Teaching union to hand in petition to DfE calling for Ofsted to be replaced

It comes after the union called for Ofsted inspections to be paused following the death of headteacher, Ruth Perry, who took her own life after her school was downgraded by Ofsted from outstanding to inadequate.

A group of teachers and heads will assemble in Parliament Green on Midday today (Thursday 23 March), where they will be joined by spokespeople from the NEU, including deputy general secretary Niamh Sweeney. The group will then proceed to Sanctuary Buildings in Westminster to hand over the petition of over 45,000 signatures to the Department for Education (DfE).

The petition, which was launched before the death of Perry, calls on the Government to:

• Replace Ofsted with a school accountability system which is supportive, effective and fair.
• Work with teachers, leaders and other stakeholders to establish a commission to learn how school accountability is done in other high performing education nations.
• Develop an accountability system which commands the trust and confidence of education staff as well as parents and voters.

'NEU members want Ofsted to be replaced with a system which is supportive of staff efforts, captures the whole range of student achievements and is fair'.

Niamh Sweeney, deputy general secretary of the National Education Union, said, ‘Ofsted are simply not in touch with what’s happening in schools and they are failing on their own terms to be a “force for improvement”. Parents, staff and school leaders all want every school and college to succeed and it’s important that there is accountability to parents and students. However, no system succeeds or improves when staff leaving this important profession cite in such high numbers that it is the inspection and the surveillance culture which is causing them to leave. 

‘NEU members want Ofsted to be replaced with a system which is supportive of staff efforts, captures the whole range of student achievements and which, simply put, is fair. Inspection should take a reasonable account of the context of the school and it should take account of the welfare of staff.

‘The public debate this week has highlighted how little support there is for the concept of four blunt grades, because it is clearly absurd that the whole of school life is condensed into a single-word judgment. There is also a growing concern among leaders that schools are being downgraded for spurious reasons which are not objective or reasonable grounds. 

 ‘It’s inescapable that, if we carry on as we are, we jeopardise the health of school leaders and won’t keep enough leaders. There are other, better approaches to inspection and it is time for change." 

• The petition is available here:
  https://www.replaceofsted.valueeducation.org.uk/sign-petition