North East teacher leads local calls to abolish Ofsted inspections due to widespread anxietyand stress

A Newcastle teacher has led a call for Ofsted to be abolished after teachers said the inspection body caused “widespread anxiety, stress and ill-health”.

Martin Hudson, a primary school teacher from Newcastle, moved a motion calling for “the abolition of Ofsted in its current form.” The motion was passed by an overwhelming majority of teachers.

At the NASUWT teacher’s union annual conference in Glasgow the 51-year-old said there was a “genuine and deep-seated fear” of the body among teachers.

The NASUWT Local Secretary told the Conference: “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.”

Ofsted has been under pressure this year after the death of Ruth Perry, Headteacher of a primary school in Berkshire, following her death. This incident came after the inspection watchdog downgraded her school from outstanding to inadequate.

The inspection report at Perry’s school found it to be good in every category apart from leadership and management, where it was judged to be inadequate, taking the overall mark down to the lowest category.