7th November 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The newly appointed chief inspector of schools has vowed to deal with ineffective teachers. Reported on the BBC, Sir Michael Wilshaw has just become the head of Ofsted, and he wants to introduce ‘robust’ management systems that deal with under-performing and coasting teachers. Wilshaw has been described as traditional in his approach to improving standards at the London school of which he was head.
Wilshaw will begin his role at Ofsted in January, and has praised the inspectorate’s new, streamlined approach, which focuses on four key areas: pupil achievement, teaching standards, behaviour and school leadership. He pointed out that in the last report by a chief inspector 50% of lessons were considered to be ‘good’ or better, which means that the other 50% were not up to standard, which is unacceptable.
The new chief inspector said that it’s only reasonable to expect organisations to contain people who aren’t particularly capable. Teachers who give poor lessons, or who can’t control behaviour in a classroom are easy to spot, but Wilshaw said that ‘coasting’ teachers are more difficult to highlight because it’s not immediately obvious that their lessons are ineffective. He claims that the answer is to ensure that a school has a strong management system, and a strong head with the ability to challenge systems and challenge people.