Wilshaw on the war path
He may be counting down the days to retirement at the end of the year but Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of schools shows no signs of easing his way out of the role.
Over the past two days, Sir Michael Wilshaw has been on the offensive with broadsides against weak Heads, proposing tax grabs against the independent sector and now a fiery assault on academies – the latter coming on the back of a ding-dong with the new National Schools Commissioner.
Either during speeches or through official correspondence, Sir Michael has thrown verbal hand grenades in all directions including:
- Too many secondary Heads being ‘appeasers’, when they should be “bruisers” and “battleaxes”, claiming that Teach First graduates full of “vigour and enthusiasm” are put off by “poor leadership” in the schools they enter
- Independent schools should lose their tax benefits if they refuse to become academy sponsors, adding that it was a “moral outrage” that the private sector was establishing schools abroad and “sucking in” teachers from England while “not doing enough to help our own poor children”.
- Multi-academy trusts now manifest “the same weaknesses” as the worst-performing local authorities and have offered “the same excuses”; these claims were made in a letter to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, in which Sir Michael stated he has “great concern” about the performance of seven large MATs inspected by Ofsted.
Tin hats at the ready for remaining nine months in post!