Ofsted inspectors have been accused of a “reign of terror” over teachers and school leaders in England, as a second major teaching union backed a campaign to abolish the schools watchdog.
Delegates to the NASUWT annual conference voted for a motion describing Ofsted as a “major contributor to the excessive workload and bureaucracy that blights the lives of teachers” and instructed the union to campaign for its abolition and replacement.
Martin Hudson, a primary school teacher from Newcastle who moved the motion, said there was a “genuine and deep-seated fear of Ofsted” among many teachers.
“For the best interests of teachers, for the health and wellbeing of teachers, Ofsted must go,” Hudson said.
Several speakers made reference to the death of Ruth Perry, a Berkshire headteacher whose family said killed herself this year after a critical Ofsted inspection. The inspection resulted in Perry’s primary school being downgraded from Ofsted’s highest rating of “outstanding” to its lowest grade, “inadequate”.
