BGU’s Teacher Training Praised by Ofsted

26/01/2016

Bishop Grosseteste University’s teacher training partnership has been praised by Ofsted for making “an important contribution to the recruitment, selection and supply of teachers to local schools and the wider region”.

The inspectors found that high-quality training, provided through effective partnership between the university and schools, “ensures that teachers trained by the university present as confident and effective practitioners, who are valued by their employing schools”.

Trainee outcomes, the quality of training and the overall effectiveness of the partnership in securing consistently high-quality outcomes were all graded as good in primary, early years and secondary programmes.

The two-stage Ofsted inspection took place in June and December 2015 and the report was published today (26th January 2016).

The report praises BGU’s “vision for continuous improvement” and “involvement in current educational research”, keeping the historic institution at forefront of teacher education and recruitment.

As a member of the prestigious Cathedrals Group of universities, BGU has a warm, caring ethos. The inspectors recognised this, commenting that across all phases “the partnership provides trainees with very high-quality levels of pastoral care and support”.

Inspectors found that the institution, which has been training teachers for over 150 years, continues to lead developments through cutting-edge educational research: “University tutors’ involvement in current educational research provides a sharp edge to the training programme,” they said. Trainee teachers are also involved in research, and experience “good levels of coherence between the courses taught at the university and the school-based experiences”.

These connections between theory and practice led inspectors to comment on “trainees’ useful research projects”, arguing that “the consistently good quality of this training is evidenced in extremely thorough audits, varied and interesting assignments”.

“We are very pleased with the inspection judgements, which all mirror our own self-evaluation,” said Dr Nick Gee, Head of the School of Teacher Development at BGU.

“We are particularly delighted by the recognition given to our excellent pastoral support, the full involvement of our partnership, the embedding of research within our training and the strength of leadership and management throughout all levels of provision.”

Key findings in the report are:

Leaders in all phases share a common vision for continuous improvement.
Team-working within each phase leadership team and across the entire partnership leadership team is a strength. Together, all leaders demonstrate the capacity for further improvement.
The partnership makes an important contribution to the recruitment, selection and supply of teachers to local schools and the wider region.
The partnership provides trainees with very high-quality levels of pastoral care and support.

To view the entire report, click here or visit the Ofsted website.