Teacher Training: Partnership approach earns praise from Ofsted

Our ‘strong partnerships with schools’, along with an ‘ambitious curriculum’ and ‘commitment to social justice’ have earned the university’s teacher training a clean bill of health from Ofsted.

Inspectors graded both Primary and Secondary Initial Teacher Education provision at LJMU as ‘Good’ under the new, more demanding Inspection Framework.

The thumbs up follows LJMU’s recent re-accreditation as an official DfE-approved Initial Teacher Education provider from 2024, continuing to offer highly-regarded undergraduate, postgraduate and school-based ITE programmes.

Inspectors made frequent reference to the strength of the partnerships with schools – including our 10 School Direct partners and hundreds of other local and regional primary and secondary schools where students undertake professional practice placements. Meaningful partnership, they said, enabled trainees to be high-achieving both in quality and aspiration.

'Our teachers who will go out to make a difference to the life chances of children they work with' - Dr Ceri Daniels

They praised our strong commitment to social justice in enabling equality of opportunity, with students challenged to understand the impact and effects of disadvantage, discrimination and inequalities, and - as new teachers, to learn how to make a positive difference to the educational life chances of children.

Ofsted further highlighted LJMU’s ambitious curriculum, which consistently ‘stretches’ learning opportunity ‘beyond what is required’, noting how the university team and partner schools work together to ensure a connected and coherent learning experience.

IMAGE: Members of the Primary ITE Team. Above image: Secondary and Primary ITE staff.

Overall, the ‘partnership’ of tutors, academic leaders, mentors and school-based leaders have a clear, shared vision of developing teachers, who are very well-prepared for the realities of classroom teaching, including in areas where there are multiple challenges and barriers for children and communities.

The high quality of mentor training and support was also commended, although the inspectors encouraged higher take up of this excellent developmental provision. Deep expert subject knowledge, pedagogical skills, research-engaged teaching and an emphasis on supporting the holistic needs of pupils, was seen as integral to the LJMU graduate teacher being very well prepared for the responsibilities of being an effective and inclusive teacher in their chosen rewarding careers. 

Dr Ceri Daniels, Director of the School of Education, said: “This positive outcome is testament to the ongoing day-to-day work, quality and commitment of our Initial Teacher Education team, work-based learning and admin teams, liaison tutors and wider staff - along with mentors and leaders in hundreds of partner schools currently supporting our students in their professional practice placements.

“We didn’t need an inspection to tell us about the strength and success of this partnership and the excellent teaching and learning experience for our students, but we do know that being tested against such a demanding framework enabled us to highlight the quality of development of teachers who will go out to make a difference to the life chances of children they work with.”

The Ofsted report is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted.