Russell Hobby, Secretary-General of the traditionally moderate National Association of head teachers (NAHT), provides the move must be approved at its annual conference on Friday. He said: "I think that the atmosphere is that they are pretty close to the abyss. The atmosphere is more ugly. People are furious than in previous years. "In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, he added:"I think that volume change and the harshness of the rhetoric [for teachers] have generated a lot of misfortune in the system, and I do not know how much they can grow until something breaks. ?
Mr Hobby stressed two key concerns: attempts to 'bully' heads by joining the Government of flagship academies and two tests which, according to them, are 'bad' practical education program. It is a control of reading for all six years, which includes having to spell out the invented words, while the second is a new test of spelling, grammar and punctuation, taken by 600 000 11 - year - olds for the first time last week, executives believe is not necessary.
Mood heads to assure that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, will have another difficult on his hands battle, when he arrives at the Conference Saturday to defend its policy. He already faces growing opposition to its national program of critical reforms that say they will stifle creativity and lead teachers strike action.
The concerns on the academies programme, Mr. Hobby cites cases where "Academy brokers", who have the task of entering schools and convince them to become academies, attracted heads side in the playground. "It is all, off the record," he said, "but they do the offers they cannot refuse, as saying:"maybe if you change now, you can keep your job, but if you convert in one year, we can make no promises."" They are trying to intimidate them by becoming academies. ?
The number of calls to the hotline of the NAHT for beleaguered heads has doubled in a year to 250 per week. "Ofsted [the Organization of monitoring standards in education] has contributed to that," he said. "It is not only that it has changed the definition of"satisfactory"to"requires an improvement". He's also got a tight control over the definition of 'notable '. "A school may be exceptional if all its teaching is rated outstanding too. ?It is reported that they consider you a new category of 'outstanding-plus'.?
These changes have increased the pressure on the leaders, he added. Last month an inquest found that a schoolteacher, Helen Mann, who taught in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, had committed suicide in his school. The survey said one of his concerns was that the school could lose its status as "outstanding" in its next report by Ofsted.
The concerns expressed by Mr. Hobby echo the agenda of the Conference of the week next to Birmingham, where leaders will start by passing a motion declaring "no confidence" in a large number of government education reforms. The agenda makes no mention of Mr Gove by name, but goes on to say that "' too much power is currently given to a person to define a national strategy based on your personal preferences ideologically driven assumptions. '" The motion will be debated just before Mr Gove arrives at the Conference to answer questions raised by the heads.
A Department for education spokesman said any allegation of misconduct by brokers would be "treated with the utmost seriousness". He added: "brokers Academy helps us identify the sponsor the best possible to u-turn without schools and ensure that students receive every opportunity to realize their potential." On tests, he said: "the new grammar, punctuation and spelling test will ensure children learn to understand their language and use it properly, creatively and effectively. ''
A strom in a tergcup?
The sentence "you could not make up' comes to mind when school leaders think the new phonetic test taken by all six years at the end of their first year of school. "That devil could devise a test where readers can mark less than weaker readers?", asks Russell Hobby of the National Association of head teachers.
The fact, however, is that the Government makes it indeed upwards.
The test consists of terms invented as "voo", "Evaluation" and "Strom" and is designed to test the skills of phonetics of the child.Results of the first year show that intelligent students are more likely to spell words correctly, as they try to convert the invented in real terms, while the lowest are not. "People think they're wasting their time and there is no educational value in this," said Mr. Hobby.
The Secretary of education, Michael Gove, considers that the criterion is critical to put end to what he calls the "scandal" of low levels of literacy in schools.
Richard Garner
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