Monkey attacks organ-grinder!

Sir Michael Wilshaw has promised the Association of School and College Leaders (formerly the Secondary Heads Association)  that there will be a radical overhaul of OFSTED which could end the use of private contractors to carry out inspections.

The three groups Tribal Group, Serco and CfBT Education Trust employ over 1500 "inspectors" who are not HMIs. By contrast OFSTED employs 300.Wilshaw's patron, Gove, worships at the shrine of privatisation

However Wilshaw has been stung by criticism from a right-wing think tank. The Policy Exchange concluded this week that the classroom observations carried out by these people are about as accurate a measure of a teacher's ability as the highly scientific method of flipping a coin. Heads you are excellent, tails you are "satisfactory". (For non-teachers I should explain: in the mangled language of OFSTED "satisfactory" means anything but. They can't speak the Queen's English).

Wilshaw promised ASCL that inspections were "too important" to be left to these cowboys and a radical overhaul was necessary. We shall wait and see how radical the overhaul actually is.

Wilshaw, pictured here with all his friends

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