A SCHOOLS partnership that helps train the next generation of Bradford’s teachers has been praised by Ofsted inspectors.

The Northern Lights SCITT (school-centred initial teacher training) was given an overall “good” judgement in its first Ofsted inspection, with its quality of leadership described as “outstanding.”

The partnership was formed between two girls’ schools, Skipton Girls’ High School and Feversham College in Bradford, and recruited its first trainees in the 2015/16 academic year.

It has partnered with schools in Bradford and North Yorkshire to provide its trainees with places, and the report praises the SCITT for how it is helping to fill gaps in teacher recruitment in the area.

Northern Lights also helped set up Bradford For Teaching, a scheme to attract more people into the teaching profession and into Bradford schools.

The Ofsted report says: “Partnership leaders have a highly ambitious strategic vision and are committed to providing high-quality teachers in areas where recruitment is difficult.

“Recruitment processes are rigorous and effectively promote the recruitment of resilient trainees that help to meet the local need in shortage subjects.

"Leaders’ commitment to recruiting high-quality teachers for schools where recruitment is difficult is exceptional.”

Jenn Plews, CEO and Executive Head of Skipton Girls’ High School said: “Our teacher training programme was first developed as a way of growing high quality teaching talent in Bradford and North Yorkshire. Nationally and locally there is a significant shortage of teachers and there are needs to develop more teachers to make sure that schools in our region have high quality, skilled professionals supporting our children to thrive.

“The outstanding training on offer is testament to the partnership and hard work of our staff and schools who support trainees to be the best.”

Judith Kirk, Bradford Council’s Deputy Director for Education, Employment and Skills said: “This is a very positive report which reflects well on the Initial Teacher Education provided by the Northern Lights partnership.

“Northern Lights works with many partner schools in our district and is making a big contribution to training teachers who can make a difference to the education of young people in Bradford.

“Bradford Council is working closely with Northern Lights on the Bradford Teaching campaign which will help to attract more talented teachers into our district. The council is committed to working with partners to ensure that we attract and retain the best teaching staff in our district’s schools.”