Home > News > University celebrates double Ofsted success

University celebrates double Ofsted success

5095/AS 9 th July 2008

Teacher training at Birmingham City University goes from strength to strength. After achieving grade 1 ‘Outstanding’ scores for its secondary teacher training courses just three weeks ago the University has now been recognised by Ofsted for the quality of its primary teacher training.

Ofsted has awarded the University grade 1 ‘Outstanding’ scores for the quality of training and the management and quality assurance of the training it provides for new primary school teachers.

This latest endorsement confirms the University’s status as a Category A provider of both secondary and primary teacher training – very few providers in the country manage to achieve this standard. Category A is the highest grade awarded by the Training and Development Agency (TDA) for the quality of teacher training.

Ofsted inspectors judged management of the primary courses to be "Outstanding" following a summer term visit in 2007. Inspectors revised their report after scrutiny of further evidence submitted to Ofsted by the University in February 2008 supporting the quality of training. Within their revised report inspectors declared “The quality of training is outstanding.” And that “The structure and the content of all training programmes meet the Requirements well and are designed to ensure trainees are able to develop the subject knowledge and teaching skills to meet the Standards. Improvements since the previous inspection include the structure, content and coherence of courses, the tutor support for trainees and the quality of resources to enhance trainees’ experiences.”

Professor Roger Woods, Dean of the Faculty of Education at Birmingham City University said: “ This is an outstanding achievement and is a huge accolade for our tutors and the schools we work closely with to train the best new teachers in the country.”

Marion Harris, Head of the Faculty’s School of Primary and Early Years Education added: “ It is a privilege to be involved in the education of children and young people; to be recognised as outstanding makes us very proud indeed.”

The report also recognises the University's highly effective team of tutors, the strength of the partnership, its high quality documentation to support school-based training and tutors’ high quality support for trainees, including their feedback, to ensure that individual needs are met well.

For further information please contact Birmingham City University Media Relations Office on 0121 331 6738, email press@bcu.ac.uk or out of hours on 07967 271 532.

About Birmingham City University.