Head quits job saying Ofsted ‘is machine that you cannot beat’
ANGRY SCHOOL BOSS SAYS SHE’S CHOSEN TO RETIRE AFTER INSPECTORS’ ‘UNJUST’ RULING
A HEADTEACHER has quit following an ‘unjust’ Ofsted inspection - saying the education watchdog is a ‘machine you can’t beat.’
Lynne Fox will step down this summer after being left ‘angry and bitter’ by inspectors’ judgement that Bramhall High School in Stockport ‘requires improvement.’
The 58-year-old will leave in July - a year earlier than she had intended. Mrs Fox, who has been a headteacher for 17 of her 36 years in teaching, said she will then sever all links with education as she refuses to deal with Ofsted any longer.
“I was always going to retire probably next year,” she said.
“I would be nearly 60 and I was tired. I knew Bramhall High would be my last school and I wanted it to be the best.
“The Ofsted experience has just consolidated that.
“On September 26, when I sat in on a meeting where Ofsted had drawn such ridiculous conclusions about this school, I just thought ‘I’m never going to go through another Ofsted inspection.’” Mrs Fox admitted she ‘was quite emotional’ and ‘very disappointed’ in the aftermath of the publishing of Ofsted’s findings.
The school has some of the best exam results in the area.
The watchdog has upheld its judgement following a complaint from the school.
Bosses have declined to disclose how inspectors arrived at the decision. Doing so, they say, would ‘not be in the public interest.’
“Ofsted is a machine you can’t beat,” Mrs Fox said. “There are clear things in that report that are wrong, although they have investigated themselves and found they have done nothing wrong.”
The award-winning headteacher was told that shortcomings with the teaching of history contributed to the ‘requires improvement rating.’
She claims no inspector had sat in on a lesson, spoke to a history teacher or looked at text books.
It is the third time Bramhall High has been rated as ‘requires improvement.’
Mrs Fox said while that judgement was fair in the past, the school now has ‘outstanding results, high staff morale and quality teaching across the board.’
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We are saddened that the headteacher has made the decision to resign, especially as our inspection team judged the school’s leadership and management as ‘good.’