Ofsted attacks pioneer scheme

A flagship teacher-training project run by the University of Nottingham in collaboration with outstanding local primary schools has received a mediocre report following its first Ofsted inspection.

Under the scheme, the university works with 47 schools to train students enrolled on a postgraduate certificate in education courses. The project is part of the School Centred Initial Teacher Training scheme, which allows schools to train teachers either with or without a higher education institution as a partner.

"The University Council for the Education of Teachers' position on SCITT is fairly negative. Learning to be a teacher really needs a big input from higher education," said Mike Newby of Plymouth University, on behalf of UCET.

The Ofsted report gave an "adequate" grade 3 to the trainees' subject knowledge and understanding of their specialist subject, primary English. (Grades range from 1 to 4, where 1 is very good and 4 is failure.)

Grade 3 was also given to the accuracy and consistency of the assessment of trainees against the standards for qualified teacher status; and the effectiveness of the management and quality assurance of the training.