Headteachers in England are to launch a campaign for the abolition of “inhumane and unreliable” single-phrase school inspection judgments, threatening legal challenges and possible strike action if the government refuses reforms.
Delegates to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) annual conference committed the union “to explore all campaign, legal and industrial routes to secure necessary changes to inspection to safeguard leaders’ lives,” after the suicide last year of the headteacher Ruth Perry.
The NAHT accused the government of ignoring the recommendations of the coroner’s report into Perry’s death as well as MPs on the education committee, after responses by the Department for Education (DfE) defended the use of single judgments by Ofsted inspectors to label schools.
Paul Whiteman, the NAHT’s general secretary, said: “We’ve had the response from government, which basically says: ‘We hear what you say but we don’t care.’ That simply isn’t good enough.”
The motion passed unanimously by delegates said the government’s response “poses a real and present danger to the mental health, wellbeing and lives of school leaders and teachers”. It added: “Should another tragedy happen in the future, it will be ministers who need to answer for their decisions.”
Perry, a primary school head in Reading, killed herself after an Ofsted inspection reduced her school’s headline judgment from outstanding to inadequate. A “prevention of futures deaths” report by the coroner highlighted the use of single-phrase judgments as a concern for “the impact on school leader welfare”.
Asked about the union’s next steps, Whiteman said: “I think engagement and negotiation [with the DfE] is always the first step. If that doesn’t work for us, in really quick order, then exploring our legal routes are next, and part of that will be exploring what our industrial routes are as well.”
Julia Waters, the sister of Ruth Perry, said: “My family and I are pleased to hear that the NAHT is focused on pushing for all the necessary changes to school inspections, of which single-word judgments are just a part.”
But Waters said she was concerned by the motion’s wording that ministers would “need to answer for their decisions” in the event of any future tragedies.
“This is dangerous and wrong. Every headteacher should know that they can play the best possible role by continuing to work for their pupils and their schools, and to make the case to reform Ofsted by joining together and speaking out,” Waters said.
The NAHT conference also heard from Sir Martyn Oliver, the chief inspector of Ofsted, who said the “elephant in the room” was that decisions on the use of single-phrase judgments was out of his hands.
“So much of the government’s school improvement system rests on our grades, that any changes would need to align with a bigger, wider remodelling of the whole accountability system,” Oliver said.
Oliver later added: “We’re one small cog in a big machine, and if the government relies upon our grades for much of its regulatory work in schools, its interventions, that is the government’s decision. I’m not the democratically elected person, that’s the job of the MPs and then ministers.”
Oliver told the conference that Ofsted would no longer conduct “deep dive” subject inspections as part of its one-day inspections of good or outstanding schools, to reduce the burden on school leaders.
But the chief inspector – who took over the role in January – also appealed to teachers to present their profession in a more positive light.
“I’m not diminishing the very real issues in schools or sticking my head in the sand. But I do worry that, if a narrative of negativity becomes all-encompassing, then we may lose some of the best potential teachers in the next generation,” Oliver said.
“If we only talk about the negatives, the stresses, the things that make us want to give up, well then we risk putting off a generation of brilliant and inspiring teachers.”
Whiteman responded: “We are in the middle of a crisis and the only way to solve that crisis is to talk about it. And if it’s inconvenient for politicians or others, well hard luck.”
