Education Management Direct GTP Consortium

Education Management Direct GTP Consortium Initial Teacher Education inspection report

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Provider address EM Centre for Learning Litton House Londonthorpe Road Grantham Lincolnshire NG31 9SN

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Inspection dates Lead inspector 29 June - 3 July 2009 Gwen Coates HMI achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It rates council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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If you would like a copy of this report in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 08456 404040, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk

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You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way.

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Royal Exchange Buildings St Ann’s Square Manchester, M2 7LA

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T: 08456 404040 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

1. This inspection was carried out by Her Majesty’s Inspectors supported by a team of specialist inspectors in accordance with the Framework for the Inspection of Initial Teacher Education (2008-11).

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Introduction

2. The inspection draws upon evidence from all aspects of the provision to make judgements against all parts of the inspection evaluation schedule in the framework. Inspectors focused on the overall effectiveness of the training in supporting high quality outcomes for trainees and the capacity of the partnership to bring about further improvements. A summary of the grades awarded is included at the end of this report.

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Key to inspection grades

Grade 1 Outstanding Grade 2 Good Grade 3 Satisfactory Grade 4 Inadequate

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The provider

3. Education Management Direct GTP Consortium is an independent provider of employment-based initial teacher training leading to the award of qualified teacher status. Its partnership covers a wide geographical area stretching from Leicester City in the south to Hartlepool in the north and includes eleven local authorities. In the current year there are 85 partnership schools, of which 46 are secondary and 39 primary. All trainee places are supernumerary and training is currently offered in the foundation stage and primary phase, and in all secondary national curriculum subjects and drama. In the current year there are 125 trainees, of which 77 are secondary and 48 primary.

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Key strengths

 the very good professional values, attributes and skills of trainees

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Key strengths

 the highly personalised training and assessment programme that meets individual needs

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Key strengths

 the impact of the senior leadership team in bringing about significant improvement to provision, in responding exceptionally well to national initiatives and in developing innovative and practical solutions to long- standing problems

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Key strengths

 the outstanding use made of technology to enhance the quality of training and assessment and to monitor trainees’ progress

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Key strengths

 the highly effective blended learning approach that ensures excellent cohesion between different elements of the training programme

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Key strengths

 the use of evidence trails that encourage trainees to think about progression and to engage in deep learning in relation to the Standards.

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Required actions

5. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment, the provider must:

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Required actions

 ensure that all trainees have opportunities to fully develop their knowledge and understanding of teaching in an ethnically and linguistically diverse educational context.

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Recommendations

6. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment, the provider should:

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Recommendations

 ensure that all trainees gain a good understanding of the expectations and curricula of the key stage prior to those for which they are training

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Recommendations

7. In order to improve the quality of provision, the provider should:

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Recommendations

 develop the consortium model so that more emphasis is placed on meeting local needs and responding to local initiatives, and that more opportunities are provided for partnership schools to disseminate and share best practice  develop more focused self-evaluation of primary and secondary phases and of subjects within the secondary provision in order to ensure that improvement planning in these areas is of the highest order.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

8. The attainment of trainees overall is good. They are confident and mature individuals with very strong professional values, attributes and skills. Trainees are good reflective practitioners who are able to evaluate their own teaching effectively and to identify their own strengths and those areas that need further development. They are proactive in ensuring that training meets their individual needs and that they gain the necessary support to improve and develop.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

9. Trainees have a good understanding of pedagogy. They demonstrate good lesson planning skills and, in lessons, their engaging activities, very good relationships with pupils and very effective strategies to achieve learning outcomes, help to stimulate pupils’ interests. Trainees have strong behaviour management skills and are confident in their use of assessment. They have high expectations of their pupils and support and challenge them well. In the best examples, trainees demonstrate good use of differentiation by task and outcome so that all pupils are given the opportunity to make progress. This is a direct result of the highly effective training they have received in this area. A small proportion of trainees have a relatively limited understanding of the expectations and curricula of the key stage prior to those for which they are training. Primary trainees make good use of teaching assistants and other adults in the classroom and a significant strength is

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

their communication with parents. Trainees receive very good training to enable them to teach pupils for whom English is an additional language, but, because of the geographical location of many of their placement schools, do not always have very good opportunities to apply what they have learned to their practice.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

10. Overall, recruitment and selection are good. Selection is rigorous, and includes effective processes that ensure consistency in approach and equality of opportunity for all applicants. Where regional consortium arrangements are in place, there is a very good focus on recruiting to meet local needs. Increasing the successful recruitment of trainees from under-represented groups is a continued focus for the partnership. Subject specialist tutors are involved in all secondary interviews and in designing selection assessment tasks. Schools are actively involved in the selection of trainees and, in addition, in those areas where consortium arrangements are in place, school-based trainers are involved in the selection process on an area-wide basis. When potentially ‘high risk’ trainees are recruited with non-traditional backgrounds, the selection process identifies this and triggers enhanced support. Success rates are high. However, gathering data on trainees’

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

employment destinations is a developing area of the partnership’s work and is not yet robust enough to facilitate extensive and rigorous analysis.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

11. Training and assessment is outstanding and is having a direct impact on the progress of trainees, who consistently fulfil their potential given their ability and starting points. A highly effective ‘blended’ learning approach ensures excellent cohesion of all elements of the training, which is linked closely to the Standards. Distance learning tasks are threaded through the programme and central training focuses exceptionally well on national initiatives.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

12. The highly personalised training is very effectively differentiated according to trainees’ ability and experience and thus meets trainees’ individual needs exceptionally well. Attention to individual needs is underpinned by excellent individual training plans, which are developed from information gained at the selection stage, are carefully linked to the Standards and are reviewed and developed regularly. Very good subject knowledge audits result in very detailed plans and highly effective arrangements to address any gaps. The use of evidence trails is an excellent learning and evidence gathering strategy, which assists trainees in developing a deep understanding of, and reflection on, each of the Standards and provides robust evidence of their ability to meet them. The e-portfolio approach is comprehensive and impressive; it considerably enhances the quality of training, ensures that the monitoring of trainees’ progress is exceptional and streamlines the

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

13. Training takes excellent account of national initiatives in both primary and secondary phases. As a result, for example, primary trainees have very good knowledge of the Rose Report and the Williams Review, which enables them to develop the intellectual capacity to challenge thinking and decide for themselves the best ways to plan for the all-round development of learners. The success of the current consortium arrangements, for example in Hartlepool, is creating an excellent training situation with a clear focus on local initiatives and the opportunity to share training and disseminate best practice across schools within the consortium area. This success is leading to the further development of similar arrangements across the areas covered by the partnership.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

14. For all trainees, second placements provide an extremely valuable contrasting experience where they are encouraged to question and consider the different approaches to, for example, behaviour management or leadership and management. Most involve effective liaison between the first and second school, which ensures that trainees’ experience is closely monitored, however in a small minority of cases, the second placement is not as fully integrated into the training programme as it might be.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

15. There is a cohesive and systematic formative and summative assessment cycle. Moderation processes and final assessment arrangements are robust and ensure accurate and reliable assessment of trainees’ attainment against the Standards.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

16. The use of resources to support provision and to provide opportunities for trainees to achieve high quality outcomes is outstanding. Resources are used judiciously and there is a clear rationale for their allocation, which is understood throughout the partnership. Excellent use is made of technology to enhance the quality of training and assessment and to overcome the problems associated with the wide geographical spread of the partnership. The virtual learning platform ensures trainees have access to very good quality generic and subject specific resources. Video conferencing is a valuable means of communication enabling trainees in widespread locations to communicate together and with their tutors.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

17. The provider’s generic and subject/phase tutors are very well respected by trainees and school-based trainers; their contribution is very highly valued and their commitment is exemplary. The senior leadership team is very skilled and extremely well deployed to bring about continual improvement. A well resourced administrative team supports the provision well.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

18. The provision across the partnership is good with outstanding features. Given the wide geographical spread of schools, the quality of provision across the partnership is remarkably consistent, with electronic monitoring processes contributing significantly to this. Rigorous and exceptionally clear quality assurance and moderation arrangements are in place and visits by tutors to monitor and grade the quality of provision are highly effective. Communication between the provider and partnership schools is very good and the provider is very responsive to the specific needs of schools, taking prompt action in response to suggestions and requests for support. Quality assurance reports on partnership schools include targets for development. These are appreciated and seen as supportive by most schools because their focus is to ensure that trainees receive the best possible training. At the same time, they also make a useful contribution to schools’ own self-

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

evaluation of their teacher training provision.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

19. In some areas, such as Hartlepool, excellent consortium arrangements bring significant benefits to schools, the provider and trainees. These enable the provider to better meet local needs, to disseminate and share good practice, to provide local professional development for trainers and opportunities for trainees to meet and train together. This consortia model is currently being developed across all areas of the partnership.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

20. The effective training of mentors and senior tutors ensures that the quality of mentoring is at least good. School-based trainers are clear about their roles and responsibilities, are well prepared to support trainees and contribute to generic central training

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

21. The provision promotes equality of opportunity, values diversity and eliminates harassment and unlawful discriminations. Its equal opportunities policy informs all aspects of recruitment and selection and training and assessment. Any allegations of inappropriate conduct trigger rapid responses and the highly effective monitoring and intervention system supports this. The partnership creates a harmonious and inclusive environment for learning, by ensuring that each trainee has a mentor to support them both professionally and pastorally throughout the year. Trainees are overwhelmingly positive about the training and the equality of provision and there are no discernible differences between the outcomes for different groups of trainees.

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Grade: 2

22. Leadership and management at all levels demonstrate good capacity to secure further improvement.

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Grade: 2

23. The effectiveness of management at all levels in evaluating performance in order to improve outcomes is good, with outstanding features. Self-evaluation is accurate, rigorous, critical and comprehensive. The senior leadership team has secured significant improvement in training, assessment and outcomes for trainees. It has done this by engaging in a thorough evaluation of the provision, in being proactive and demonstrating a creative, effective and well-considered response to its findings from evaluation.

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Grade: 2

24. There is a rigorous cycle of self-evaluation across most areas of provision. This draws evidence from a range of sources including the reports from tutor visits and their online checks, the tracking of trainees’ progress, interim and final course evaluations and evaluations by school-based trainers and other stakeholders. Self- evaluation is enabling the provider to respond swiftly to feedback from all stakeholders. For example, following feedback, it has differentiated mentor training and introduced primary school training hubs as the consortium arrangement in the primary phase. Its trainee council, consisting of trainee representatives, has been influential, for example in the introduction of an e-portfolio buddy system, the restructuring of the subject knowledge training provision and in the positioning and timing of assignments. As yet, subject-specific and phase-specific self-evaluation is

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Grade: 2

not as well developed as overall provider-level self-evaluation and thus, relative inconsistencies, for example between provision for different subjects are not identified as rapidly as they might be.

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Grade: 2

25. The developing consortia model is improving the representation of the partnership advisory committee. This is improving the ability of the partnership’s stakeholders to influence the development of Education Management Direct and to ensure that all partners have a shared understanding.

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Grade: 2

26. The extent to which leadership at all levels anticipates change and prepares and responds to national and local initiatives is good, with outstanding features. Leadership is proactive and is driving change very successfully. In every case, its response is strategically planned for and effectively embedded in the training programme. Examples of recent adaptations to the training are the inclusion of the Training and Development Agency’s (TDA) subject knowledge for teaching framework, the Rose report, the Williams report, primary modern foreign languages, changes to the Key Stage 3 curriculum and the 14-19 agenda. The provider is more effective in its response to local initiatives in those geographical areas where the consortia arrangements are well established. In other geographical areas this is developing well. 27. Outstanding targeting of resources is evident. This is done by developing innovative, practical and highly effective solutions to longstanding problems and

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Grade: 2

potential barriers. Such solutions include the development of the e-portfolio and online resources and the consortia arrangements to overcome the difficulties associated with the wide geographical spread of partnership schools.

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Grade: 2

28. The effectiveness of the provider in planning and taking action for further improvement is good, with outstanding features. Its detailed improvement plan, based upon its highly effective cycle of self-evaluation, is regularly reviewed and updated. Improvement planning is highly ambitious and clearly focused on the key priority of ensuring high quality outcomes for trainees. The effect of the considerable changes that have taken place is a significant improvement in the quality of provision and current data indicates that this is having a very positive impact on the quality of outcomes for trainees, which are at least good. However, at present, there is insufficient trend data to allow a full evaluation of the impact of actions on outcomes for trainees and to demonstrate sustained improvement in such outcomes over time.

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Summary of inspection grades 1

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding; grade 2 is good; grade 3 is satisfactory; grade 4 is inadequate

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Overall effectiveness

Employment- based routes How effective is the provision in securing high quality outcomes for trainees? 2 Trainees’ attainment How well do trainees attain?

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Overall effectiveness

To what extent do recruitment / selection arrangements support high quality outcomes? To what extent does the training and assessment ensure that all trainees progress to fulfil their potential given their ability and starting points? Factors contributing to trainees’ attainment To what extent are available resources used effectively and efficiently?

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Overall effectiveness

The quality of the provision To what extent is the provision across the partnership of consistently high quality? Promoting equalities and diversity To what extent does the provision promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and eliminate harassment and unlawful discrimination? 2

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

Employment- based routes To what extent do the leadership and management at all levels have the capacity to secure further improvements and/or to sustain high quality outcomes? How effectively does the management at all levels assess performance in order to improve or sustain high quality? How well does the leadership at all levels anticipate change, and prepare for and respond to national and local initiatives? How effectively does the provider plan and take action for improvement? 2

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

1 The criteria for making these graded judgements are in the Grade criteria for the inspection of ITE 2008-11; Ofsted July 2008; Reference no: 080128. set out in the guidance ‘Complaints about school inspection’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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