Bullies Win In The End

So sure enough the primary school in London, Downhill Primary in Haringey, that Michael Gove wanted to force into academy status but fought back has been re-inspected and put into "special measures" meaning that they have to accept Gove's judgements.

This seems to be a modern tactic in education from government level all the way down to individual school level. Gove clearly had his nose put out of joint when Downhill decided to fight back - he's not used to the minions actually having an opinion after all. It is something he may have to get used to though as I am convinced that more an more of this kind of rebellion will happen as the Secretary of State attempts to force through new, ill-advised policy.

What did for Downhill initially was an Ofsted report claiming that the school was giving its children inadequate provision for education. The re-inspection was, and I quote Gove here, to "provide an indepedent assessment of the school's position". It is a well known fact in education that Ofsted inspectors will support each other through thick and thin (mainly thin), and with the previous judgement being so public, "independent" was the last thing that this inspection could claim to be.

Current pupils were reportedly distraught as their headteacher resigned having received the new judgement, and despite parental support for the school, their pleas has fallen on deaf ears. Like so much in education nowadays, Gove and his cronies clearly have targets to meet regarding the conversion of local authority schools to academies. I still don't really understand the motivation for this policy as the government ultimately still pays the money but has little say in how it runs anymore. If you held the purse strings, surely you'd want some kind of say in how the money's spent? Obviously not.

Gove's bully boy tactics have won the day, and his "best pal" Wilshaw seems to enjoy using the same tactic. In his short tenure as Chief Inspector of Schools he has managed to alienate and worry almost the entire profession. He consistently talks only to Ofsted "outstanding" headteachers at conferences, although that judgement is all relative. Surely if he wants to make a difference to schools he should talk to all the other "non-outstanding" people and try to to indoctrinate them. Maybe because he knows he will get lynched by others (the "outstanding" heads are all his mates, I should add), such is the vitriol from the teaching proffesion aimed his way. His budget is supposed to be cut this year but he's been quoted as saying that his mate Gove should sort that out. Makes you want to vomit, doesn't it?

Sir Michael (of Mouse?) has been on the television a lot recently trying to justify his appointment, enormous pay packet and the existence of Ofsted that many experts are currently claiming is too big for its boots, lacking any real accuracy or consistency in its judgements. Wilshaw is a wholly unimpressive man when interviewed; he can barely speak and looks uncomfortable. That's not to say that professionally he hasn't worked wonders in some schools; his bullying tactics of forcing his staff to work above and beyond what is healthy or sociable clearly works on a small scale (in one school at a time),as he can easily replace the few staff who refuse to sell their soul to devil, I mean Sir Michael. Nationwide there just aren't the numbers of staff in reserve to do that, and the fact that the staff in tenure of the jobs currently, beat the "reserve staff" at interview would suggest that those in reserve aren't always better. He will no doubt try though and at the same time alienate an entire profession.

No-one in education can argue with both Gove and Wilshaw's apparent philosophy of improvement of education and raising of standards, but the way they are going about it leaves a lot to be desired. Their bullying policy is a common one in schools though as teachers who dare to question their leadership (whether constructively or not) or simply fall out of favour for whatever reason, find their progression up the pay scale blocked and life made very uncomfortable indeed (mainly through aggressive and demoralising lesson observations/judgements - a headteacher's trump card over their staff) purely down to the judgement of one or two at the top.

If you are thinking of becoming a teacher, you'd better think long and hard about it, as it really isn't all it's cracked up to be. Although, on the plus side, there will be plenty of vacancies soon as current classroom practitioners race for the door, whether through retirement or career change. This coalition government has obviously set its stall out to completely ruin education in this country, and they are doing a remarkle job of it.

Dropped In

It hasn't happened to me for a while, and I know colleagues of mine have been put through it recently, but I had the dreaded "drop-in" from the department's line manager. They picked a good time to drop in on me: Friday, last lesson of the week, with a bottom set in the upper school. Thanks for that.

To be honest, in my years as a teacher I've got used to this sort of thing, although having said that, this was the most menacing I've ever had. As bottom sets go this one is doing pretty well: they are a nice bunch and we get on, which helps. The line manager turned up about half way through, didn't say anything to me and just went around picking up books, presumably checking whether I'd marked them - fortunately I had done that week. Even when I tried to engage with the line manager I was totally ignored, and then 10 minutes later the line manager left. What was quite nice is that one of the students had had a go at the line manager about something that they had chastised them about.

This sort of thing, as I have said, is not uncommon. It stems from Ofsted and makes teachers feel small and insignificant. I'm sure that it's designed to do so. I was having a discussion with a member of senior staff about the origins of Ofsted, they having taught for far longer than I have. Ofsted was initially set up to make sure that standards were reasonably high in the classroom, and if a teacher was struggling, a network of support was utilised in order to help that teacher improve. Nowadays it is quite the opposite - it is not a supportive thing and because Ofsted wields so much power, senior staff in all schools feel that they have to do the same in order to get their staff used to the concept for when it happens for real.

In my 10+ years of teaching I can only remember a couple of positive experiences when it comes to observations and drop-ins. They have become an exercise in character assassination where anything that could be levelled against a teacher is levelled against that teacher, depending on whether they are flavour of the month or not. I tend not to be flavour of the month, I hasten to add.

Lesson observations are so subjective - a very good or very bad lesson stick out like sore thumbs, but those inbetween could be judged so differently by different people. I have fallen victim to this, even when observed by two people, the most senior (and one who likes me least) judgement counts. Don't start tuning up your small violins, it's not meant to be a moan or cry for sympathy at all. A few years ago I would have asked you to break into Vivaldi, but I really don't let it bother me too much anymore. That's not entirely true, I get really wound up and end up arguing with the line manager on a regular basis about judgements, but I have accepted that I will never get any positive comments because I am not an automaton or a kiss-arse.

Ofsted is a device to oppress teachers now and has lost its initial function which was to be a supportive body for schools and teachers. It is something that almost certainly needs to exist or schools could rest on their laurels, but Ofsted has got too powerful due to political rather than educational reasons. Ofsted has become a device that politicians use to justify idiotic policy changes and a desperate bid for votes at the next election. And it's just about to get worse, isn't it Sir Michael?