University of Winchester

University of Winchester

Address: University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester, Hampshire, SO22 4NR Unique reference number (URN): 70121

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Inclusion Exceptional

The provider celebrates, recognises and actively champions equality and diversity as fundamental to its culture and ethos. Leaders demonstrate an unwavering and tenacious commitment to inclusion, drawing on extensive expertise and first-hand experience to continually promote, develop and improve inclusive practice. Leaders proactively recruit and engage with staff who have expertise in particular protected characteristics to further enhance their knowledge and understanding. As a result, leaders have been able to successfully enact their commitment to sustaining and strengthening an inclusive culture. Leaders expertly anticipate and address any potential barriers that trainees may face, and sustain a deeply inclusive learning community in which trainees from all backgrounds feel valued, respected and can flourish. From the earliest stages of recruitment, leaders take a meticulous and comprehensive approach to identifying areas of need. Where needs are identified, trainees benefit from

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Inclusion Exceptional

exceptionally well-planned and highly personalised support plans. Support for trainees is closely monitored by a dedicated team, seamlessly ensuring timely intervention and swift adjustments as needs change. For example, trainees' support plans facilitate access to academic guidance, which helps trainees learn the curriculum more effectively.

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Inclusion Exceptional

The provider's highly efficient and responsive systems ensure that everyone supporting trainees has the precise and crystal-clear information they need in advance across all aspects of the course, including placements. This exemplary and remarkably expert coordination creates a seamless experience for trainees, enabling support to be proactive rather than reactive. Leaders' flexible, compassionate and relentless approach allows almost all trainees to complete the programme successfully and be well prepared for the demands of day-to-day teaching.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Leaders deliberately establish an uncompromising culture of consistently high standards for trainees’ professionalism throughout all aspects of training. They have high expectations of trainees from the outset. This includes trainees wearing placement attire when attending the university.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

The way in which professional behaviours are seamlessly woven throughout the curriculum is a clear highlight of this provision. Expert-led sessions on rights-respecting practice, inclusive language and other core professional themes provide trainees with a firm foundation as they begin their careers, fostering confidence in their emerging ‘teacher identity’. These professional behaviours are inextricably intertwined with other elements of subject content, giving the best possible start for trainees. As a result, trainees develop confident, authentic and reflective professional identities from the very outset.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

By the end of the programme, trainees consistently demonstrate remarkably high standards of professionalism, integrity and a clear commitment to excellence in education. Leaders leave nothing to chance in preparing trainees for the realities of the profession. This includes planning opportunities prior to placements to reinforce key expectations and behaviours through placement ‘contract meetings’. Practical initiatives, such as car-sharing arrangements and the provision of professional clothing exchanges, help to remove barriers for trainees and ensure that expectations are crystal clear before trainees enter school.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Pastoral care is a defining strength of the provision and is embedded within every aspect of leaders' work. Trainees benefit from highly personalised supported from a highly skilled and dedicated team that knows the trainees exceptionally well. Leaders go out of their way to anticipate trainees’ needs. Through meticulous monitoring of trainees’ attendance, leaders intervene swiftly and effectively to remove any barriers to training before they impact on trainees' success. Consequently, trainees can flourish and focus on being the best teacher they can be.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees develop a deep understanding and progress well through the primary curriculum. They also become specialists in selected subjects. This strengthens trainees' knowledge in preparation for future leadership roles. Trainees use evidence-informed strategies very well to support pupils’ learning and build positive relationships with them. They also understand how and when to adapt their teaching practice to meet pupils’ needs.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees become highly reflective and intuitive practitioners. Leaders have developed systems that enable trainees to regularly reflect on their practice in precise and structured ways. Ongoing weekly reflections ensure that trainees engage actively in a continuous cycle of improvement. They consistently demonstrate a desire to improve their practice.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees have an astute and well-informed understanding of the realities of teaching and are committed to a sustained career in the profession. They are clear about their responsibilities for the safeguarding of pupils. Completion rates on the course are high.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

The provider’s high ambition for trainees is reflected in the carefully designed course. Leaders draw on a wide range of feedback from school leaders, mentors and subject experts to shape the curriculum. They are highly attentive to emerging needs in schools and have developed the curriculum accordingly. For example, leaders have added postgraduate primary specialist routes in physical education and special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to reflect current sector needs. The curriculum prioritises strong foundational knowledge and skills in the primary phase, with a clear focus on developing pupils’ oracy from the start of their education.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders have precisely ordered the curriculum so trainees revisit key aspects of the curriculum. Trainees learn to be critical consumers of information, able to engage with and apply professional approaches. They access established and emerging research, along with subject-specific guidance, enabling them to make insightful observations of expert teaching. Training content is carefully sequenced across centre-based and placement experiences. This ensures close integration and provides trainees with opportunities to see theory applied in practice. For example, trainees appreciate how intensive training and practice supports them when rehearsing important techniques such as questioning.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders have ensured that training in the barriers that pupils face to their learning, including pupils with SEND, is sequenced in a way that helps trainees to build a secure understanding of this and become skilful in adapting their teaching to meet pupils' needs.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Trainees benefit from consistently high-quality mentoring. Mentors value the extensive and purposeful information they receive from the provider and their regular, supportive contact with link tutors. As a result, mentors have a clear understanding of their roles, the initial teacher education curriculum and trainees’ individual needs. They make highly effective use of this knowledge in the support and guidance they provide for trainees.

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Next steps

Leaders should continue to review, refine and maintain their highly impactful work across all areas, embedding new developments to ensure their high ambitions for the provision are fully realised. Trainees benefit from thorough and precise assessment which identifies clearly what they do well and what they need to do to improve. This gives trainees, and those supporting them, clear information to provide focused, meaningful targets. As a result, trainees develop their knowledge and teaching skills over time, including in how they can safeguard the pupils they teach.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders are passionate about providing teacher training that reflects the changing landscape of education. They clearly articulate this vision and ensure that staff across the provision and training partners are united in pursuing this common goal.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders are committed to the continuous improvement of their initial teacher education provision. Their extensive set of assurance systems and processes ensure that those responsible for strategic leadership possess the oversight required to ensure high-quality education for trainees. Leaders have a highly accurate understanding of the strengths of their provision and identify the areas they want to improve further with pinpoint precision. Leaders ensure that any changes made lead to highly effective enhancements across all routes. To realise their ambitions, leaders make extensive use of partner feedback to inform developments. This ensures that the programmes provide the best possible experience for trainees.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders ensure that there is a sharp focus on making sure all those involved in delivering the programme are well trained and highly skilled. Leaders provide continual professional learning for all staff through high-quality training underpinned by the latest research and developments in their fields. Mentors place high value on the training they receive.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders weave robust checks throughout their delivery of the course to ensure the provision complies with statutory and non-statutory requirements. This includes duties linked to safeguarding and the safe recruitment of trainees.

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Leadership Strong standard

Staff are proud to be part of this supportive and caring team. Leaders have created a highly collaborative environment where workload and wellbeing are carefully considered, and staff are free from bullying or discrimination.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Leaders are relentless in ensuring that inclusion is deeply embedded in all aspects of the provision. Leaders deliberately recruit staff with specialist expertise so that the inclusive approach is firmly embedded, continually strengthened and remains at the forefront of the programme. This expertise has led to highly effective initiatives, including, in recent years, work to develop anti-racist classrooms. Support spaces for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender trainees have further enhanced the experience for trainees. These initiatives not only help foster trainees' sense of being valued and included, but also develop their awareness of the impact of their own actions. Trainees feel empowered to challenge discriminatory language and behaviour and are committed to modelling high standards.

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Inclusion Exceptional

From the moment they join the programme, trainees experience a remarkably welcoming and inclusive culture. They quickly develop highly positive and effective relationships with their mentors, link tutors and the university staff who support them. This culture enables trainees to feel confident in disclosing any additional needs they may have without hesitation. Leaders quickly identify and address trainees’ needs through well-planned support and timely, effective interventions. Precise adjustments to programmes are made promptly, reviewed regularly and help trainees to thrive.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Trainees have complete confidence and trust that they will receive consistently high-quality support from both the provider and school-based staff. They know exactly where to go if they need further help and can access seamless help from the wider support systems that the university provides. Trainees recognise how well the admirable levels of support they receive help them to build their confidence and preparedness to teach in the secondary phase. This is a clear strength of the programme.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Leaders have designed an ambitious and sophisticated programme that develops trainees' professional behaviours and personal characteristics to the highest standards. Every aspect of the curriculum is carefully and deliberately constructed so that intricately woven strands bring together professional attributes and traits that prepare trainees exceptionally well for teaching.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Leaders establish an uncompromising culture of high expectations for trainees’ professional behaviours from the outset. They consistently model the professionalism, integrity and reflective practice they expect trainees to demonstrate. Leaders monitor and track trainees' progress carefully, identify needs rapidly and institute appropriate adaptations as needed to ensure that trainees quickly develop their teacher identity and the highest standards of professional behaviour.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Trainees develop into confident, resilient and reflective professionals who are empowered to advocate for themselves and others. This is especially the case for trainees who have additional barriers to learning or wellbeing. As well as ensuring that they feel well supported and confident, this has a further impact on the classrooms they teach in, as trainees in turn establish the same supportive and inclusive ethos for the pupils they teach.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Pastoral support is exemplary and a defining strength of the provider. Leaders and staff, both at the provider and across the partnership schools, know trainees as individuals and work collaboratively to champion their success. Trainees are treated as individuals and receive highly personalised support for their wellbeing and workload. This enables them to sustain high levels of engagement throughout the programme and to flourish. Leaders actively seek and act on trainee feedback to provide support that enables trainees to thrive as they enter the teaching profession.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees are very well supported to develop their understanding of managing behaviour and establishing positive climates for learning. As a result, they develop these skills early and refine them over time, with many reflecting on their continually evolving ‘toolkit’ of strategies they feel confident to employ in their own classrooms.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees are similarly very well prepared for the subject-specific components of their teaching and subsequently for the realities of the classroom. Regular subject development days throughout the curriculum support their acquisition of key tenets of their subject disciplines so that they become expert teachers in their respective fields. Trainees develop a clear breadth of knowledge. For example, those on humanities-based courses develop expertise across 2 humanities subjects to broaden their experience and increase their flexibility in future employment. Over time, high completion rates reflect the extent to which trainees develop the expertise necessary for future employment. Trainees are highly prepared for the realities of teaching. Trainees also develop a secure understanding of how to keep pupils safe.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders' expertly designed curriculum is carefully sequenced to support trainees to build knowledge very effectively over time. School and centre-based learning weave together especially well. Consequently, trainees can learn to apply their theoretical understanding to develop their classroom practice.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Intensive training and practice (ITAP) opportunities are placed logically to enable trainees to quickly develop understanding and expertise. Leaders' careful sequencing of topics matches trainee experiences to ensure that they are well supported. For example, the first ITAP focus area is behaviour management so that trainees learn to establish a positive climate for learning on which their other practice can build. Later ITAP focuses on refining trainees' understanding of adaptive teaching. Leaders ensure that this is carefully timed to come just prior to the second school placement so that this learning can be applied with their new classes.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

The curriculum is underpinned very well by current and pertinent research. Trainees use this research well to reflect on their own practice so that this can be further refined as they progress through the course. Ongoing reflective practice is woven routinely through the course, ensuring trainees revisit core elements of the curriculum, both practical and theory, to enable them to hone their practice over time.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders use their expertise skilfully to ensure the curriculum helps trainees to develop a secure understanding of the barriers that pupils may face to learning. Trainees learn how to adapt their teaching to meet these needs and to ensure that all pupils thrive in their classrooms.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Trainees consistently receive clear and helpful feedback and targets from teacher educators and mentors. These support trainees effectively with the ongoing development of their teaching skills. As a result, trainees know how well they are progressing through the curriculum.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders and staff are passionate about their work and governed by a clear moral purpose. They are driven by the importance of their role in developing and training the future workforce of teachers.

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Leadership Strong standard

Partnership working is highly effective. Long-standing professional relationships are underpinned by clearly defined expectations and consistent communication. This, coupled with careful and meticulous oversight, means that provider leaders assure themselves that whichever route is followed on the secondary course, trainee experience is as effective as it can be.

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Next steps

Leaders, and those responsible for oversight, should continue to refine their very effective provision so as to have a transformative impact on secondary phase trainees and the pupils they go on to teach. Leaders establish rigorous processes to quality assure their work. Feedback from an extensive range of stakeholders helps inform this picture. Leaders are highly ambitious for their work to be the very best it can be. They keep the interests of trainees and the sector that they will join central in their minds when taking decisions.

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Next steps

Those with oversight of the provision hold leaders to account effectively. This includes ensuring that the relevant statutory duties are met and that the mandatory requirements of their programmes are enacted.

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Next steps

The ongoing professional development of staff and mentors is seen by leaders as an essential component of the ongoing success of initial teacher education at the university. As a result, staff and mentors report high levels of satisfaction. They feel extremely well led and supported to work in a close, collaborative environment where their wellbeing is valued. Mentors benefit from an expertly designed training curriculum that is carefully matched to their experiences. Tailored pathways ensure that mentors are appropriately expert, fully understand their crucial role and ensure that mentoring is of a consistently high quality. Refinements to this training are responsive to the changing circumstances of trainees.

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

Trainees are incredibly proud to study here. The highly ambitious and comprehensive curriculum prepares trainees to teach extremely well. Trainees engage confidently with up- to-date, interesting research. They have plenty of opportunities to apply this to their classroom experiences. Trainees reflect carefully on what works and why. They develop a deep sense of responsibility for supporting pupils to achieve well. Trainees gain an excellent understanding of how to ensure pupils are kept safe so that they can flourish, whatever their background or individual needs.

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

Trainees build a clear understanding of the barriers and challenges pupils may face. They break learning down into manageable steps and explain new concepts with precision. Trainees also use a variety of approaches to check what pupils have learned, using these expertly to inform next steps. They acquire an in-depth understanding of how to adapt learning and manage behaviour effectively, including for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Trainees secure deep knowledge of teaching and become ‘rights respecting’, confident, reflective teachers who think critically. They are very well supported to understand the realities and demands of teaching. As a result, trainees are highly prepared for a sustained and successful career in teaching.

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

The genuine sense of belonging is a hallmark of the trainee experience. Trainees receive commendable levels of support. Staff know them as individuals, and trainees value the bespoke pastoral care that helps them to access and complete their course successfully. This nurturing culture gives them the confidence to share any concerns. The guidance that leaders provide is precise, sustained and highly impactful. As a result, trainees quickly learn how to overcome barriers to their own learning. They thrive through the supportive relationships that underpin their success. Trainees achieve highly, developing the knowledge and skills they need to teach their phase and subject(s) very well.

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About this inspection

The University of Winchester offers several routes to gain qualified teacher status (QTS) in either primary or secondary education. It works in partnership with 8 training partners.

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About this inspection

Trainees study to teach pupils aged either 3 to 7 years, 5 to 11 years or 11 to 16 years. At the time of the inspection, there were 571 trainees on the primary routes and 65 in the secondary phase.

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About this inspection

In the primary phase, there are 2 training routes. A total of 478 trainees are currently on the undergraduate route leading to QTS, and 93 are completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) through either campus-based or school-led routes. A small proportion of trainees are undertaking a PGCE with either special educational needs and/or disabilities, mathematics or physical education.

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About this inspection

In the secondary phase, 46 trainees are studying a school-led postgraduate qualification which leads to QTS and a PGCE in their specialist subject. 19 trainees are enrolled on the PGCE Humanities programme, where they study 2 subjects chosen from geography, history or religious studies.

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About this inspection

A small number of trainees are taking the assessment only route in both the primary and secondary phases.

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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 the dean of the faculty of education and the arts, members of the strategic board, the director and deputy head of the Institute of Education, the co-heads of ITE quality and mentor leadership and other programme leaders. They also spoke with university staff, link tutors, lead mentors and mentors.

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About this inspection

The inspection team spoke to trainees and visited a selection of trainees in their school placements. They also spoke to a selection of former trainees to gather evidence about the impact of the training provided.

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Team inspectors:

Julie Sackett, His Majesty's Inspector Kate Fripp, His Majesty's Inspector Chris Parker, His Majesty's Inspector Jo Brinkley, His Majesty's Inspector Julie Pearson, Ofsted Inspector Toby Martlew, His Majesty's Inspector Neil Pilsworth, His Majesty's Inspector Georgina Verrinder, Ofsted Inspector Michelle Payne, His Majesty's Inspector Sacha Husnu-Beresford, His Majesty's Inspector Ed Mather, His Majesty's Inspector Andrew Porter, Ofsted 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. 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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