Hand-in of Ofsted petition

JOINED by a group of members, NEU deputy general secretary Niamh Sweeney (pictured right) delivered the NEU’s 50,000-signature petition calling for Ofsted to be abolished.

The petition, part of the union’s campaign Replace Ofsted – let teachers teach, calls for an accountability system that is supportive, effective and fair, and which commands the trust and confidence of education staff, as well as parents and voters.

Niamh was joined at the hand-in at the Department for Education on 23 March by a group of members who are among the tens of thousands of signatories.

Niamh told Lead: “We hear from school leaders every day who are concerned about the grades their schools have been given and their biggest concern is that the inspection teams turning up have no understanding of the wider school community, the impact of child poverty, deprivation, the impact of austerity and the support services around the school.

“We also hear from school leaders about a culture of demanding information and dismissing school leaders when they are trying to explain the individual experiences of the children in the school. It’s really difficult to understand from a twoday visit the impact that education is having on children, particularly in areas where there is high deprivation or high unemployment. The Tripadvisor-style rating of a school is hugely damaging and doesn’t reflect what is happening in that school community.”

She added that the appeals process for challenging Ofsted judgements was complex and lacked transparency.

“We want accountability to be able to build school

Academy trusts plan scrapped

improvement, to be able to support leaders and to provide the best education for children and young people. But what this system does is label schools and communities, which makes it really difficult for schools to improve out of that,” said Niamh.

Executive member and London secondary teacher Ed Harlow (pictured above, centre) said: “As an NEU case worker, I deal with a lot of people who are facing very stressful situations in their school. There is a really high level of accountability, and I see first-hand the difficulties that schools face in the run-up to an Ofsted inspection.

“We hear a lot from heads who say they can’t predict with any consistency what judgement they may get because it depends on the Ofsted team. Heads tell us quite often that inspectors seem to have made up their minds before they even get near a school.

“The stakes are so high, particularly for school leaders in terms of making or breaking their career. If you take a school from Outstanding to Requires Improvement, that can be careerending for the head. That stress then feeds through the system, all the way down from the head to the teachers and support staff.”

See page 19

PLANS to force all schools into academies by 2030 have been dropped, NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney told leaders at the NEU Leadership convention. “We have derailed the Schools Bill and the 2030 target has been dropped by the Government. We defeated Nicky Morgan when she tried to do this in 2016 and we have defeated it again.” He added that some schools may still come under pressure to make the change. “But there is space to resist being dragged into academy trusts, and we have won challenges in a variety of places,” he added. See coverage of the convention on pages 8-11.

Have your say

WHAT is it like to be a school leader in the current climate? If you are interested in sharing your views, please get in touch with the union. We are working with the University of Manchester to find out more about your experiences. Professor Ruth Lupton, who has surveyed thousands of members, is looking for people willing to be interviewed in-depth for the research. To get involved, please email sally. thomas@neu.org.uk. An analysis of the research findings will be published in the next issue of Lead.

Join the council

ELECTED regionally, the National Leadership Council develops networks which feed into national discussions, helping to shape and develop policy. It is just one route for making sure the voice of NEU Leadership members is heard across the union. If this appeals to you, please contact Steve, the national official for leadership at steve.cooper@neu.org.uk

See Q&A with the chair of the National Leadership Council Chris Dutton page 20.