This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/education/8031240.stm

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Heads to debate school inspection 'Corrosive' inspections condemned
(about 23 hours later)
The schools inspection system is to be debated by head teachers at their annual conference in Brighton. Head teachers believe inspections can be damaging
BBC education correspondent Kim Catcheside says the system has been described by some head teachers as having a "corrosive effect" on schools. Head teachers meeting in Brighton have condemned what they call the "corrosive effect" of England's school inspection system.
Heads can find it stressful, as they face being sacked if their schools are condemned as failing. At the annual conference of the National Association of Head Teachers, heads and deputies said inspections had led to high stakes, with some heads driven to despair.
National Association of Head Teachers delegates will call on their leaders to lobby for a solution to the problem. Delegates backed a motion calling on the union to come up with a "battle plan" to combat what they called "this scourge of true education".
Long hours will also be on the agenda on the last day of the NAHT conference. They complained schools were being given "arbitrary labels" and put into "meaningless and soul-destroying" categories.
Industrial action? One delegate, Tony Roberts from Lancashire, said inspections were placing head teachers under too much pressure and that Ofsted was not accountable.
At the conference on Saturday, delegates voted to hold a ballot on a boycott of Sats tests for 11-year-olds in England. 'Fair system'
This afternoon they will return to their regions with the task of persuading rank and file members of the association to back industrial action. Proposing the motion which called for a battle plan, he said: "We are accountable as a profession, but we have the right to be judged by a system which is fair".
The vote came shortly after Schools Secretary Ed Balls called on them not to take what he called irresponsible action and vowed to reform the assessment system. For Cheryl Bould, from Wolverhampton, the problem is that inspections, she says, do not take the "contexural picture" into account
But the National Association of Head Teachers voted in favour of balloting, if all other avenues were exhausted. Katrina Williams, from East Ridings, said her school had been inspected three times in a year - once for a full Ofsted inspection, once for a new subject-only inspection and once by the diocese, because hers is a faith school
The heads argue that the tests put pressure on children and narrow the curriculum. The NAHT's leadership criticises Ofsted inspections for what it believes is over-reliance on data, such as the Sats tests and data known as "contextural value added" - a measure of progress pupils make throughout their time in school.
They argue that this kind of data is not reliable.
Gail Larkham, a head from Surrey, said the CVA scores, as they are known, could not show improvements in very bright children because primary school Sats tests only measure up to a certain level (level 5).