Oldham education union boss says Ofsted ‘has to go’

It comes after former schools minister Lord Jim Knight, the chair of the ‘Beyond Ofsted’ inquiry, said the inspection system created ‘the opposite’ of ‘happy and caring environments’, and that schools were operating ‘in a climate of fear and acute stress’.

The inquiry, sponsored by the National Education Union, launched in April amid calls for change after the death of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life in January this year, months after Caversham Primary School, in Reading, was downgraded from the top grade ‘outstanding’ to the bottom grade ‘inadequate’.

Ruth Perry killed herself in January while waiting for an Ofsted report which gave her school the lowest possible rating, her family said (Andrew Matthews/PA)

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The inquiry’s final report, published late last month, has called for an immediate pause of routine Ofsted inspections to restore trust, adding that Ofsted is ‘under-resourced’ and that the quality of inspections ‘has diminished and become inconsistent’.

The report recommends that schools conduct their own self-evaluation reviews and work with an external ‘school improvement partner’ to deliver action plans to improve, with safeguarding audits conducted annually by a separate body.

Inspectors would ‘not routinely inspect teaching practice and pupil outcomes in the current way’ under the report’s recommendations, with inspectors, working in an organisation fully independent from the government, instead focussing on governance and capacity for improvement.

Lord Knight of Weymouth chaired the inquiry (Image: Chris McAndrew, Creative Commons CC BY 3.0)

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Nigel Yeo, joint district secretary for Oldham National Education Union, said: “This report is long overdue.

“Too long has the threat of Ofsted been the driver of ever-increasing workload, pressure, and stress on schools and has made the teaching profession one of the most undesirable professions there is.

“The result is that teachers are leaving the profession in droves and are not being replaced. That is having an increasingly detrimental impact on the education of our children.

“Ofsted in its current form has to go.”

Ofsted responds

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We recognise and understand the strength of feeling in schools, following the inquest into the tragic death of Ruth Perry. 

“We are immediately introducing a number of measures that we described last week and talked through with our lead inspectors today and we are developing new training for all inspectors, to include external experts, that will take place in early January.

“These measures address several areas of concern set out by the Coroner. When we receive the Coroner’s report we will urgently address all remaining issues.

“This is the final week for inspections this term. We will use our existing deferral policy to give headteachers the ability to defer their inspection to the new year, if they don’t want it to go ahead this week.

“We will explain this when we make the notification calls tomorrow. It’s important that school inspections continue, in the interests of children and parents – but we are determined to work sensitively with headteachers and their staff.” 

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Oldham. Please get in touch at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk or click to send me a message on WhatsApp or on Signal on 07517566383.