A North East teacher training college has been told to make further improvements after inspectors found trainee progress was “slower than expected”.

Middlesbrough College’s teacher training courses have been rated as “requires improvement” by Ofsted for a second time.

The college currently has 41 students training to become teachers on its Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes – 35 as part-time students and 6 as full-time.

Ofsted inspected the courses in May, a year on from having given the course the same rating.

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However, some improvements have been made, with praise for the redesign of the curriculum, a strengthened team to minimise periods of staff disruption and areas including mentor induction, training and support.

Gary Cumiskey, deputy principal and head of curriculum at Middlesbrough College, said: “We are pleased with the positive changes and developments that the team have made since the last Inspection and that Ofsted has recognised many of these improvements in the latest Inspection report.

“Our new associate director of ITE, Jo McShane, has driven nationally-recognised ITE development across both university and school-centred settings.

“We are also continuing to invest in further professional development and training for all of the staff who teach and mentor on the two ITE programmes that the college delivers.”

The programmes, which are run in conjunction with the Open University, were assessed by inspectors from Ofsted in early May 2022.

Inspectors found that most of the 41 trainees were able to develop subject-specific knowledge and have effective placements.

However, some trainees make slower than expected progress because feedback from assessments is not developmental enough.

Managers recruit trainees effectively to meet demand for teachers, particularly in subjects relating to local and regional priorities, such as health and care and engineering.

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Ofsted previously inspected the programmes in 2021 and had said they required improvement in areas including education and training quality as well as leadership.

In this latest report, inspectors said:

  • the ITE team had been strengthened to minimise periods of staff disruption
  • the curriculum for ITE had been revalidated and redesigned
  • improvements had been made to mentor induction, training and support

Inspectors said there were still some areas where programmes needed to improve.

They said in a few cases, trainees did not reflect on their teaching well enough and that tutors need to ensure that trainees receive the support they need to develop their academic writing.

Inspectors also noted that “a small number” of the six full-time trainees started their teaching placements late.

Middlesbrough College has more than 12,000 students and has an overall Ofsted rating of ‘Good’.

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