THE global pandemic has opened the eyes of many to unsung truths about the education system.

Firstly, that child poverty has a devastating impact on children. Around one in three children in England are growing up in poverty, a statistic thrown into sharp relief by the struggle faced by thousands of families to access online learning during national lockdown.

Secondly, education staff across the sectors will always go above and beyond to support pupils and their families, even during the toughest of challenges. The National Education Union’s (NEU) campaign to Help A Child To Learn raised thousands to provide learning resources for disadvantaged children.

It has been clear throughout the pandemic that the priority of support staff, teachers and school leaders has always been to support the learning and wellbeing of the pupils in their care — regardless of the logistical challenges.

Ofsted drives up unnecessary workload and workplace anxiety for education professionals. It has burned through five inspection frameworks in nine years. What Ofsted wants is front and foremost in the minds of teachers and leaders. Their professional experience and judgement is undermined because of the fear generated by an impending inspection.
 
The NEU’s State of Education survey revealed that the majority of members who intend to leave the profession within two years are driven away by excessive and intensive workload. This is a significant failure of national policy — because no education system can thrive, whilst it haemorrhages teachers and school leaders.

Teachers and school leaders deserve a school accountability system which is supportive, effective and fair. There are widespread, professional concerns within the teaching community that Ofsted is none of these. Parents are increasingly unimpressed by inspection judgements which do not correspond with their experience of their child’s education.

They are increasingly concerned that a focus on what the inspector wants (and with five different inspection frameworks in nine years, deciding what the inspector wants is increasingly difficult) narrows their child’s educational experience.
 
Schools want to be responsible to their community and their young people, but school inspection must be fair. It should be supportive. It should not be punitive. Teachers and school leaders deserve respect and support. They also deserve objectives which are rooted in evidence and shown to be effective.

There are a series of reasons why Ofsted isn’t working.

1. Ofsted delivers unreliable judgements. A single Ofsted grade cannot possibly reflect the complexity of a school and the quality of its education. This makes the grades largely redundant. Research shows that there is little difference between schools that Ofsted says “require improvement” and those judged as “good.”
2. Ofsted’s inspection system is unfairly biased against schools in disadvantaged areas. Comprehensive, independent analysis of Ofsted judgements show they discriminate against schools in deprived areas — awarding “outstanding” grades to four times more secondary schools with better off pupils than schools with students who are worse off. Even when schools in deprived areas are making excellent progress, they are still more likely to be given poor Ofsted judgements.
3. Ofsted undermines the ability of school leaders to focus everyone’s efforts on achieving the best outcomes for all students
4. Other countries have more effective, fairer systems. They understand that developing excellent teaching practice and schools’ ability to improve and succeed, is undermined by naming and shaming and encouraging schools and kids to compete against each other.
5. Ofsted inspectors often don’t have the expertise for an inspection. Ofsted is inconsistent and uses inspectors who are often not expert in the subject they are inspecting. Teachers and school leaders continue to report inconsistencies between inspections — and even during inspections — and non-expert inspection of certain age groups, particularly in early years.
6. Ofsted deters good teachers from staying by creating unnecessary workload and pressure — especially in poorer areas where schools and colleges need the most support.
7. Teachers and leaders know that working in disadvantaged areas is likely to be harmful to their career because of the unfairness of Ofsted judgements. It is harder to recruit and retain teachers in these schools. Working class children, who need qualified and experienced teachers, are least likely to get them, because Ofsted inspections aren’t working to support the interests of schools in high poverty areas.

 
Ofsted has lost credibility with teachers. This really matters given the ideas from the DfE in the new white paper, which proposes more inspection, with even more serious outcomes for schools and leaders.
 
Ofsted is out of touch about the impact of their approach and how hard the last two years have been for children and young people and their families. Schools have done as much as they could to try and mitigate the disruption, anxiety and uncertainty but Ofsted is actually telling head teachers at the moment “don’t talk to us about Covid and its impact.” This just doesn’t make sense.
 
We’re keen to get parents involved in the conversation about better ways to build strong schools and strong school communities so that every child has a good local school. Schools must serve, represent and engage local communities. The local context for education is so important and we’ve got to step away from our obsession with standardisation and national directives driven by Whitehall.

A new way is possible. Other countries have models of support and development for schools which introduce positive drivers and the right incentives. Staff here should be able to work in such a culture.

“When [my colleague] told [the inspector] a teacher in our department had died of Covid-19,” reported one distraught NEU member, “the inspector waved her hand in my colleague’s face and said: ‘I don’t want to hear excuses!’” This callous response is not acceptable.
 
Lines of accountability and the capacity for self-evaluation is a vital aspect of public services. However, there are much better ways to support schools and to empower and motivate our brilliant school staff. Motivation — and valuing the expertise of staff — should not be an afterthought. It’s time for a rethink.

Mary Bousted is joint NEU general secretary.