Newcastle teacher tells conference Ofsted is 'scourge of classrooms'

Newcastle primary school teacher Martin Hudson told the NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union national conference that the inspection body has caused, “widespread anxiety, stress and ill-health”.

Mr Hudson, 51, moved a motion calling for “the abolition of Ofsted in its current form,” describing it as, “the scourge of the classroom and the destroyers of teachers.”

His motion was passed by an overwhelming majority of delegates at the Glasgow gathering.

Read more: Darlington's best and worst primary schools rated by Ofsted

A local secretary with the union, he told conference-goers: “Thousands of teachers face widespread anxiety, stress and ill health caused by looming Ofsted inspections.

“Education today is about monitoring, accountability and an obsession with measuring the unmeasurable.

“There is a genuine and deep-seated fear of Ofsted amongst teachers.

“We know, as teachers and trade unionists, that obsessive monitoring and placing subjective one-word judgements on teachers and schools has never improved standards and never will.

“This is completely unacceptable and as NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, we need to take a stand and campaign to abolish Ofsted.

“For the best interests of teachers, for the health and well-being of teachers, Ofsted must go.”

The NASUWT now joins the National Education Union (NEU) in calling for an immediate freeze of inspections to allow for full mental health assessments to be conducted on teachers and school leaders.

Other delegates told the conference teachers lived and worked in “fear” of inspections which rate schools in England between “outstanding” and “inadequate”.

It follows the death of Ruth Perry, headteacher at Caversham Primary School in Reading, who took her own life in January while awaiting an Ofsted report which downgraded her school from the highest to the lowest rating.

Read more: Headteacher killed herself while waiting for negative Ofsted report, sister says

Gherie Wedeyesus, a teacher from Brent, north London, said: “It’s about time we said enough is enough.

“You cannot label a whole school, including the leadership, educators and the pupils, as one word, ‘inadequate’.

“Let’s put an end to this peddler of misery.

“Let’s end this reign of terror and abolish Ofsted.”

Julie Parkin, of the same NASUWT branch as Mr Hudson, said school leaders and teachers were placed under, “immeasurable pressure”, as they prepared for inspections.

She said: “Members are expected to remain in school until ridiculous hours of that night before in order to ensure everything is in place.

“And that’s without the months of preparation beforehand.

“Even when those head teachers don’t have those requirements of staff.

“The members themselves are made to feel that they should be upholding their part in proceedings, feeling that they can’t be seen to be letting the side down.

“The fear of dropping grades to ‘requires improvement’ or, worse, ‘inadequate’ and ‘special measures’ leads to an increasing workload.”

Read next:

* Headteacher plans to refuse Ofsted entry to school after Ruth Perry death

* Pressure mounts on Ofsted as school staff show solidarity with late headteacher

* Head planning to refuse Ofsted entry asks supporters not to come to school

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The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has also indicated that it could take legal action against Ofsted following its failure to pause inspections after Ms Perry’s death.

The motion carried by the NASUWT today acknowledged that the, “perceived demands of Ofsted are the major contributor to the excessive workload and bureaucracy that blights the lives of teachers”.

It instructed the union’s national executive to work with other education unions to call for an immediate freeze and launch a campaign for the abolition of the inspections system in its “current form”, replacing it with a supportive framework.