The president of the country’s largest teaching union claimed she suffered a stroke partly because of the pressure of Ofsted, as she warned teachers are working in a “broken system.”
Louise Atkinson, President of the National Education Union, whose members will go on strike later this month, said she became ill before a lesson observation at school in part because she was being mismanaged due to the “scourge” of Ofsted.
She told the Standard that she blacked out and lost strength in her arm just before entering the classroom around two years ago, but carried on with the observation. Subsequent MRI scans diagnosed a stroke.
It comes as the NEU revealed at its annual conference in Harrogate a new study that found teachers who believe they will be inspected by Ofsted are more likely to come home from work exhausted than other teachers.
The study, by University College London and the University of Cardiff, also found there has been no change in the way teachers work since the pandemic, whereas other professionals have experienced a reduction in their work intensity and gained more flexible working hours.
The NEU is campaigning for Ofsted to be replaced and wants it to pause inspections in the wake of the death of headteacher Ruth Perry from Reading. Ms Perry took her own life in January while waiting for an Ofsted report which branded her school “inadequate”, her family said.
In a speech at the NEU annual conference in Harrogate, Ms Atkinson said her stroke happened when she was working under a headteacher who was focussed on data because of the “unrelenting pressure of trying to meet the expectations of Ofsted.”
She said: “This resulted in children being turned into numbers, with completely unachievable targets, driven solely by an attempt to impress the inspectors whenever they decided to arrive.
In the highly personal speech, in which she referred to herself as a “free school meals kid” She said: “The stress of working under such mismanagement driven by the scourge of Ofsted, with little support, along with some personal difficulties, caused me to have a stroke while in school.”
She added: “Ofsted are the driver for so much that is wrong in our schools and colleges. The out of touch, unfair and unreliable system of inspection puts insurmountable pressure on leaders and all education staff.”
Speaking to the Standard Ms Atkinson said as soon as she arrived at school on the day of the stroke she was told she would be observed during her first lesson.
She said: “It was an internal lesson observation but those records feed into the information that is provided to Ofsted…What I would like to be really clear about was it was no individual’s fault, it is the system that we work in.”
She began to feel unwell while preparing for the lesson and went to the toilet next to her classroom before pupils arrived.
She said: “I couldn’t move one arm and had a blackout situation, and then brought myself round but I still had a very weak arm and leg on one side. My concern was that something might happen again in front of the children.”
She said she was not aware that she had had a stroke and continued with the lesson observation in order to “get it out of the way.” She said: “I was aware that something had happened and I felt very, very unwell”, adding “I should not have been in that position. The children in the class should definitely not have been in that position. It is all driven by the pressures of Ofsted.”
“I finished the lesson and then finished the day’s teaching continually telling people I felt unwell. We are working in a very broken system.
“When I got home my children saw how ill I was. It resulted in a trip to A&E and a diagnosis of a stroke.”
She said doctors could not find any physical reason for the stroke, which was confirmed by MRI scans, and insisted it “absolutely was stress related.”
Ms Atkinson added: “I did have some personal issues at the time, but the main thing was going into work every single day working in a system that is seriously underfunded and overseen by an inspectorate that really does nothing to improve standards it just puts pressure on everybody including the children that we are serving.”
She is now back to full fitness, and said: “It was a warning sign and I was lucky it was minor because it could have been much worse.”
A spokeswoman for Ofsted said: “Inspections are first and foremost for children and their parents – looking in depth at the quality of education, school behaviour and how well, and safely, schools are run. Our current inspection framework focuses on the curriculum - not data - and our inspectors are all former or current school leaders who fully understand the pressures of the role. We always want inspections to be constructive and collaborative, and in the vast majority of cases school leaders agree that they are.”
It comes after a survey found nearly half of teachers say their workload is unmanageable most or all of the time.
An NEU poll of 17,800 members found that 35 per cent of teachers viewed their workload as unmanageable most of the time and 13 per cent said they felt this all the time.
Croydon primary school teacher Jenny Walker said she has sleepless nights every Sunday because of the “huge avalanche” of work she faces every week.
Speaking from the NEU conference in Harrogate, Mrs Walker said she works longer hours now than at any time during her 25 year career.
She told the Standard she works 60 hour weeks and she also buys resources such as art materials and books for her class. She said: “I have seen teachers under enormous amounts of stress. When I can’t get everything done it does affect my sleep. I don’t think many teachers sleep well on Sunday nights. You are aware of a huge avalanche of work coming your way and yet you have to be on top form in the classroom you can’t let that show. I have a sleepless Sunday night most weeks.
“It is particularly bad at the moment…Workload issues seem to be much more prevalent now than they were in the past.”
She added that teachers are under more stress than usual because of the after-effects of the pandemic, which means more pupils are suffering mental health problems.
