Headteachers threaten to resign over 'bullying'

Some 37 per cent of school leaders said they were “actively planning” to resign because of changes to official inspections, rising workloads, funding cuts and repeated Government attacks on standards of state education. Research shows a further 54 per cent of heads are considering their position. The disclosure, in a study carried out by the Association of School and College Leaders, comes amid rising tensions between the Coalition and the educational establishment. Other teaching unions have already taken strike action over the Government’s reforms to pensions, with more walk-outs expected in coming weeks. In some areas, teachers have also threatened industrial action to scupper an expansion of the Coalition’s academies – independent state schools run free of local authority controls. Brian Lightman, ASCL general secretary, said head teachers felt “angry and deeply frustrated, on the verge of being bullied”. Speaking before the union’s annual conference in Birmingham on Friday, he said: “The bottom line is that the Government needs school and college leaders on its side if it wants its policies to work and standards to continue to improve. "If this continues, good school leaders will leave the profession and who will want to take their place, especially in schools in deprived areas which most need strong leadership? "Untold damage will be done to our young people's future education if the toxic rhetoric is allowed to continue. This is not political posturing, it is a message the Government will ignore at its peril.” But the Government hit back, warning that it could not “ignore concerns about standards”. ASCL surveyed some 1,800 heads as part of research carried out jointly with the Times Educational Supplement. The survey found some 60.8 per cent of heads felt the Government's education reforms were having a detrimental impact on standards. Particular criticism was levelled at proposed changes to Ofsted inspections. Under reforms, all schools will face unannounced visits, outstanding schools that do not have the top grade for teaching will be reviewed and satisfactory schools will be re-branded as “requiring improvement”. More than two thirds – 67.9 per cent – of those questioned agreed that the Government's attitude to the teaching profession had made them more likely to quit in the next five years. More than a third – 36.7 per cent – said they were actively planning to leave teaching, while more than half – 54.4 per cent – were considering the move. A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “We’re undertaking a major reform programme and their skills and experience are vital. That’s why we are making their lives easier – by giving them more day-to-day freedom, slashing bureaucratic paperwork and by giving them more control over discipline. “We cannot ignore concerns about standards. Employers and universities quite rightly want our curriculum and exams to measure up to the best in the world. “We have slipped down the international performance tables and we must rectify this.”