A Newcastle teacher has led calls for the abolition of Ofsted at a national teaching union's conference.
Martin Hudson, who works as a primary school teacher in the Fawdon area, brought a motion calling for the inspectorate to be abolished to the NASUWT teaching union's conference in Glasgow. Afterwards, speaking to ChronicleLive, he said the inspection system was "feared" by teachers, and that the heartbreaking suicide of a Reading headteacher was "coming up in every staffroom".
Ruth Perry, who led the Caversham Primary School in the Berkshire town, died by suicide in January, awaiting an Ofsted report that put her school in the lowest category.
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Martin, 51, who is the joint local secretary of the Newcastle's branch of the NASUWT, said the motion he brought to the conference had predated the tragic news - but that Ms Perry's death served to highlight the intolerable pressures on teachers.
He said: "Over the past couple of conferences, there have been motions highlighting the teaching workload, which is massive. Coming into conference, we wanted to bring a motion that was a bit more targeted. And Ofsted is such a driver of mountains of paperwork and that workload.
"It's not so much the inspection process itself as all the stress and paperwork which goes with it. In the discussion today, it was notable just the number of people who said the word 'fear'. You don't want that when you go to work, especially when you go to work with children. You want to be able to go to work with them."
"We decided to bring this motion previously, but in the last few weeks the suicide of Ruth Perry has really brought this issue into the limelight. It coming up in every staffroom."
The motion Martin brought to the conference called for "the abolition of Ofsted in its current form." The motion was passed by an overwhelming majority.
Speaking at the conference, he said: "Thousands of teachers face widespread anxiety, stress and ill health caused by looming Ofsted inspections.
"Education today is about monitoring, accountability and an obsession with measuring the unmeasurable. There is a genuine and deep-seated fear of Ofsted amongst teachers. We know as teachers and trade unionists that obsessive monitoring and placing subjective one-word judgements on teachers and schools has never improved standards and never will.
"This is completely unacceptable and as NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, we need to take a stand and campaign to abolish Ofsted. For the best interests of teachers, for the health and well-being of teachers, Ofsted must go."
The motion means the NASUWT has joined its fellow union the NEU in calling for there to be a freeze on inspections while the mental health toll on teachers is assessed. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has also indicated that it could take legal action against Ofsted following its failure to pause inspections after Ms Perry’s death.
The NEU has recently elected North East teacher Daniel Kebede to become its new General Secretary in September. Mr Kebede has also been a vocal campaigner against the Ofsted inspections system.
Last month, Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, said that “the news of Ruth’s death was met with great sadness at Ofsted”. She acknowledged that the debate about reforming inspections to remove grades “is a legitimate one”, but said inspections aim to raise standards and should continue.
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