Commenting on the Ofsted Annual Report, presented today by its
Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman, Kevin Courtney,
Joint General Secretary of the National Education
Union, said:
“The Ofsted report by Amanda Spielman is one of the most balanced
Ofsted reports we have seen. The Chief Inspector acknowledges the
reality that schools in challenging circumstances have ‘unstable
leadership teams, teacher turnover and difficulties recruiting’.
She points to the fact that becoming an academy isn’t a silver
bullet – many of the schools in those challenging circumstances
have been academised and even changed academy provider without
the school reaching the Ofsted ‘good’ category. Amanda Spielman
acknowledges the hard work of the teachers in those schools and
acknowledges that these schools need long term support, which she
points out is not available.
“Teachers however would like her to go further. Amanda Spielman
says that ‘schools shouldn’t compete about how many pupil premium
children they have, but just get on with school improvement’.
Well that is what teachers are and have been doing; it is the
central obsession in their professional lives. Ofsted should
speak truth to power. The defining characteristics of the schools
Ofsted is pointing to that haven’t improved is that they are
drawing ‘high proportions of their children from deprived areas’
and have ‘higher than average proportions of children with SEND
and white British pupils from low-income backgrounds’.
“Ofsted as the Chief Inspector of Education should take
Government to task over this. Teachers can do what they can do
within schools but it is Government that is missing child poverty
reduction targets, presiding over increases in relative poverty
and failing to produce a decent industrial strategy. It is the
Government that is cutting funding to schools and missing teacher
recruitment targets. An education inspectorate worth its salt, if
it were truly independent, would be making these points to
Government in their report.
“We are pleased to see Ofsted agreeing with us that there is too
much focus on test results rather than learning. However, again,
Ofsted is failing to speak truth to power. It is the Government
accountability regime that is leading to those behaviours in
schools – and Ofsted should call out the Government over that,
acknowledging its own responsibility within the system too.”
Note to editors:
(1) https://www.teachers.org.uk/equality/equality-matters/sexism
