THE Faculty of Education and Children’s Services at the University of Chester is celebrating an “outstanding” outcome of its recent Ofsted inspection of initial teacher training.
Her Majesty’s Inspectors focused on all the teacher training programmes the university offers and concluded that the primary phase teacher training programmes are “outstanding”, graded 1.
The secondary programmes are graded “good” with outstanding features.
Initial teacher education for the further education system in partnership with the university’s Associate Colleges of Warrington Collegiate and West Cheshire was graded as “good”.
Particular features of the provision offered include:
High levels of academic and pastoral care for trainees resulting in high levels of achievement.
Effective central and school-based training and very good use of school and college based colleagues to deliver training.
Key strengths in the primary phase include:
Innovative, determined and highly effective leadership and management of the primary phase with a clear focus on improving communication, strengthening partnership with schools and raising attainment.
Highly effective trainees who demonstrate very good subject knowledge and a clear understanding of how pupils learn.
The university has very strong centre based training from a highly effective and experienced team of tutors.
For secondary:
Trainees’ good understanding of whole school issues which is developed well by the effective professional studies course.
The range of good teaching skills, inspired by the enthusiastic and imaginative centre–based training.
Trainees’ up to date knowledge, which is due to tutors’ ability to anticipate and plan for change.
For Further Education:
Thorough safeguarding policy and procedures which are highly effective in ensuring trainees have a very good understanding of procedures to safeguard learners
Constructive and extremely useful feedback to trainees following lesson observations and on assignments, which supports them in securing improvements in their teaching practice and in their academic writing.
Anna Sutton, Dean of the Faculty of Education and Children’s Services praised her staff and thanked partnership colleagues in local schools and colleagues from the Associate FE Colleges.
“I am absolutely delighted with the outcome of the recent inspection.
“Faculty staff and our partner colleagues in schools, who kindly host our trainees and our colleagues from our Associate Colleges have worked so very hard to achieve this outcome.
“It is very gratifying to see recognition of so much work which over a period of some years has brought about a steady improvement in our Ofsted grades.
“We now have an outcome which states clearly that at Chester we offer very good provision to train the next generation of teachers for our children.
“The Faculty of Education and Children’s Services carries a responsibility for the heritage of the university which was founded to train teachers in 1839. We intend to proudly continue with this tradition.”
