Has Michael Wilshaw Lost It?

I read with interest the Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw's speech to the Westminster Education Forum on 7th November this year.

You can read it for yourself HERE.

Now I don't know about you but I've not been Sir Michael's biggest fan. The reasons for this are listed below:

• From the evidence I've seen and experienced via Ofsted, I think his methods of leadership are tantamount to bullying.
• His Ofsted regime has led to a climate of fear in education in England that could be disastrous for young people for many years to come.
• He is phenomenally arrogant (although people who know me may see that as the pot calling the kettle black!).

His "raising of the bar" regarding education has been unreasonable in the sense that schools and teachers have absolutely no idea of what is now required of them. What was once graded "outstanding" is now far from being that and schools don't know why. I have no problem with bars being raised but when you've no idea what you've been doing "wrong" for years, it's difficult to put it right.

However, recently he's been saying things that I've found it difficult to argue against, namely that Ofsted should not be looking for one particular style of lesson (specifically those with group work integrated) but the lesson must exhibit good or outstanding learning no matter how it's delivered. I don't think that any educator would argue with this point of view - learning is the ultimate goal after all. The problem is that his inspectors don't appear to have got the message, as @oldandrewuk talks about in his blog "Scenes From The Battleground" repeatedly.

He seems to be trying to quash the rumour that his quango is the DfE's lapdog, by sending letters to a whole load of academies that they need to up their game and judging free schools as "inadequate", something that can only embarrass the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, which is no bad thing. Wilshaw still has work to do in this area, as his pro-academy leanings are well documented.

The speech on Thursday undid all the positives and gains he'd made though. As I read it my blood pressure rose. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but from classroom teacher's point of view I got the following messages from it:

1. Great teachers don't exist without great leaders.
2. Headteachers should consult with staff, but then do their own thing anyway.
3. Teachers should put up and shut up.

I'd like to deal with each point in turn:

1. Surely educational "greatness" it's a symbiotic relationship between classroom practitioner and leadership; you can't have one without the other. To dismiss the efforts of classroom teachers and place them firmly at the feet of management is frankly insulting as a classroom practitioner. What Wilshaw is saying is that "inadequate" schools must have 100% "inadequate" teachers, which simply can't be true; the school is only inadequate in the eyes of some inspectors whose judgement is potentially questionable (although not by MPs), but that's another story. But simply, on inspection, I can't believe that an "inadequate" school had 100% "inadequate" teaching.
2. Here's where Wilshaw's true colours shine through. Classroom teachers clearly aren't valued by the Chief Inspector, but he forgets that without them, schools couldn't function, or could only function if those "great leaders" went back into the classroom. He bemoans the fact that too few are being groomed for leadership in education, but when the expectation upon leaders is to be a tyrant, you can understand why few are champing at the bit to do the job. And as an aside, those who do want to do the job are probably the last people you'd want with that sort of power and attitude.
3. How to motivate an already demotivated workforce; or perhaps not. Teaching has been advertised as a short-term career for would-be city highflyers for a number of years now. Workload has become almost unmanageable for teachers and of those entering the profession from the various pathways available, only around 40% survive beyond 5 years, with some subjects facing a major shortage of staff. How helpful is Wilshaw's rhetoric? Not at all is the answer.

And I haven't even mentioned this part of the speech:

"There is absolutely nothing wrong in my view in saying to youngsters ‘do as I ask, because I am the adult, I am older than you, I know more than you and, by the way, I am in authority over you.’"

Would you want your child taught by a man who thinks this? Nor would I. Respect for authority is a good thing, but respect should be earned.

I was starting to warm Ofsted's great leader, but forget that now. Teachers will always dislike the Chief Inspector of Schools, but when I see parents slating him on social media, surely the man's position is now untenable. Fingers crossed...

Gove Under Pressure

Well if he's not, he should be. The current list of gripes and headaches facing the Secretary of State for Education is a long one:

1. That pesky GCSE English fiasco has been joined by a GCSE Science fiasco (and will eventually be joined by other subjects I suspect). A legal challenge has been mounted by schools and students and is gathering pace. Ofqual is predictably saying that they are not budging and the pressure on Gove to step in is growing. He's keeping a stiff upper lip and currently sitting on his hands, despressingly predictably.
2. Various experts are stating that Gove's changes to the exam system are being bundled through too quickly, including his own colleagues on the Education Select Committee and Glenys Stacey, the Head of Ofqual, who frankly should be getting her own house in order before commenting on other people's. If your allies are telling you that you may need to slow down, maybe you should listen, but no, not our Mikey.
3. Sir Michael Wilshaw, Gove's pal and Head of Ofsted, has been shooting his mouth off again, saying that teachers shouldn't get pay rises if they don't put the hours in. I don't think anyone would argue with the sentiment, but the tone and phraseology of the man leave a lot to be desired. This seems to be a common theme in Wilshaw's life, where he only appears to open his mouth to change feet.
4. The two biggest teaching unions have started their "action short of strike action" this week, with rumours in our local area that a couple of academy heads have threatened staff with punishment if they choose to adopt the policy. Not a great advert for staff, or indeed a great morale booster for already low-esteemed teachers. Academy freedoms may work well for the headteachers of those schools, but stories of staff being essentially bullied and threatened in them, and the fact that these academies have an extremely high staff turnover, would suggest that the benefits for ordinary teachers are limited at best.
5. An academy has been accused of doctoring students' exams to increase grades, and even worse, it's an academy that was highlighted by the Conservatives due to their improved results - no wonder, the teachers were apparently doing the exams for them! The anti-academy issue won't go away and these sorts of headlines are not helping. The money has dried up and the benefits are rapidly disappearing. Claims that academies are performing better in exams are baseless, not helped with this news of possible cheating.

Knowing our Michael, he will be blissfully unaware of any issues in education or with the teaching profession as he revs up his policy steamroller. What Gove has done to education in two and a bit years has been remarkable, but mainly in a bad way. Teachers were pretty demoralised before he stepped into the role, but now, having overseen an exodus of 10,000 teachers in the last 12 months, teaching is at an all time low in my experience of over ten years in the game - recruiting new staff is not always the answer due to them needing time to find their feet in the classroom. I was talking to a former colleague of mine who is leaving his school, along with another teacher, purely because they can't stand it any more. Neither member of staff has a job to go to - surely this has to set off alarm bells, doesn't it? Couple that with a Head of Ofsted who seems hellbent on winding the profession up and making their lives a misery, the recipe is not a tasty one!

I think it would be fair to say that education in this country needed some change, but the underhand way in which Gove has gone about his business, alongside Ofsted and Ofqual leaves a nasty taste in the mouth if you are a teacher. It's all well and good to have ideas of the way to move something, in this case education, forward, but wouldn't it be sense to seek advice and support from "experts", or at the very least, those who will have to face the consequences of the changes proposed. Seemingly not.

Gove may have achieved his goal by the time he leaves Education in that he will go down in history, but will it be for the right reasons? I doubt it.

Stress - count yourself lucky

Sir Michael Wilshaw has been at it again saying that today's teachers are not stressed but have never had it so good, to coin a phrase. He goes on to say that when he was a teacher, stress really did exist, but not now, in what sounds like the Monty Python sketch along the lines of "I had to get up before I went to bed, lick the road clean etc".

You have to read the article, and like trying not to chew a Fruit Pastille, try not to allow your jaw to smash onto the floor as you get further into it.

Click Here!

The bloke will always astound me as he alienates every member of the teaching profession. This speech to a load of independent school heads attacked the one group who may have some sympathy for him and his policies, namely current headteachers. He stated that teachers use stress, Ofsted, the local authority, the government and a whole host of other people to blame for their inadequacies.

This despite the fact that teaching is regarded as the third most stressful job by the Health and Safety Executve. You'd expect them to know what they are on about, although they are a government agency. My inability to sleep for more than 4 hours per night during term time despite the fact that I sleep like a log during the holidays is purely coincidental I suppose. 

I'm not going to actually type what I think of him, but be reassured that the one word I'm thinking of begins with the third letter of the alphabet.

Michael "Braveheart" Gove

I was on duty on our school field recently when there was a small commotion by some gates overlooking the road that runs past the school. Around 4 kids who should have been in school were requesting an audience with a well-known fool on our role. The fool's mates all came over and started shouting abuse at these 4 "undesirables" safe in the knowledge that they were going to be in no trouble whatsoever due to the 3 metre high metal fence and a bunch of adults (us teachers) there to protect them. I said to one student "Ooh, aren't you brave calling the boy some nasty names when he can't get you. Now go away and stop being pathetic."

Had I been a member of the Association of School and College Leaders and attended their conference I would have said pretty much the same thing to Michael Gove. He gave a speech at the conference in Birmingham which is reported on the BBC News website (click here to read it) where we saw the man's true colours. Gove is trying to paint a picture of himself as a reformer. In fact he could do a passable impression (pun intended) of Van Gogh had the Dutchman cut both ears off rather than just 50% due to Gove's lack of listening skills. He, the Secretary of State rather than the painter, promised the conference that reforms were to keep coming thick and fast, which was quite brave I suppose as almost everyone in education is in agreement that he's rushing policy through without due care and attention. So a home run for Michael.

He then went on to back-track about no notice Ofsted inspections, saying that there may be a bit of notice, but palmed that decision off onto the "independent" Sir Michael of Wilshaw - which got a laugh. Not very brave from the Secretary of State - strike one Michael, and don't forget that you are out on the third strike.

Now if you're reading this blog, you are almost certainly involved in education in some way, and would have read or heard the constant slating of the teaching profession in the UK, headteachers, classroom practitioners - you name it, they've all felt the sharp end of the Gove tongue, metaphorically fortunately. But I quote from Gove's speech, and see if you can hear the distant sound of the reversing beeps: "We have the best generation of young teachers ever in our schools. We have the best generation of heads ever in our schools. And our whole school system is good, with many outstanding features." That's a huge turnaround from what we've been reading in the newspapers and hearing on the news bulletins where there's been rarely a good word said about educators and many of us could be facing the sack for being rubbish. Ironic that it was said in front a large audience of educators, don't you think? Not very brave Michael - strike two.

The speech finished only for the Secretary of State to be caught in the lobby by a group of handily placed reporters, whereupon he is quoted as saying: "If people say 'It's all just a bit too much', my view is 'man up!'". Michael, that's strike three I'm afraid - you're out.

Pathetic - I can kind of accept it from a 14 year old, but from a fully grown and well-educated man, it's frankly sad. I wonder what he'd say if I threatened him with a Chinese burn? I'd probably get all his dinner money.

Headteachers To Leave The Profession

The Association of School and College Leaders, the union of many haedteachers in the UK, claims that over half of headteachers want to leave the profession having surveyed a number of its members. The union cites the fact that morale is at an "all time low" due to the constant criticism from government and ever-increasing responsibility as parents choose to palm off parenting on schools.

A headteacher's job has become more complex, it is claimed, with the skills required being "moral leaders, risk takers, media experts, creative accountants, prophets and networkers". And I'd agree with most of those, whether those traits are good for the school or the individual headteacher is more of a moot point.

A headteacher's job has certainly changed immensely in recent years, as they become further removed from day-to-day school life, becoming pen-pushers, rarely seeing children whilst holed up in offices, meetings and "training courses". Ultimately the buck stops with the headteacher when it comes to school performance, but with so much of the groundwork delegated, headteachers can seemingly do as much or as little as they want as the only people they answer to are the governors. Governors are volunteers, headteachers are paid enormous sums of money - I've never been sure why that has worked, or perhaps it hasn't depending on the nature of those governors.

The fact that so many headteachers are thinking of leaving - the news report says that one third are making preparations to actually leave - is actually quite worrying. Not that I believe that the profession would miss some headteachers, but because the case will be similar, if not worse with teaching staff. Schools can live without heads for a while (a couple of schools local to where I am actually thrived without a head), but schools cannot survive without teaching staff.

The difference is that headteachers can make preparations for leaving the profession - I imagine that it's easier to put some money aside on a monthly income of £5000 than it is with a classroom teacher's monthly income of around £2000. Teachers' morale is also at an all-time low, a fact that will come to light as the union conference season continues, but "ordinary" teachers don't have the disposible income to put some aside and leave, so what the young of the UK are currently getting is a demoralised workforce, which can't be healthy for anyone.

Ofsted, Gove, Wilshaw, Twigg and any other politicians who have anything to do with education policy or diatribe have a lot to answer for. Ignore the rosette as they are all as bad as each other. We are living in a time where education is seen as a major vote winner so successive politicians given power over education in Britain try desperately to make a mark and in the process end up criticising and confusing teachers through slating previous government policy and constantly changing school policy to shout about (or not, depending on its success) at the next general election. And these policies are based on what knowledge of the profession? None.

Is it any surprise that teachers are demoralised? Bossed by ambitious toffs with no idea.

I saw that a non-teaching friend of mine on a well-known social networking site had "liked" the "Get Into Teaching" page. I thought I'd click on it (not the "Like" button, I hasten to add) and see what people are saying about getting into teaching - the naivity was amazing and worrying. I so nearly posted to the young people being conned into teaching by promises of fulfilment not the bother, but thought better of it. They may well have to learn by their own mistakes.

Nervous Headteachers

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Lead Inspector of Schools has been at it again, this time threstening around 5000 headteachers nationwide for being weak or lacking leadership. The man has grand plans for Ofsted, making reports "jargon-free" and with "blunt" comments on page one so that people don't have to wade through a load of irrelevent stuff before finding out what they want to know: is the school any good or not? And no-one can really grumble with the removal of "Ofsted speak".

Wilshaw, in a fairly typical statement of intent, claims that around a quarter of headteachers in the UK "require improvement" (new terminology for "satisfactory") or worse. He blames lack of leadership on the statistic that 40% of new teachers leave the profession within two years. He has a bit of a point on this, but it's not the be all and end all of the issue. Leadership does set standards of behaviour throughout the school, but ultimately other government policy is to blame as well.

Parents (and their offspring) still hold too many cards, if not the entire pack, despite what government ministers claim. If a parent complains about anything, they are listened to, whereas if a teacher complains about a child they tend to be ignored and told to put up and shut up in various, probably more polite, ways. I have a feeling that this could be part of the reason that new staff leave the profession. It takes a few years for a teacher to establish themselves at a school, no matter how good their classroom practise is. It clearly helps when they are good teachers or better, but few start off at that level as experience often informs planning. The pressure placed upon all staff by Ofsted and therefore leadership who attempt to prepare their staff for an inspection is sometimes unbearable, and the mixed messages given out by the inspectorate don't help.

What tends to happen when a teacher is observed is that they suffer from criticism borne out of what leadership "think" that Ofsted want to see. It is almost impossible to guess at what Ofsted's flavour of the week is, leaving a teacher planning for an observation confused as to how they can impress. The other thing is that unless a lesson is awful or absolutely superb, the judgement of the lesson can vary hugely depending upon who is doing the judging. Character issues or clashes come to the fore in some cases and this is nothing short of demoralising.

Wilshaw's plans to improve teaching are fine in principal as there are poor headteachers and teachers out there, but his blunderbuss approach will win him few friends and won't aid the recruitment and retention issues that teaching currently suffers from. The silver lining in the Wilshaw cloud is that his budget appears to have been cut from around £200 million per year to around £140 million which will mean that implementing some of his ideas could be difficult due to affordability.

The problem is that Michael Gove, the puppeteer in charge of Wilshaw, has promised to "see what he can do" about the budget, so dire times could yet be around the corner for those who have chosen a career in school.