University of Portsmouth

JS; 19 October 2009 University of Portsmouth

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Initial Teacher Education inspection report

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Provider address University of Portsmouth School of Education and Continuing Studies St George's Building 141 High Street Portsmouth Hampshire PO1 2HY

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Inspection dates Lead inspector 15–19 March 2010 Peter Gale 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. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied.

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If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 08456 404045, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . 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. www.ofsted.gov.uk Reference no. 080190

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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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Explanation of terms used in this report

Attainment is defined as the standard reached by a trainee at the end of their training. Progress is judged in terms of how well a trainee has developed professionally from their starting point to the standard reached at the time of the inspection or at a suitable review point. Achievement is judged in terms of the progress made and the standard reached by a trainee at the time of the inspection or at a recent assessment review point.

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The provider

3. The university works in partnership with more than 90 schools and settings, six colleges and employers in Portsmouth and neighbouring counties to provide initial teacher education (ITE) leading to qualifications to teach in the secondary and further education sectors.

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The provider

4. The secondary programmes provide training, leading to QTS (qualified teacher status) and a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) in a number of subjects and age ranges. The university operates in partnership with colleges to provide ITE in further education.

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A commentary on the provision

5. The following are particular features of the provider and its initial teacher training programmes:

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A commentary on the provision

 the high quality trainees that are an integral part of the partnership  recruitment and selection procedures that get trainees off to a good or better start on their courses  the good quality mentoring  the work of the partnership manager in securing commitment to, and engagement with, the training programmes from partner institutions.

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A commentary on the provision

6. There are particularly strong features in some programmes that could be applied to other programmes or aspects of the provision:

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A commentary on the provision

 the support for, and promotion of, equality and diversity in the secondary phase  the work of secondary subject leaders in keeping mentors well informed of subject developments and national priorities in initial teacher education  the high quality self-evaluation document in the secondary phase that brings together subject level evaluation and whole course evaluation.

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A commentary on the provision

7. The following recommendations should be considered to improve the quality of the outcomes for trainees:

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A commentary on the provision

 To focus self-evaluation and action planning even more sharply on trainee outcomes.

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Context

8. The provider recruited 135 trainees to secondary programmes starting in September 2009. Training leading to QTS with the award of a PGCE is provided in the following subjects: mathematics, English, modern foreign languages, geography, business studies and science. Provision across the subjects spans the age ranges 11 to 16 and 14 to 19 (business studies only). The partnership comprises about 90 schools, including comprehensive secondary, middle and high schools, sixth form and further education colleges, special schools and independent schools. Geographically most schools are in the Portsmouth/Hampshire area; the partnership also covers Surrey, Dorset, Sussex and the Isle of Wight.

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Key strengths

 high quality trainees who develop excellent relationships in, and make a significant contribution to, the partnership school in which they are placed  the very thorough selection and induction procedures which ensure the clear identification of trainees’ developmental needs  the innovative and very effective use of resources to support and enhance trainee outcomes  the inclusive ethos of the provider and its proactive promotion and support of equality and diversity  tireless and highly effective support provided by subject leaders to help meet trainees’ individual needs  the high quality central training that effectively supports trainees’ development and outcomes.

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Required actions

10. In order to improve the quality of provision, the provider/partnership must:  ensure that all trainees on the business studies course have substantial and sustained experience in teaching a range of specifications across the two key stages for which they are being trained.

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Recommendations

11. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment, the provider/partnership should:  identify and share the outstanding mentoring evident in some placements to ensure that all trainees reach their full potential  focus self-evaluation and action planning even more sharply on trainee outcomes.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

12. The overall effectiveness of the provider in securing high quality outcomes for trainees is good.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

13. Recruitment is a very rigorous process resulting in the selection of trainees with the potential to be good or outstanding teachers. Initial needs analysis is a full part of the process. Information gathered at interview is used to personalise the training. Trainees are given specific pre-course tasks to boost their progress from the beginning of their course. These include subject knowledge booster courses in some subjects, extra time in specific schools and other individual tasks. Trainees report that these activities are highly beneficial and usually well targeted. Records of selection for current trainees are used well in determining a baseline for trainees to measure their progress during the course. Recruitment from under-represented groups and non-traditional backgrounds has been effectively targeted and successful in boosting numbers and exceeding local benchmarks. The university has realised that late recruitment is

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

common among these trainees and leaves course places open to boost participation.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

14. The attainment of a very large majority of trainees is good or better across the six secondary subjects at Portsmouth with the university reporting a probable increase for the current cohort. There is, however, significant subject variation in attainment with the previous three years of university data showing strengths in geography and business studies with relatively weaker attainment in science. Trainees are highly valued members of the departments in which they train. They develop good relationships with other staff and pupils and communicate well. This results in approximately 80% of trainees being employed within the partnership at the end of their training. Headteachers are clear that the quality of teachers they can recruit from the partnership is partly responsible for rising standards in their schools.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

15. Formal subject needs analysis undertaken after starting the course gives trainees a good awareness of their subject strengths and areas for development. Strong centre-based training in subject pedagogy has provided a firm basis for trainees to develop their knowledge of teaching and learning . The best trainees are very proactive in their own professional development but this is not universally the case. This means that a few weaker trainees still had gaps in their subject knowledge at the time of inspection, particularly in subjects with a broad subject knowledge content or where their prior knowledge had been narrow. Most subject mentors were working systematically to address any deficiencies but this was not the case for all trainees visited by inspectors. School placements are usually contrasting, and carefully thought out timetables mean that trainees have a full opportunity to reach their potential. However, a

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

few business studies trainees had spent a disproportionate amount of time teaching other subjects and working in Key Stage 3. This meant that, at the time of inspection, their progress towards QTS had been inhibited and that their assessments had been against subject areas such as information and communication technology (ICT) as well as business studies. The university has plans to address this for the final part of their training.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

16. School-based training by mentors is good. Feedback to trainees, which inspectors observed following joint observations of teaching, varied from satisfactory to outstanding. Some mentors focus extremely well on developing trainees’ practice to boost pupil learning through observation and feedback. Excellent examples of high quality professional dialogue were seen. The university is aware that there is further scope to share this outstanding practice, particularly as outstanding and satisfactory mentoring were seen in the same schools. Targets for development are set conscientiously by mentors and other staff following trainee observation and mentor meetings. However, it is not always easy to track progress against identified areas of trainee need. For example, trainees’ skills in assessment and monitoring of pupils’ learning were variable across the sample of trainees seen by inspectors. Some of this

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

relates to the stage of the course at the time of inspection but some of the weakness relates to lack of systematic addressing of these areas by mentors over time.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

17. Coherence of the course is good. Professional mentors in schools set up training opportunities that fit in well with requirements of the course assignments set by the university. High quality documentation, including subject handbooks, supports consistency of approach across schools and communication across the partnership is good. School-based professional studies are well regarded by trainees who find the context of such sessions useful in improving their practice and building on taught university sessions. As a result of this good quality training, and experience of working with the full ability range of pupils, most trainees demonstrate effective classroom and behaviour management skills. Planning skills are developing with real strength, demonstrated by higher attaining trainees in terms of differentiation and attention paid to recent educational initiatives. These skills are well supported

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

by high quality course planning documents. Weaker trainees focus too strongly on activities and too little on learning in their planning . Trainees use ICT well to support their teaching including the production and use of innovative resources which are shared on the university’s virtual learning environment (VLE). Trainees’ evaluation of their own teaching was of mixed quality. The teaching evaluation form, although intended to focus on learning, is quite complex and can lead to perfunctory responses. Trainees’ ability to reflect verbally was often better than written examples.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

18. Professional mentors value, and communicate well with, the partnership manager who visits regularly to establish and evaluate placements. They are keen to support the university and are highly committed to developing good quality trainees for the partnership. The success of these endeavours can be seen in the number of former trainees now mentoring across the partnership. Mentor training is reported, by mentors, to be very good and new mentors feel well supported. Ongoing training and promotion of consistency are facilitated by tireless subject leaders visiting mentors on a regular basis to carry out joint observations of trainees’ teaching. As a result subject leaders have a good understanding of the quality of school-based training and work hard to promote consistency.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

19. The use of resources in the partnership is outstanding. Trainees state that they have all the resources necessary to meet their needs in their school placements. University staff are very responsive to reported need due to the close working relationship between subject leaders and trainees. Human resources are very well used by the partnership to support trainees, with extra tutor visits arranged on the basis of trainee or placement need. A specialist minority ethnic tutor has been appointed to boost numbers of trainees recruited and retain them on the course. This has been very successful. Outside speakers significantly benefit trainees in bringing their expertise to central training sessions as demonstrated, for example, by the input of a local specialist in phonics. Resource allocation is under constant review and is well understood by schools.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

20. The ethos at Portsmouth is one of care and inclusion. The high quality of personal care demonstrated by subject leaders and other support tutors is reflected in the fact that almost all trainees report being exceptionally well looked after and retention is high. Relationships established during training are sustained and trainees are often still in contact with their tutors for advice and guidance later in their career. Trainees report no incidents of harassment and know who to turn to if there were any such incidents. Trainees are well prepared to teach in a diverse society due to excellent quality central training in aspects of diversity and teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language.

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Grade: 2

21. The partnership’s capacity to sustain high quality outcomes for trainees, and to take the actions required to secure improvements where necessary, is good. The partnership is clearly focused on raising the attainment of trainees by improving the quality of provision they receive. It has been successful in maintaining good levels of attainment overall with university data showing rising attainment in modern foreign languages, geography and mathematics.

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Grade: 2

22. Self-evaluation draws on a wide range of data including trainees’ evaluations of all aspects of provision, external examiners’ reports, the newly qualified teacher survey, benchmarking against other providers and feedback from former trainees and school-based mentors. This information is very well collated and analysed in a self-evaluation document which is mostly accurate. Inspectors agreed with most of the provider’s judgements about its provision, except those pertaining to training and assessment and quality across the partnership, which were both found to be good rather than outstanding. Self-evaluation is well established in the secondary phase and procedures are common across subjects. There are clearly identified strengths and needs established, which are then closely linked to action plans that cover both general and highly specific issues. Internal systems monitor the quality of work by subject

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Grade: 2

departments well. However, the monitoring of placement timetables in business studies has not been rigorous enough to avoid a few trainees having teaching timetables that slowed their progress.

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Grade: 2

23. External examiners’ reports are supportive and provide useful feedback on the quality of the provision. The partnership has been working to refocus these reports on how to improve trainee attainment. Currently, some subjects are receiving this useful feedback but it is not consistent. Comprehensive self- evaluation has been successful in securing improved provision in several areas. For example, although the induction phase is a very successful part of the course, feedback received in the past on cross-curricular seminars as part of this phase has been less favourable. The course team reviewed the structure of the groups, the delivery and the content, and introduced a new set of seminars, supported with e-learning materials through the VLE. The seminars became student led and group sizes were reduced to enable real debate and discussion about key issues in education. The feedback from seminars became very

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Grade: 2

positive and the learning of trainees has improved.

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Grade: 2

24. The partnership is well established and there is a high level of trust between professional mentors and subject leaders through the partnership manager. This allows the provider and the partnership to respond very well to local need. For example, identified variability in mentoring across and between schools led to professional mentors being involved in the design of a new school placement evaluation to be completed by trainees and then sent to schools. A number of schools were identified as having outstanding mentoring and received certificates in recognition of this. Where training was identified as weaker the partnership manager followed this up in meetings with professional mentors. However, this process is at a relatively early stage and yet to be fully effective in spreading the excellent practice that exists to the whole partnership

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Grade: 2

25. Membership of subject associations and attendance at meetings relating to both subject work and other aspects of initial teacher education, coupled to in- house research, mean the partnership leadership is very well informed of recent initiatives. This allows central training to be constantly adapted for the benefit of trainees. Subject leaders also actively encourage trainees to join their appropriate subject associations and this contributes significantly to their awareness of subject-based initiatives. Trainees are fully aware of the development of the 14 to 19 diplomas and changes within the qualifications framework. The fact that the partnership employs many former trainees and then develops them as mentors means that it is well adapted to deal with sudden change. For example, during the inspection trainees were supported by a team of trained mentors in many placements which boosted their progress

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Grade: 2

and, in a couple of examples, mitigated the effects of mentor illness on the trainee.

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Grade: 2

26. The management committee includes members of the broader partnership, including professional mentors, and these colleagues are made aware of the priorities that apply to them. However, despite the close links with professional mentors in schools, a few were unaware of priorities that related to school- based provision in university action plans. Action planning at a course level is derived from the comprehensive self-evaluation and feeds into subject plans to ensure consistency where it is necessary. The structure of action planning attempts to synthesise the range of evaluations undertaken over the year. Subject action plans are appropriately focused on improving trainees’ attainment and increasing the number of outstanding trainees. However, there has not been a consistently sharp Standards related analysis, across the six subject areas, of trainees’ relative weaknesses. Therefore subject action plans

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Grade: 2

do not always precisely target areas of provision to maximise trainees’ progress towards QTS.

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Grade: 2

27. Current and former trainees were able to discuss the way that the provision is constantly seeking to improve and its success in doing so. They felt that they had been able to fully contribute to the process and their opinions had been valued. The provision is highly rated by the trainees.

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Context

1. The University of Portsmouth’s post-compulsory education and training provision is located in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and organised through the School of Education and Continuing Studies. Training takes place at the university and through partnership with three further education (FE) colleges in the South of England. Initial teacher education (ITE) programmes include a one-year full-time course for 38 pre-service trainees and a two-year part-time course for 248 in-service teachers, working mainly in FE colleges, and increasingly in the wider learning and skills sector.

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Context

2. Courses lead to a certificate in education (Cert Ed) at levels 4 and 5, a professional graduate certificate in education at level 6 or a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) at level 7. Two of the partner colleges offer all three qualifications while the other college offers courses up to and including level 6. Initially, all graduates are enrolled on the professional graduate certificate in education. Just over a half of the in-service trainees are on the Cert Ed course. All pre-service trainees have placements in either one of the three partner colleges or in one of nine other colleges. Trainees normally attend the placement for four days weekly plus one day at the university. All qualifications are within the university’s academic framework and satisfy the Secretary of State’s requirements for FE teacher education.

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Key strengths

 the good progress made by trainees in developing and applying a broad range of highly effective teaching skills

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Key strengths

 the thorough selection and induction procedures that ensure the clear identification of trainees’ developmental needs, enabling trainees to achieve well

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Key strengths

 the highly effective support from trainers and subject mentors which enables trainees to achieve high quality outcomes

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Key strengths

 the well-established partnership arrangements which ensure high quality teaching practice placements for pre-service trainees.

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Required actions

4. In order to improve the quality of provision, the partnership must:  encapsulate within one document all the current cross-partnership monitoring and evaluation data in order to assess and raise further the quality of provision, thus ensuring high quality outcomes for all trainees

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Required actions

 develop and maintain tutors’ and mentors’ currency of professional knowledge so that trainees have a better awareness of local and national developments in education

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Required actions

 raise the profile of equality and diversity within the pre-service course, especially in trainees’ choice of lesson content, to ensure that all trainees are well equipped to teach in a culturally diverse society.

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Recommendations

5. In order to improve trainees’ progress and attainment, the partnership should:  ensure that training is relevant to the needs of trainees who work in settings other than further education colleges

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Recommendations

 ensure that all trainees benefit from the use of shared resources across the partnership

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Recommendations

 seek ways to exchange best practice between partners and across all phases of initial teacher education

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Recommendations

 collect and make effective use of trainees’ feedback in a format and style that enables the partnership to evaluate the impact of training on the quality of trainees’ outcomes.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

6. The overall effectiveness of the partnership in securing high quality outcomes for trainees is good. Trainees make good progress as a result of the highly effective support from their trainers and subject mentors. Since the previous inspection, the rates of successful completion for both pre- and in-service trainees have remained consistently high across the partnership, with no significant variations between different groups of trainees. A large majority of pre-service trainees gain full-time employment in the post-16 sector.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

7. The large majority of trainees who achieve well, demonstrate a strong commitment to their learners, exhibit much enthusiasm for their subject and make highly effective and creative use of a range of participative teaching and learning strategies. Lesson planning is thoughtful, ensuring that learning is supported by a variety of regularly changing activities that captures their learners’ interest and provides regular opportunities for assessment. Where learning support assistants are present in lessons, trainees ensure that they contribute to planning and are fully involved in supporting learning activities. Trainees make particularly good use of ICT in both their lesson preparation and delivery. In a sociology lesson on research methods, learners were captivated by a range of images presented that challenged their perceptions, and in a sports lesson the trainee made very good use of interactive software that

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

enabled the learners to produce mind maps as they synthesised their learning.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

8. The very small minority of trainees who achieve less well do not always allow sufficient time for learners to complete activities in their planning. Lesson objectives often lack clarity or are too general to ensure all learners make progress. They do not readily adapt their teaching to the different abilities or capabilities of their learners, especially the more able. They do not use questioning techniques with sufficient confidence to check learning or to draw out deeper understanding of the topic being taught. A few trainees provide their learners with learning materials that contain spelling errors. The use of strategies to help learners remember difficult subject-related vocabulary is insufficiently developed.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

9. The recruitment and selection of pre-service trainees is good. For all trainees, retention rates have remained consistently high since the previous inspection. Selection procedures are very thorough and lead to the recruitment of high calibre trainees with the potential to achieve high quality outcomes. As a result of the comprehensive range of challenging assessments during the recruitment day, at which trainees have to make education-related group presentations, trainees feel a strong sense of achievement at being offered a place. As a consequence of the well-established partnership arrangements, a good match is made between the subjects to which the university recruits and the availability of high quality teaching practice placements. 10. Induction is thorough and ensures that all trainees make rapid progress from the start of their training. For pre-service trainees, the intensive four-week induction includes a thorough assessment of their literacy, language, ICT and

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

numeracy skills that leads to an individual action plan with good levels of support from the university’s academic skills unit. For in-service trainees, especially those new to teaching, comprehensive initial skills assessment is in place, as part of the partner colleges’ recruitment processes, that identifies trainees’ strengths and areas for development and leads to the good planning of individual training.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

11. Training and assessment are good, leading to trainees achieving well. As a result of the highly effective central training for pre-service trainees and the strongly responsive college-based training for those on the in-service route, trainees are prepared well to teach, a strength noted at the previous inspection. As a consequence of the high levels of good individual support, trainees know their starting points well and benefit from detailed personalised action plans to help meet their developmental needs.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

12. Subject-mentoring is strong and significantly improved since the previous inspection. Mentoring is highly effective and contributes to trainees making good and consistent progress. Mentors devote much time to assisting trainees in planning their early lessons, to selecting and applying the most appropriate teaching strategies and providing constructive guidance on how to structure their teaching to the specific objectives of the lesson. As a result of the accurate, comprehensive and insightful feedback that trainees receive on their observed lessons, they improve their teaching skills considerably and develop well their subject knowledge for teaching, especially the sequencing of subject content and learning activities. However, a few trainees working in settings other than colleges do not always receive comprehensive mentoring support. Most feedback is of good quality and concentrates on the developmental points

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

identified in the previous lesson observation and how they have been improved before reviewing the most recent lesson observed. The quality of feedback on marked assignments is good. Written comments are evaluative and provide trainees with good levels of stretch and challenge.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

13. The monitoring of progress is good and leads to the development of good reflective practitioner skills for the majority of trainees. Progress is recorded from the outset by members of the teaching teams and mentors. As a result of the 10 lesson observations throughout the programme, trainees’ progress is closely monitored and evaluated. In individual tutorials, trainees agree clear and realistic action points to support their progress, which are reviewed during subsequent observations. As a result of this close monitoring, early intervention occurs where a trainee is not making sufficient progress or at risk of failing to reach the standard of which they are capable.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

14. Most trainees benefit from good resources that contribute to their high levels of progress. Teaching teams usually provide a good balance of subject and teacher education specialists that ensure trainees understand educational theory and relate this to their own practice. Recent training has ensured that delivery teams across the partnership, especially in the partner colleges, have additional skills to assess the requirements for the postgraduate certificate. Training rooms are appropriately equipped, giving trainees access to ICT, electronic journals, up-to-date bibliographies and access to virtual learning environments (VLE) at some centres. As a result of each college and the university using its own separate VLE, the opportunity to share materials and resources more widely is limited.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

15. Trainees across the partnership receive training that is of a consistently high quality. The appointment and training of subject-specialist mentors has contributed to raising the quality of trainees’ experience. As a result of joint lesson observations between mentors and trainers, trainees benefit from high levels of consistency in the quality of feedback. Inspectors agree with the accuracy of the judgements on trainees’ achievements across the partnership. The university has identified in its action plan the need to develop a partnership approach to self-evaluation, as partners work mostly in isolation.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

16. The promotion of equality and diversity is satisfactory. Trainees exhibit a satisfactory understanding of equality and diversity and relevant legislation. As a result of the training promoting inclusion and safeguarding from the start, lesson planning mostly includes frequent reference to inclusion and ensures that trainees take account of the different abilities and capabilities of their learners. The majority of in-service trainees demonstrate a good understanding of how to promote equality in their lesson content. For example, trainees teaching sports science deliver sessions which have a focus upon ethnicity and sport, and women and sport. However, most pre-service trainees do not routinely include reference to diverse cultural examples in their choice of lesson content and often miss opportunities to link lesson content to wider social and cultural contexts.

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Overall effectiveness Grade: 2

17. The partnership pays close attention to its trainee profile by analysing trends in recruitment, retention and pass rates by gender, ethnicity and disability. The university is aware that attempts to increase the numbers of trainees from minority ethnic backgrounds have not had a noticeable impact on recruitment.

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Grade: 3

18. The partnership has satisfactory capacity to sustain high quality outcomes for trainees and to take the actions required to secure improvements where needed. Since the previous inspection, the partnership has maintained its strengths and made significant improvement to mentoring arrangements, the development of subject pedagogy and the initial assessment and integration of language, literacy, numeracy and ICT. It has ensured that pre-service trainees continue to benefit from high quality teaching practice placements by extending the role of the partnership manager from its pre-service secondary teacher training programme. It has recently broadened this role to include in-service provision. The recent appointment of a new course leader has been thwarted by long-term sickness. However, the partnership took swift and effective action to cover this temporary absence, and as a result the quality of provision was

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Grade: 3

19. The partnership is longstanding and benefits from close operational management links. The head of school has recently taken successful action to increase the attendance of partner colleges at strategic management meetings. Established procedures are in place to assure the quality of the training programme centrally and within the partner colleges. The roles of the subject and professional mentors are well understood across the partnership. The overall moderation of teaching practice observation grades is good, leading to consistently good practice. University-based tutors undertake joint observations and grading of the pre-service trainees with college-based subject mentors, and in-service trainees are jointly observed and graded by a professional and subject mentor within the college. Final moderation is thorough and confirms that trainees’ attainment across the partnership is high.

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Grade: 3

20. Each partner college conducts a thorough annual self-assessment of its teacher education provision that is included in the overall self-assessment report for each college. Each partner college implements well-considered action plans to secure improvement. The university makes good analysis of the findings of external examiners, regular programme boards, review committees, annual reports and periodic review to monitor the quality of provision and to identify and prioritise areas for improvement for inclusion in its annual action plan.

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Grade: 3

21. The current action plan covering the whole provision is clear, attributes responsibility and provides reasonable timescales, incorporating an appropriate range of priorities, which contributes to a shared understanding of improvement themes across the partnership. The action plan contains reference to most of the areas for improvement identified by inspectors. However, the current success indicators are insufficiently precise and do not fully include the impact of improvements on trainees’ outcomes.

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Grade: 3

22. Much good practice exists across the partnership, as identified in the action plan. However, the partnership has not established formal mechanisms to identify and share this good practice for the benefit of trainees. Often, it is left to individual partners to identify and share informally. The partnership regularly collects the views of trainees and college-based staff and it is beginning to collect the views of former trainees. The partner colleges provide the university with regular reports based on these findings and make recommendations for improvement. Where colleges identify the need for a particular improvement, the university is responsive and works well with the colleges to amend practice. However, the partnership does not yet combine these reports so that it can evaluate comprehensively the overall quality of provision.

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Grade: 3

23. Trainees regularly complete an evaluation form at the end of each unit of work. However, the current evaluation forms do not concentrate on trainees’ professional development. As a consequence, they are only effective in evaluating the practical aspects of training such as room size or the timing of particular units. This has led to changes in the timings for the assignment on practice-based enquiry and improvements in the way ICT skills are assessed. However, these forms do not provide sufficient information to enable the partnership to evaluate the impact of training on trainees’ progress in developing their teaching skills and subject knowledge.

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Grade: 3

24. The partnership has responded satisfactorily to national developments in the further education sector. It has ensured that trainees are aware of the development of the 14 to 19 diplomas and changes within the qualifications framework. The pre-service course now includes a session that looks ahead to developments in the sector. References to safeguarding and Every Child Matters themes now feature more highly in trainees’ assignments and lesson planning. In response to trainees’ and external examiners’ feedback, the provider has included a stronger focus on behaviour management that has led to trainees feeling more confident to deal with challenging and disruptive behaviour. However, the in-service provision now recruits significant numbers of trainees who do not work in further education colleges but in a variety of other settings. The current content of the training concentrates too much on the further education college environment rather than the wider learning and

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Grade: 3

25. Insufficient formal partnership-wide opportunities exist for trainers and mentors to update their knowledge and skills, as identified in the action plan. As a result, some programme content does not provide trainees with sufficient opportunity for appraising current educational theories or the most recent developments within the sector. Most trainers and mentors maintain their own professional currency, especially where this is relevant to their own subject area or expertise. The partnership currently lacks an overall training plan, as identified in the current action plan, to ensure that the developmental opportunities available in one centre are available to all partners.

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Annex: Partnership colleges

The partnership includes the following colleges:

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Annex: Partnership colleges

Chichester College Eastleigh College South Downs College

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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

How effective is the provision in securing high quality outcomes for trainees? 2 2

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Overall effectiveness

Trainees’ attainment How well do trainees attain? 2 2 To what extent do recruitment / selection arrangements support high quality outcomes? 1 2 To what extent does the training and assessment ensure that all trainees progress to fulfil their potential given their ability and starting points? 2 2 Factors contributing to trainees’ attainment

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Overall effectiveness

To what extent are available resources used effectively and efficiently? 1 2 The quality of the provision To what extent is the provision across the partnership of consistently high quality? 2 2

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Overall effectiveness

Promoting equalities and diversity To what extent does the provision promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and eliminate harassment and unlawful discrimination? 1 3

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

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? 2 3

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Capacity to improve further and/or sustain high quality

How effectively does the management at all levels assess performance in order to improve or sustain high quality? 2 3 How well does the leadership at all levels anticipate change, and prepare for and respond to national and local initiatives? 1 3 How effectively does the provider plan and take action for improvement? 2 3

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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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