Member Article

Sports education teacher training partnership makes the grade

Ofsted has ranked a physical education (PE) teacher training partnership between Ashington High School Sports College and Northumbria University as outstanding.

The North East Partnership (NEP) provides practical initial teacher training (ITT) using a school-centred model (SCITT) to develop the region’s teachers of tomorrow.

The partnership consists of 29 secondary schools in eight local authorities across the North East. Each school provides placements for trainee PE teachers with many taking an active role in the delivery of the PE specific content of the programme. Over 70 ex-trainees are now employed in partnership schools and several support the ongoing development of the initiative.

Ashington High School Sports College is the lead school for the NEP working in collaboration with Northumbria University’s Department of Education and Life Long Learning. At the time of the Ofsted inspection there were 30 trainees on an 11 to 18 PE training programme.

The Ofsted criteria judged in the inspection included, overall effectiveness, how the partnership secures consistent high quality outcomes for its trainees, the outcome for trainees post training, the quality of training across the partnership and the quality of leadership and management throughout the NEP.

Helen Ostell, NEP programme leader, based at Ashington High School Sports College, said: “Training aspiring teachers in schools and in good and outstanding PE departments is a highly effective way of developing their expertise and ensuring that they are at the cutting edge of developments both in education and in their subject. It also supports the Government’s agenda of using schools to train the next generation of teachers.

“We are delighted Ofsted ranked our ‘hands-on’ approach to teacher-training as outstanding in all categories. The quality of the training we provide reflects the strengths of the partnership and how the expertise of our partner schools, departments and trainers is effectively deployed. Our trainee teachers benefit enormously from this expertise and gain a valuable practical experience of teaching throughout the year.

“This experiential format also gives our trainees an excellent breadth of knowledge and understanding of different types of students, effective approaches to teaching PE theory as well as practical lessons and opportunities to teach across the whole age and ability range from Key Stage 3 to Key Stage 5.”

The NEP is the larger of only two core providers of ITT to Secondary Physical Education specialists in the region. It was rated the ninth top training provider nationally in the Good Teacher Training Guide 2012. The National College for Teaching and Leadership increased the number of NEP training places from 22 to 30 in 2012, underlining the quality of the programme, which comprises four modules, two of which are accredited at Masters Level.

In January, Prime Minister David Cameron announced a renewed package of funding for school sport to ensure all young people, and especially those of primary school age, have access to high quality PE. The training of primary PE specialists is an area that the NEP hopes to expand into in the future.

Ashington High School Sports College is part of The Ashington Learning Partnership, a unique Educational Trust supporting over 3,000 students across five schools in South East Northumberland.

Established in 2007, it comprises two First Schools, Central First and Wansbeck with primary learners to Year 4, two Middle Schools Bothal and Hirst Park with primary and secondary learners to Year 8 and Ashington High School with secondary learners up to Year 13.

The Trust has a strong track record for delivering enhanced educational experiences for its pupils through its strong, links with a variety of local, regional and national organisations to design an interesting, relevant and challenging curriculum for its learners.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Amy Maughan, Contributor .