SWIFT Teacher Training

SWIFT Teacher Training

Address: SWIFT Teacher Training, Coombeshead Academy, Coombeshead Road, Newton Abbot, TQ12 1PT Unique reference number (URN): 2783751

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees achieve highly across the programme and develop the knowledge, understanding and teaching skills required for successful careers in primary education. They demonstrate secure subject knowledge, effective behaviour management and a well-developed understanding of how to adapt their teaching to meet individual pupils' needs. Trainees demonstrate confidence in teaching pupils with diverse needs, thoroughly understand their safeguarding responsibilities and show readiness for the next stage of their professional journey.

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Achievement Strong standard

Reflective practice is embedded throughout the programme. Journals, coaching conversations and structured reflection help trainees evaluate their work thoughtfully and identify areas for further development. Trainees understand how well they are progressing and act purposefully on feedback to strengthen their practice. They become reflective professionals who are committed to continual improvement.

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Achievement Strong standard

School leaders and partners recognise the quality of trainees’ preparation and value the expertise they bring to classrooms. Trainees leave the programme as knowledgeable, resilient and highly capable teachers who are well equipped for employment.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

The primary curriculum is ambitious, expertly designed and fully aligned with the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework. Leaders have developed a coherent and carefully sequenced programme that prepares trainees very well for teaching across the primary age range. The 39 week curriculum enables trainees to develop secure subject knowledge, effective pedagogical understanding and the professional expertise required to meet the needs of all pupils.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

The programme is organised around the key strands of behaviour management, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and professional behaviours. Learning is sequenced through establishing, securing and deepening phases each term. This enables trainees to build knowledge and teaching skills cumulatively. Early reading, systematic synthetic phonics, mathematics and adaptive teaching receive prominent attention, ensuring trainees are well prepared for classroom practice.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Intensive training and practice is integrated throughout the programme. Carefully structured opportunities allow trainees to observe, rehearse, practise and refine key aspects of teaching before applying them in the classroom. Trainees value these experiences and frequently draw on them when discussing their development. The effective integration between taught sessions, school-based practice and mentoring helps trainees apply research-informed approaches with confidence.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders and staff possess considerable expertise and model effective evidence-informed practice. Training draws extensively on high-quality research, enabling trainees to understand, evaluate and apply evidence to their own teaching. Adaptive teaching is embedded throughout the curriculum. As a result, trainees develop a deep understanding of how to meet the needs of pupils with a broad range of backgrounds and needs.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Assessment is used skilfully to identify next steps in learning and inform tailored support. Lead mentors, mentors and campus leads provide precise feedback that helps trainees refine their practice and develop increasing independence. Through high-quality mentoring and carefully aligned training, trainees make substantial gains in knowledge, confidence and classroom effectiveness.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Inclusion is central to the provider’s vision and is evident throughout the trainee journey. From the earliest stages of recruitment, leaders establish a culture in which trainees feel comfortable sharing information about any barriers they may face. As a result, trainees feel welcomed, valued and able to access support without hesitation. Leaders promote equality, diversity and inclusion consistently across the provision. Trainees are drawn from a wide range of backgrounds and benefit from a culture that actively champions opportunity and belonging. The provider’s commitment to serving coastal and rural communities broadens access to teacher training and creates opportunities for individuals who may otherwise have faced barriers to entering the profession.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Support for trainees is highly personalised. Leaders and school-based colleagues work collaboratively to ensure that adaptations and reasonable adjustments are implemented promptly and reviewed regularly. Communication between staff is effective and contributes to a coherent approach that helps trainees participate fully in training and teaching practice.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders systematically review the effectiveness of their provision and use feedback to further enhance support. Their actions have a demonstrable impact on trainees’ experiences and success. Trainees consistently access bespoke guidance and support that enables them to progress confidently and prepare successfully for employment.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders have established a clear vision that is understood and shared across the partnership. This vision, rooted in inclusion, opportunity and service to local communities, shapes every aspect of the provision. Staff, mentors, partners and trainees articulate this vision consistently and contribute to its successful implementation.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders use highly effective quality assurance processes to evaluate the provision and drive continuous improvement. As a result, leaders maintain a precise understanding of the programme's effectiveness. Evidence gathered through these processes informs timely refinements that enhance trainees’ experiences and outcomes. For example, training is purposeful, well coordinated and informed by emerging needs. Staff feel valued and supported. Leaders take appropriate steps to promote wellbeing and manage workload effectively.

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Leadership Strong standard

The advisory board provides rigorous challenge, strategic guidance and effective oversight. Members draw on expertise from education and beyond to scrutinise performance, evaluate impact and support continuous development.

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Leadership Strong standard

Partnership working is highly effective. Lead partners play an important role in curriculum development, mentoring and quality assurance. Their close involvement ensures that training reflects the realities of contemporary classroom practice and prepares trainees well for employment. Partnerships also provide trainees with valuable experience across a range of contexts.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leaders demonstrate a relentless commitment to improvement. They systematically evaluate the impact of their work, respond quickly to emerging priorities and maintain a clear focus on ensuring that trainees receive a high-quality training experience. Compliance requirements, including statutory safeguarding expectations, are met fully.

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Next steps

Leaders should continue to meticulously refine and enhance their highly effective provision. This should include initiatives to further strengthen and sustain the provider's work to have an ever-increasing impact on trainees' learning and development, and on the pupils they teach.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing are all integral to the provider’s work. Leaders ensure that trainees understand well the professional standards associated with teaching. Leaders establish very high expectations from the outset. Trainees embrace these expectations and consistently demonstrate professionalism and commitment to their learning. A highly effective network of pastoral support underpins trainees’ development. Regular check-ins, open communication and a ‘team around the trainee’ approach ensure that support is readily available. Leaders evaluate this support carefully and continually refine provision to maximise its impact.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Trainees benefit from purposeful opportunities to prepare for the wider responsibilities of teaching. Experiences such as engaging with parents, working alongside teaching assistants and understanding the responsibilities of school leaders contribute significantly to their readiness for employment. As a result, trainees develop a realistic understanding of the profession. Trainees seek feedback from others in order to inform improvements to all aspects of their practice and conduct.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

The provider fosters a respectful environment in which trainees feel safe, valued and supported. Trainees understand how to safeguard themselves and others. They demonstrate consistently high standards of conduct. Consequently, they develop the resilience and confidence needed to flourish in teaching.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees are very well prepared for the next steps into their teaching careers. Deliberate planning to deliver the curriculum across 39 weeks means that trainees spend considerable time developing their knowledge of how to adapt their teaching. This prepares them well for understanding the needs of the different pupils they will teach.

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Achievement Strong standard

Trainees especially appreciate the way in which they develop their subject and phase knowledge. This helps trainees to incrementally build the core skills they need to be a successful teacher, including managing pupil behaviour. Trainees are very well prepared to deliver their subjects. They have a secure and rounded knowledge of education across the key stages.

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Achievement Strong standard

Most trainees complete their training successfully. Completing trainees all achieve the Postgraduate Certificate in Education. Leaders' ambition is to make training as accessible as possible, for example, in rural contexts where transport is sometimes difficult. Even so, a minority of trainees may defer or withdraw. Leaders understand well the reasons why trainees might leave the programme and do everything they reasonably can to help trainees be successful.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders have designed a curriculum that embeds key learning, such as inclusion, within the core and subject knowledge that trainees need. All parts of the course are carefully integrated so that trainees build their learning over time. Trainees revisit the content of the intensive training and practice (ITAP) elements through their subject sessions, such as developing oracy in the classroom. This helps trainees to deepen their knowledge and apply their skills through their placements.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

The school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) is the newest component of a well- established partnership of teaching school hubs. Leaders use the expertise from the hubs along with relevant and high-quality research well in their design of the initial teacher education curriculum. Subject audits completed by trainees help course leaders to adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of individual trainees.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Secondary trainees learn the core content of the curriculum alongside primary trainees. They develop an appreciation of the education system across phases. Trainees know their responsibilities as teachers in safeguarding pupils. Working with safeguarding leads from within the partnership, trainees develop a knowledge of risk and their role to report concerns.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Mentors provide high-quality support and guidance. Well-designed checklists help mentors and trainees to be precise about what the trainees do well and what they need to do next. Target setting is highly focused and broken down so that trainees build their expertise incrementally and with clarity. Visiting tutors and campus leaders provide rounded support for each trainee.

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Curriculum, teaching and training Strong standard

Leaders have refined the assessment process to be more structured and precise. It provides the steps and the expectations required at each of the 4 assessment points to identify what they need to do to improve. Trainees receive clear and constructive feedback on their teaching and progress. As a result, trainees quickly identify and act upon and develop any aspects of their practice that they might need to focus on.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The provider’s ambition to make training accessible to potential trainees across a large rural and coastal area is enacted well. Leaders consider carefully the multitude of barriers that trainees might need to navigate. Leaders work with individual trainees to provide personalised support to address those needs.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders place trainees at the centre of their work to be a highly inclusive provider. The trainee representative group takes an active role in shaping the work of this school-centred initial teacher training provider. Leaders reflect carefully and systematically on the diverse nature of potential trainees. They actively refine the policies and adaptations that make training with SWIFT Teacher Training accessible. From the point of application, the needs of trainees are promptly identified. Working alongside trainees, the leaders respond quickly to put bespoke, reasonable adjustments in place. This supports trainees to progress incrementally through their training.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Through well-identified training, leaders develop their own expertise and that of partners to better understand how to support the needs of trainees. For example, learning more about neurodiversity in adults has supported the provider to provide effective support when it is needed.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Despite the broad location of trainees, they describe their experience as being part of a ‘community.’ They feel very well connected and supported through the hub they train within.

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Leadership Strong standard

Leadership of both phases weaves across the whole provision and replicates throughout. Very little separates the phases, with a lot of the course delivered through a cross-phase model. The clear visions and values of the provider underpin their work and are evident throughout. The commitment to bring accessible training closer to home in a large rural and coastal context is enacted. Leaders’ work to ensure this remains the case is both cohesive and thorough.

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Leadership Strong standard

The school centred initial teacher training (SCITT) is the most recent addition to an existing teaching schools hub. Leaders work well with others across the hub to identify expertise and high-quality research to inform the curriculum. The partnership work is long-established, collaborative, and there is equity in decision-making. Leaders ensure every aspect of the SCITT across the different campuses is centralised, so trainees have the same high-quality

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Next steps

Leaders should continue to build on the existing systematic processes for mentoring to make their ambitious refinements, so that the trainee experience is further enhanced. experience throughout their training.

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Next steps

Leaders are systematic in the mechanisms they use to check the quality of the provision. They work alongside experienced partners and seek advice from external providers and experts to help them review and shape it. This helps them to refine this newer provision. Leaders recognise where there are areas for development and plan sustainably for this.

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Next steps

Meaningful professional learning enables staff and mentors to build their expertise to deliver their roles well. For example, mentors receive the training they need at timely points so that they are ready and well informed to support trainees with each aspect of the curriculum. Lead mentors oversee the work of mentors very well and provide targeted support when needed to ensure high standards of mentoring are consistent across the provision. The subject curriculum designers also fulfil roles as subject leads and visiting tutors. As a result, all aspects of the work of the SCITT are well integrated.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Pastoral support for trainees is well-thought through. Through careful consideration and planning, leaders pay close attention to the wellbeing of the cohort. Any pastoral needs are promptly identified. Trainees receive guidance and signposting that helps them. Although each campus lead has the oversight of trainees, there is a culture of care which all staff delivering the course act on. Leaders make welfare checks and follow up when trainees need support to ensure this meets their needs. As a result, trainees are well cared for and feel part of the provision.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders have very high expectations for professional behaviours right from the start. These high expectations are fully integrated throughout the curriculum. This prepares trainees well for the professional expectations in the settings they join. Leaders support trainees in preparing job applications and in experiencing mock interviews. Many employers and placement schools comment on the positive impact of this work.

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Professional behaviours, personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders and staff help trainees to develop strategies to manage their workload and to prepare for the realities of teaching. Trainees provide feedback, which leaders use to refine elements of the course to avoid the workload from becoming too much. For example, leaders have revised the approach to intensive training and practice so that trainees can reflect upon and record their learning more efficiently.

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

Trainees say they choose SWIFT Teacher Training, because leaders have a deeply committed moral purpose for inclusion and provide opportunities to develop highly successful teachers within their local communities. Leaders stay true to this vision and ethos while recognising the challenges and the positives of the local areas where trainees live and want to teach. As a result, trainees have a genuine sense of belonging. This gives trainees the necessary foundations to build on. They are prepared, with a high degree of success and confidence, to flourish in their first teaching role.

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

Trainees benefit from highly effective support and communication facilitated by provider leaders across the five campuses. Leaders are tenacious in reducing any barriers to trainees’ learning or wellbeing. Trainees commend leaders’ responsiveness to their needs and the challenges they may face in their lives beyond their studies. This gives trainees the skills needed to sustain an ongoing positive wellbeing and a balanced workload.

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

Trainees gain valuable experiences of the realities of teaching through contrasting school placements, differing in context and age range. This gives them opportunities to hone the professional behaviours that teachers draw on, helping pupils learn and develop holistically. Trainees are confident to support disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

Trainees benefit from a highly ambitious curriculum. Expert teacher educators develop trainees’ subject knowledge to a high level across subjects and phases. The skilfully designed centralised curriculum is delivered across phases and campuses over 39 weeks. This enables trainees to develop a secure understanding of academic progress from the start of primary to the end of secondary education. Trainees become highly skilled and confident entrants to the profession, fully equipped to sustain teaching careers in their local area.

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About this inspection

The school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) offers primary and secondary postgraduate pathways into teaching. All routes lead to qualified teacher status and the postgraduate route leads to a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE).

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About this inspection

The primary and secondary route PGCE is through the University of Nottingham.

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About this inspection

In the secondary phase, trainees choose one of 11 subject areas. Trainees specialise in the 11 to 16 age range.

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About this inspection

SWIFT Teacher Training began operating on 31 August 2024.

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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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Team inspectors:

Susan Aykin, His Majesty's Inspector Leanne Thirlby, His Majesty's Inspector Julie Pearson, 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. Inspection activities: Inspectors spoke with the executive director, deputy directors, lead partners and members of the advisory board, including the chief executive officer, during the inspection. They also spoke with campus leads, lead mentors, headteachers, initial teacher education coordinators, mentors, trainees and early career teachers who trained with SWIFT Teacher Training.

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Exceptional

Inspectors visited 14 schools, 5 primary and 9 secondary.

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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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