Ofsted – the schools inspectorate – no longer gives single-word, headline grades to schools in England. It plans to make more changes, accepting many of the recommendations made in a 2024 independent review carried out by former Ofsted head Dame Christine Gilbert.
However, though the review rightly mentioned the importance of inspectors’ professional behaviour, it failed to acknowledge in full the bullying and harm that can be experienced from inspections.
In 2023, the House of Commons Education Committee launched an inquiry into Ofsted’s work with schools, including on the effect of Ofsted inspections on school staff’s workload and wellbeing. The committee invited written submissions of evidence from the public.
As part of a continuing research project, we have analysed all of the well over 200 publicly available written submissions. They came from people who said that they were current or recent teachers, headteachers, governors, academics, teaching representatives, charities and other education organisations. They made deeply difficult reading.
Many were anonymised:
My evidence has been submitted in a way that I hope makes the school unidentifiable … It is important that you should have evidence of the damage that Ofsted causes, but not at the expense of causing further damage. Please do not publish it attached to my name … individuals like me need to request anonymity in order to protect those concerned.
Again and again, reading through the submissions, we encountered examples of bullying behaviour and unprofessionalism on the part of inspectors, and of harm to education professionals because of the inspectorate system. We wanted to highlight just a handful of these submissions as evidence of why the culture of Ofsted must be improved.
The submissions included accusations of intimidation and manipulation by Ofsted inspectors. A recurring theme was the silencing of professional discussion when inspectors were giving feedback at the end of an inspection.
A teacher wrote about having “hands put up to my face to stop me talking”. Another submission states that an inspector demanded silence and “slammed his fist down” on the headteacher’s desk. In another, the submission details that an inspector “threw the book down on the table” and shouted at staff.
We read submissions that commented on inspectors reducing teachers to tears. One says:
I have witnessed staff being repeatedly asked the same question, giving a reasonable answer and the question being posed again and again until they cry.
We also read about senior staff enduring prolonged enforced silence and manipulation.
The meeting at the end of the second day was simply awful. In the first twenty minutes, the inspection team talked about our quality of education. Then, at the end of this twenty minutes, the lead said, “Now it’s time to decide the grade. Shall we look at ‘Requires Improvement’?” What?! Myself and my [deputy headteacher] looked at each other with dismay – really? For around two minutes – but felt like an hour – they silently looked at the descriptors. The lead broke the silence with, “I don’t think we need to worry about this. Let’s look at ‘good’.” The relief came over so quickly I actually felt sick.
One of the submissions alleges sexual assault by an inspector:
My colleague was groped by an Ofsted inspector but didn’t dare report him in case he marked her down.
We want to emphasise that submissions about harmful inspections were not occasional. They repeatedly mentioned fear, ill health, unacceptable stress and damage to staff wellbeing. This submission, evidently from a school staff member, discussed suicidal thoughts:
The manner in which the inspection was conducted and the lack of integrity from the Lead Inspector has meant that my family have had to support me through suicidal thoughts and through countless occasions of being in floods of tears as soon as I think back to that day. It took all of my strength and courage to walk back through the doors to our school for the sake of our pupils.
The Education Committee’s report following the inquiry does give examples from the written submissions about inspectors’ poor behaviour, but did not make a specific recommendation on this topic. Ofsted’s response states that “we are committed to doing good as we go, raising standards and improving lives. To do so, we must always act with professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect towards those we regulate and inspect”. But changing bullying behaviour is not directly addressed.
The Education Committee’s report was followed by Ofsted’s Big Listen, which sought comment from the public. Ofsted’s response to this also did not specifically discuss inspector behaviour.
Scrapping the headline grades will do little to change inspection experiences. Bullying behaviour, stress and harm must also be addressed. For the sake of education professionals and children, Ofsted has to improve the conduct of inspectors and inspectorate culture.
