Staff at Landau Forte College are celebrating this week after their school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) partnership was judged as ‘Good’ in its very first Ofsted inspection.
The College is the lead school for the SCITT partnership, which includes seven other schools across the East Midlands and is part of the Landau Forte Teaching School Alliance. It welcomed its first trainees in September 2015 and has since gone onto train good and outstanding teachers for schools in Derby.
As part of the inspection, Ofsted Inspectors met with school leaders, mentors and trainees at the College, as well as observing lessons and speaking to other schools from within the partnership. In their report, they praised the strength of leadership, the “first-class”, comprehensive training provided and the quality of trainees and new recruits’ teaching.
Other key strengths praised by the Inspectors included:
- Leadership’s “commitment to ensure that the provider produces the very best teachers for pupils within the East Midlands and for the city of Derby in particular”;
- “The absolute commitment of leaders to address inequality. They ensure that trainees have an expert grasp on the strategies required to address barriers to learning for many of the most disadvantaged pupils”;
- “High-quality bespoke training”;
- Subject leaders, who devise deliver subject training “combining excellent curriculum knowledge with excellent training”;
- Trainees’ “professionalism and their commitment to ensure that all pupils, but particularly the most disadvantaged, achieve as they should”;
- The “success of the partnership in attracting those trainees wishing to teach science and mathematics”.
Alison Brannick, Principal at Landau Forte College, said:
“We are very pleased with this ‘Good’ judgement from Ofsted for our initial teacher training partnership and for the very positive feedback from Inspectors. Our aim in setting up the provision was to develop strong, highly-skilled local teachers and so this is very welcome recognition of the hard work of staff and trainees since 2015.
“We have been delighted with the response from our partner schools, who have been very pleased with the quality of new recruits coming out of the programme. It is excellent therefore to have this formal endorsement from Ofsted of the training we are providing, in particular with regards to addressing the specific needs of local students.
“With firm foundations now established, we are excited to develop the programme further as we welcome new recruits and new schools into our partnership.”