information relating to the leadership and management of the provider. This documentation included leaders’ self- evaluation and improvement planning, training materials and records of trainees’ meetings with mentors and target setting.

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Team inspectors:

Linda Culling, His Majesty's Inspector Kate Fripp, His Majesty's Inspector Sara Staggs, 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

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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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