New approach to teacher training inspection
New teachers must be given the best possible training to ensure they can deal with the rigours of the classroom in their induction year.
From next Monday (9 June 2014) there will be a new two-stage inspection process whereby inspectors will check on the quality of training and the trainees’ teaching in the summer term. This will be followed by a second stage in the autumn term when Ofsted inspectors will see new teachers implement what they have learned in the classroom.
This change to the process and a number of revisions to the previous framework follows a consultation that took place earlier this year. It applies to all ITE partnerships which provide training that leads to qualified teacher status and to the further education teacher training inspected by Ofsted. The responses to the consultation and revisions to the ITE framework have already been shared at a number of conferences with the sector.
Sean Harford, Ofsted National Director for Initial Teacher Education, said:
Teaching is a tough yet very rewarding job. So it is important that the training new teachers receive is the best it can be. Trainees should learn how to promote good behaviour in the classroom so they can focus on teaching, and children and young adults can focus on learning.
Through our new two-step inspection process we will make sure that teachers are putting into practice in the autumn what they learned in their training.
I expect this new way of inspecting will help to raise standards. When we judge providers to require improvement or are inadequate we will support and challenge them to improve; we then will re-inspect them the following year.
Many teachers leave the profession because of unruly learners. Ofsted has revised the inspection framework to focus on how trainees are taught to promote good behaviour in the classroom and to allow them to experience a wider range of settings, schools and colleges as part of their own training.
Notes to editors
- The Ofsted initial teacher education inspection handbook is online.
- In a speech in January HM Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said that Ofsted had not been as demanding in the past as it should have been with initial teacher education providers.
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