Ripley ITT

Ripley ITT

Address: Ripley St Thomas CE Academy, Ashton Road, LA1 4RR Unique reference number (URN): 70307

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Achievement Exceptional

Primary phase trainees, including those with additional needs, acquire an exemplary depth and breadth of knowledge that they apply incredibly well to the teaching of subjects across the primary phase. Trainees swiftly become highly skilful in reflection. They use this admirably to improve their teaching and take ownership of their professional development. This in turn supports trainees extremely well in their future careers.

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Achievement Exceptional

Trainees acquire a deep understanding of the realities of teaching and the professional behaviours that they need in order to be successful. The confidence and knowledge that trainees exhibit support them extremely well into employment. Trainees not only complete the course and secure employment, but sustain their careers over time and are often successful when seeking promotion. Trainees are not just ready for their first years in teaching. They are ready for their careers. As a result, trainees are frequently sought after for employment in schools across the partnership.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Exceptional

Leaders have crafted a remarkably ambitious curriculum for primary phase trainees to study. This is built on a wealth of high-quality research and leaders’ impressive understanding about how trainees develop from novice to expert teachers. Leaders draw on this knowledge to plan in granular detail what trainees will learn and when they will learn it. This leads to a widely shared and startlingly astute understanding of how trainees learn to become effective teachers. Leaders are vigilant about continuing to refine the curriculum to ensure that it remains highly effective over time.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Exceptional

Leaders have ensured that the curriculum is set out with impressive clarity. Each element of the curriculum provides trainees with a pathway to develop their expertise and sharpen their skills. Primary trainees gain a rich understanding of the distinctive aspects of their phase. For instance, trainees acquire detailed knowledge about the early years and how young children learn. Trainees secure nuanced knowledge about special educational needs and/or disabilities, English as an additional language and other barriers that pupils might face. Trainees learn how to adapt their teaching effectively for pupils facing barriers to their learning or wellbeing.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Exceptional

Leaders have established remarkably seamless integration between the initial teacher education curriculum, subject-specific learning and school-based placements. This integration is built on a shared understanding between leaders, teacher educators and mentors, of the components of highly effective teaching. Central to this understanding is leaders’ ‘directory of techniques’ which sets out effective classroom practice with precision. This directory, together with leaders’ expert guidance and training, helps mentors to pinpoint the areas that trainees need to improve with total clarity and precision. Trainees and mentors value extremely highly the usefulness of the directory for finding solutions to problems that trainees might encounter in the classroom.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Exceptional

With notable consistency, mentors provide trainees with sharply focused and highly impactful feedback. Trainees swiftly become adept at reflecting on, critiquing and refining their own classroom practice. This sets them in good stead for successful and sustained teaching careers.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Leaders’ have established an exemplary culture of inclusive practice in the primary initial teacher education programme. Trainees receive extensive, multi-layered support that is pivotal to their success. Trainees thrive as a result.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Leaders work seamlessly with trainees to structure support that is just right for them. Leaders systematically check the quality of this support. They judiciously adapt support to dismantle any barriers that trainees might face. Trainees receive the right support at the right time and become highly successful teachers. Previous trainees provide similar, compelling examples about the impact of the support that they received on their professional practice. Trainees with additional needs are remarkably well prepared to teach. They secure employment and achieve long-term success in their teaching careers.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Leaders are notably successful in building a diverse community of trainees. Leaders identify groups who are under-represented in teaching and take deliberate and astute action to encourage trainees with different backgrounds into the profession. For instance, leaders have been markedly successful in encourage men into primary teaching to increase representation. Leaders make sure that trainees have opportunities to work in their local schools and communities. Through this, leaders achieve their vision to develop the next generation of diverse teachers, including in areas where it is more difficult to recruit new teachers. This work is highly successful.

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Leadership Exceptional

Leaders are fully committed to their ambition to provide a world-class curriculum for primary phase trainees. Over many years, leaders’ careful planning and a continual cycle of improvement has led to a remarkable impact on trainees and on the partnership. Leaders have built an impressive level of expertise across the partnership. Headteachers within the partnership frequently seek additional training or support from leaders as a result of this track record of success.

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Leadership Exceptional

Those who contribute to the strategic leadership of this provider use their considerable expertise to support leaders in their continual pursuit of excellence. Their checks on compliance and quality are meticulous and impactful, and anchored to a shared vision that is abundantly realised.

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Leadership Exceptional

Leaders are role models of excellence. They seek to continuously develop their own expertise and staff’s professional learning. Leaders and staff routinely use dedicated time to engage with research locally and nationally alongside their contributions to professional bodies. This directly informs the extraordinary high quality that trainees experience. Mentors' professional practice is sharpened by the excellent training that they receive and exposure to the same superb curriculum that trainees study. Mentors consistently demonstrate the expertise needed to help trainees to thrive.

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Leadership Exceptional

Leaders routinely listen to trainees, mentors and stakeholders from across the partnership. They use this information particularly well to continually iterate improvements. Over time this has led to a partnership equally invested in developing high-quality future teachers and with the expertise to do this to a remarkably high standard. The levels of trust and mutual support that leaders have established across the partnership is impressive.

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Leadership Exceptional

Leaders never lose sight of staff’s workload and wellbeing. Staff feel very well supported and valued for the significant contribution that they make.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Leaders’ approach to preparing trainees to successfully navigate the demands of teaching is exemplary. Leaders provide extremely high level of care and support that trainees unanimously value. Trainees swiftly develop resilience because leaders deliberately build compelling strategies into the training that trainees receive in order that trainees become skilful in using these on a daily basis. For instance, trainees learn about the feedback that they are likely to receive and how to respond to and act on this feedback. This is instrumental in helping trainees to navigate the journey from novice teachers to professional experts. All of these carefully planned aspects help trainees manage their own wellbeing through a demanding programme of study. Trainees swiftly acquire the skills that they need to manage their workload.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Trainees consistently display professional behaviours of the highest calibre. Professional tutors and mentors frequently revisit these important attributes with trainees. Leaders make sure that these elements are as meticulously planned as other aspects of the curriculum. Trainees rarely feel overwhelmed by the demands of teaching because they are so well prepared.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Professional tutors offer advice and guidance for trainees that is often instrumental in trainees’ success. Trainees benefit from pastoral support that goes well beyond the course itself. Leaders make sure that trainees receive help for their personal lives as well as their professional lives. Trainees excel in a culture of professionalism and care that is founded upon warm and trusting relationships.

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Achievement Exceptional

Leaders’ have the highest expectations for secondary phase trainees to become excellent teachers of their subjects. These expectations are abundantly realised. Trainees build a commendable depth of knowledge alongside the skills to apply this successfully in the classroom. In addition, trainees learn to precisely evaluate the quality of their own teaching so that they can refine their practice over time. As a result, they are expertly equipped to be high-quality classroom teachers.

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Achievement Exceptional

The overwhelming majority of trainees not only successfully complete the initial teacher education programme and qualify as teachers, but they also sustain their roles in teaching over time. The consistent picture of rapid promotion for many early career teachers who completed their initial teaching training with this provider is particularly noteworthy. This reflects how remarkably well-prepared trainees are for the reality of the teaching profession. Trainees are frequently sought after for employment in schools across the partnership.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Exceptional

Leaders ensure that secondary phase trainees, including those with any barriers to learning or wellbeing, are expertly prepared for successful careers in teaching. To this end, leaders have meticulously crafted an exceedingly ambitious curriculum that equips trainees with the knowledge and skills that they need to excel. Even so, leaders are vigilant about continuing to refine the curriculum to ensure that it remains highly effective over time.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Exceptional

Underpinning the curriculum is leaders’ deep understanding about how trainees successfully develop from novice to expert teachers. Leaders draw on this understanding, which is based upon a wealth of high-quality research, to shape both the design and teaching of the curriculum. Incredibly careful thought about what trainees will learn, and when, enables trainees to hone their knowledge and practice progressively over time. For example, trainees develop a rich understanding of the distinctive aspects of teaching their subject and they build an impressive knowledge of how to keep pupils safe. Trainees learn how to adapt their teaching effectively for pupils with additional barriers to their learning or wellbeing.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Exceptional

A highlight of this provision is the remarkably seamless integration between the initial teacher education curriculum, subject-specific learning and school-based placements. At the heart of this integration is a shared understanding between leaders, teacher educators and mentors of the components of highly effective teaching. This understanding is informed by leaders’ ‘directory of techniques’ which deconstructs effective classroom practice in granular detail. This directory, together with leaders’ expert guidance and training, provides mentors with startling clarity about how to precisely pinpoint the areas that trainees need to improve. With notable consistency, mentors provide trainees with sharply focused and highly impactful feedback. Trainees swiftly become adept at reflecting on, critiquing and refining their own classroom practice. This sets them in good stead for successful and sustained teaching careers.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Leaders have designed all aspects of the secondary initial teacher education programme with inclusivity at the fore. As such, support for trainees with any additional barriers to their learning or wellbeing is extensive, securely embedded and exceedingly effective. This ensures that trainees flourish.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Particularly worthy of note is leaders’ proactive and astute approach to increasing the diversity of the secondary trainee cohort. Leaders identify groups who may be under- represented in teaching, either nationally or locally, and target recruitment accordingly. For instance, they have markedly increased the proportion of trainees from areas of socioeconomic disadvantage and the number of women training to teach science, technology and mathematics subjects.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Throughout the initial teacher education programme, and across all aspects of provision, leaders provide bespoke and multi-layered support to dismantle any potential barriers to success that trainees may face. This support is co-constructed with trainees and reviewed tenaciously to ensure that it is effective. Regardless of their starting points, trainees benefit from just the right help, at just the right time, to develop into highly effective teachers.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Trainees, and teachers who previously trained with the provider, offer compelling testimony about the commendable impact of leaders’ inclusive practice. Trainees noted that leaders find solutions to any obstacles that they might face because leaders want trainees to thrive.

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Leadership Exceptional

Leadership of this provision is characterised by expert practitioners who pay meticulous attention to detail in their drive to continuously improve. Nothing is left to chance. Over time, trainees have benefited from an initial teacher education (ITE) programme of the highest calibre.

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Leadership Exceptional

Those with responsibility for overseeing the provision are highly effective in supporting leaders to deliver their ambitious vision. Every aspect of that vision is anchored by a comprehensively researched and carefully considered strategy to make it a reality. For instance, leaders’ actions to increase recruitment of groups that are under-represented in teaching have been remarkably successful.

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Leadership Exceptional

Leaders are role models of excellence. They seek to continuously develop their own expertise and, in turn, prioritise staff’s professional learning. For instance, subject leaders are provided with dedicated time to further enhance their subject knowledge. They willingly embrace these opportunities. Similarly, school-based mentors benefit from high-quality support and guidance. As a result, they consistently demonstrate the expertise needed to help trainees to thrive.

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Leadership Exceptional

Over a sustained period of time, the impact of leaders’ work has extended far beyond trainees themselves. Staff and pupils in schools across the partnership consistently benefit from leaders’ work. Mentors highlight how their experience of supporting trainees through the ITE curriculum helps to sharpen their own expertise. Headteachers describe the positive impact of trainees in their schools, with many seeking additional training or support from the provider as a result.

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Leadership Exceptional

Leaders are mindful of the workload and wellbeing of all those who contribute to the partnership. They are highly considerate in their requests so as not to create workloads that are unreasonably high. Stakeholders are exceedingly proud to be part of this exceptional provider.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Leaders’ approach to preparing trainees to successfully navigate the demands of teaching is exemplary. Leaders strategically and deliberately develop trainees’ resilience. For instance, trainees learn how their brains react to challenging situations and how they can choose to respond effectively. They are taught how to engage positively with feedback on their developing teaching practice. The impact of this learning is profound and is resoundingly reflected in the proportion of trainees who remain in teaching over time.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Leaders recognise that one of the most important influences on trainees’ wellbeing is their identity as a teacher. Thus, leaders ensure that trainees rapidly acquire the tools to accurately evaluate and improve their own practice. As a result, trainees rarely feel overwhelmed by the reality of training to teach. Rather, they reflect on the joys of honing their craft as developing teachers.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

From recruitment onwards, leaders emphasise the importance of behaving professionally. Trainees exemplify leaders’ high expectations in all that they do.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Support for trainees’ wellbeing is woven into the fabric of the initial teacher education programme. Trainees benefit from timely advice and guidance, including about how to manage their workload. Leaders’ meticulous approach to evaluating trainees’ wellbeing ensures that any concerns are identified swiftly and supported sensitively. Trainees excel in a culture of professionalism and care that is founded upon warm and trusting relationships.

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

Trainees acquire an impressive body of knowledge and considerable expertise that prepares them remarkably well for their careers in teaching. Leaders’ meticulously planned curriculum results in trainees being wholly confident to teach in their phase and subject. For example, trainees explain in depth how they structure lessons to build pupils’ understanding. This includes how the carefully adapt tasks to meet the needs of the pupils in their class. Trainees swiftly acquire significant knowledge about how to keep pupils safe and how to help pupils to succeed. When on teaching practice, trainees receive precise and meaningful support from expert professional tutors and mentors. Trainees routinely apply their deep knowledge for the benefit of the pupils that they teach with a startling degree of success. Trainees are routinely sought after for employment in schools within the partnership.

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

If trainees face barriers to their learning, leaders intervene rapidly and supportively. Leaders shape support collaboratively with trainees so that trainees’ precise needs are met. This support is often pivotal in helping trainees to complete the course and embark on a successful career. Trainees are overwhelming in their praise for this support and its impact on their professional lives. Trainees that face barriers to learning or wellbeing achieve the same extraordinary success as their peers.

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

From the moment that they begin the course, trainees are carefully guided through the feedback that they will receive and how to respond effectively to this. Trainees value the incredibly high levels of support from professional tutors and mentors. Leaders have created

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Team inspectors:

Jackie Stillings, Ofsted Inspector Emily Beach, 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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Number of partners and trainees

a culture that helps trainees to feel safe, succeed and to be confident in their teaching. This contributes significantly to the way that trainees sustain successful careers following their training. Trainees flourish and comment upon how the course transforms the way they see themselves and what they are capable of as a teacher.

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About this inspection

Trainees in both the primary and secondary phases undertake a postgraduate route. There are 2 pathways on the postgraduate primary route: primary 3 to 7 and primary 5 to 11. There are 23 apprentices studying the primary programme and 8 apprentices studying the secondary programme.

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About this inspection

The postgraduate route is offered in partnership with one training partner.

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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 director of the SCITT as well as staff and phase leaders during the inspection. Inspectors also spoke with past and present trainees, mentors and headteachers.

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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

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk . Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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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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