The recent annual conference of the National Education Union (NEU) has given me pause to reflect on my two decades as a general secretary, first of the ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers) and now the NEU.
I will soon be stepping down, as will my good friend and colleague Kevin Courtney, at the end of August.
My closing speech was certainly an emotional one, and although I will still be working on behalf of members for a few months yet, the writing of that speech was an opportunity for me to step back and assess how far – or in some cases how little – things have changed since 2003.
We have certainly seen changes of government and radical shifts in education policy in that time – but there remain a few stubborn constants.
My firm belief is that Ofsted was then and remains to this day an invalid and unreliable regulator. Back when I started to voice my concerns, it wasn't respectable to talk about the inspectorate in this way. I was an unreasonable polemicist.
Now we can see a mainstreaming of this viewpoint. The ground has been shifting under Ofsted's feet for some years and this has been the work of many like-minded people and organisations. But it took the untimely and tragic death of a headteacher, Ruth Perry, to cement in the public mind that we cannot carry on. We cannot carry on with Ofsted.
The regulator did itself few favours in how it handled this awful news. It rained down on a neighbouring Caversham head whose inspection immediately followed the media coverage. It showed itself incapable of responding appropriately to the national mood.
There ought to have been a pause in inspection, but that is not Ofsted's way. One head has described its work as “arbitrary, ill-informed and brutalising”. It has been a thorn in the side of teachers and heads ever since its formation. It is the poster-child of everything wrong with the tick-box approach to education that successive governments have pursued.
During our conference, I chaired a panel which presented the first findings of a major study from University College London and the University of Cardiff (Felstead et al, 2023).
It shows that teachers who believe an Ofsted inspection is likely in the coming 12 months have a higher work intensity with lower task discretion and are more likely to report always coming home from work exhausted than other teachers. In short, Ofsted makes work significantly harder and more exhausting.
Our annual State of Education survey (NEU, 2023) showed that excessive accountability including inspections, are a significant driver for teachers who intend to leave the profession. Around a quarter of those planning to leave in the next two to five years give it as a reason.
The wellbeing of staff is affected by high workloads, that are so often driven by pressure on schools to be “Ofsted-ready” at all times. The overwhelming reason behind teachers seeking to leave the profession is workload; almost three-quarters made it their top choice in our research.
This is surely counter-productive, a culture of rather too much stick and vanishingly little carrot. Surely schools should be encouraged to refocus on the essentials and not be so consumed by excessive accountability measures.
In my speech to conference, I asked school leaders who work as Ofsted inspectors to withdraw their services until such a time as we have an inspectorate which commands respect, which supports schools to improve. Surely it is not unreasonable to demand these things?
Only in England, now, do we have such a punitive and toxic inspectorate. One which drives teachers away from the profession. One which makes teachers' and leaders' lives a misery.
There is no evidence that Ofsted is a force for improvement. That is why the NEU is arguing for it to be replaced with system that is supportive, effective and fair.
Further information & resources
- Felstead, Green & Huxley: Teachers’ job quality before and after the pandemic: First findings, UCL & University of Cardiff, 2023: https://bit.ly/3A4LO04
- NEU: State of education: Recruitment and retention, 2023: https://bit.ly/43Fx6uc7