Ofsted 'makes it impossible to function as a school leader': former Suffolk headteacher
It's after the body announced they'd be making changes to their inspection system
A former headteacher in Suffolk says Ofsted is fundamentally flawed - and needs completely changing.
It's after the body announced they'd be making changes to their inspection system following the death of a headteacher, who took her own life while waiting for an Ofsted report.
Ruth Perry was head at Caversham Primary in Reading.
From September, Ofsted's inspections will refer to the school, rather than individuals, when discussing areas of weakness - but stop short of banning single-word ratings.
Rebecca Leek, the executive director of the Suffolk Primary Head Teachers Association, told us more needs to be done:
"The changes from Ofsted are quite small and they're generally a direct response to some of the issues that have been raised by the family of the headteacher who sadly took her life following a very damaging Ofsted report.
"... it's really a very small aspect."
Survey results about teachers' attitudes to Ofsted
Rebecca told us about survey results from across the East of England by the SPHA to see how those in the profession felt about Ofsted.
"Over 523 people completed it, so it was really quite a substantial data set.
"There was an open-text question, where we asked people completing it to give a few words to summarise their view of Ofsted.
"The most consistent term that came out, which a fifth of people responded with was that the inspection framework and system is inconsistent.
"...You can't have a regulatory system that is in itself inherently inconsistent.
"Nobody knows what they're supposed to be doing. People are told on one inspection, something needs to be done in a certain way - and then in another inspection, it needs to be done in a different way.
"This is an impossible environment in which to function as a school leader and the stakes of somebody deciding that is not good enough, are far too high on our profession.
"We're already really challenged from a recruitment perspective. There are some real fundamental issues within the profession."
What do they want to change?
We asked Rebecca what they would like to see change:
"I think amongst the sector there is a wish for a general election to be quite honest.
"I think there needs to be a seismic shift in how politicians are supporting, viewing and making decisions around education and how the sector is supported.
"We've had lots of issues around teacher pay. We've got a real recruitment crisis. We've had a very difficult six months trying to engage Ofsted in how it inspects schools, which has such a far-reaching impact on how we live in our daily lives in schools."