Headteachers ‘on knife edge’ over inspections
New calls to scrap Ofsted visits after suicide of school leader
HEADTEACHERS due an Ofsted inspection are left “on a knife edge” for months and know their school’s reputation, their career and years of work can pivot on opinions from a two-day snapshot, a city education boss said.
The huge mental pressure exerted is no good for anyone, with Ofsted persisting in using an “outdated and unhelpful” regime of gradings that needs an urgent overhaul, claimed Prof Colin Diamond.
The former education director for Birmingham is now professor of educational leadership at the University of Birmingham.
He spoke out as news of the death of a Reading headteacher following an Ofsted inspection.
The family of Ruth Perry said she was under “intolerable pressure” waiting for an Ofsted report she knew would rate her primary school as “inadequate”.
The National Education Union, school leaders’ union NAHT and the Association of School and College Leaders have called for inspections to be halted.
But the Department for Education said inspections were “hugely important”.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Ruth Perry’s death is an unspeakable tragedy and it is clear that school leaders across the nation have been deeply affected by the news.
“While it should never take a tragedy like this to prompt action, this has to be a watershed moment.”
Mr Diamond, previously in charge of the city’s schools, now works with hundreds of school leaders across the country who study for advanced qualifications and provides strategic insight and research.
He said headteachers were currently operating in a climate of “fear and insecurity” requiring very high level of resilience.
“I do not think there is a single truly secure headteacher in the country because a career and reputation can pivot on a single Ofsted visit and judgement,” he said.
“Your chances of appealing against a judgement you feel is unfair, or that fails to account for context, are remote, so school leaders can be left feeling powerless.
“It’s something they have to live with. They are left on a knife edge. There are many good inspectors but the system itself is profoundly flawed.”
I do not think there is a single truly secure headteacher... a career and reputation can pivot on a single Ofsted visit. Prof Diamond
He said school heads needed to be supported to deal with the pressures the regime brings with professional mentors and a good team network of staff and governors. But even
then it can be extremely difficult to cope.
He added: “In the UK we have this uniquely pernicious inspection system and we don’t need it, it doesn’t add value.”
But former Ofsted chief inspector Michael Wilshaw has defended the regime, saying parents like to refer to
Ofsted findings to decide if a school is good or not.
Adrian Packer, a head in the city since 2014, and currently executive head of Core Education Trust, said the case of Ruth Perry was, sadly, not a one off.
He added mental health support and the stigma around opening up about ill health was reduced but more still needed to be done to protect school leaders, teachers and support staff.
“They deal with challenging human and societal issues on a day to day basis and the accumulative impact of this is immense.
“This was compounded by the pandemic.
“Many of our children became more vulnerable and at risk very quickly.
“Our school leaders have been under intense pressure since then because their focus is increasingly on the bigger picture, and that picture is made up of so many complex moving parts.”
He said the wellbeing of leaders at Core Education Trust was “a major priority”, adding: “We invest in schemes to support all staff, but we have to accept that we cannot change the whole social landscape in which schools exist, and this landscape is relentlessly challenging.”
Steve Howell, head at the City of Birmingham School, recently graded “requires improvement”, said the language around Ofsted gradings was designed to make people “celebrate the good and better and makes people dread the requires improvement or worse”, and it becomes highly personalised.
“The language used about schools becomes reflective of the people who work in them, particularly leaders, whose name is over the door, so to speak.
“So when schools are good or better, the people are too, it reflects on you.
“Flip that and suddenly, with a word or two, the whole staff become “requires improvement” or “inadequate”... there’s no banners.
“There’s a sense of shame and frustration.
“And for leaders and, particularly head teachers, it’s worse... you become the judgement, and sometimes you end up out of a job with that judgement following you around, all based on a two day visit; a snapshot into your work, sometimes work you’ve dedicated your whole career to.”
He added: “I’m the head teacher of a “requires improvement” school. I don’t require improvement.
“Our staff don’t require improvement.
“We are more than the judgement, so much more and yet, there it is, in black and white.
“It’s in my head, and the next visit looms large. I think, what will that bring?”