Ofsted school inspections have come under fresh fire from a teacher who quit his role with the watchdog this week. Dr Martin Hanbury left his role because he felt the inspections could do “more harm than good”.
His comments come on the back of the National Education Union members voting to discourage acting as Ofsted inspectors – a move that will be discussed by the National Association of Head Teachers conference this month. It comes after headteacher Ruth Perry took her own life following a report which downgraded Caversham Primary School to “inadequate”.
Mr Hanbury, who runs Chatsworth Multi Academy Trust in Salford, told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “At certain points I have felt that what I’m offering the school isn’t really helping it to improve. To an extent, and with some people, you’re conscious that you’re causing perhaps more harm than good.”
Admitting he worried that his inspections may have made teachers ill, he described the system of grading schools using one word as “totally unfit for purpose”.
“It’s like trying to measure a cloud with a ruler,” he said. “An inadequate school is very rarely inadequate in everything it does and, equally, an outstanding school is never outstanding in everything it does.”
Former Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw called on education secretary Gillian Keegan to meet with Ofsted and the teaching unions.
An Ofsted statement said the inspections were “first and foremost for children and their parents”. “We always want inspections to be constructive and collaborative and in the vast majority of cases, school leaders agree that they are,” it said.
