I presume that as 'leaders' in their respective fields, OFSTED inspectors would have no objection to adding an extra day to the 'inspection' process in which they teach the classes whilst being observed by subject teams in the school. This would have the duel advantage of letting the inspectors gain a real feel for the school and provide an ideal role model. If it also makes them think twice before giving a poor report, all the better.

Clive, Chichester, UK

Stu of London needs to be careful about his allegations.

I used to teach in a local authority where Chris Woodhead was one of the county's Advisors to English teachers, all of them selected from experienced teachers. This was a few years before he became Chief Inspector of Schools.

Personally I didn't agree with all of his ideas (the county was very keen on "experiential methods", for instance - how could children possibly write about Fire unless the teacher had first lit candles all around the classrom and started a fire in a waste paper bin?), and I've muttered "Vicar of Bray" a few times since he turned into a spokesman for the government's educational theories and diktats, but that's a very long way from implying that he has paedophile tendencies.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do some more lesson planning - my current school is one day into a week of Ofsted, and sleep is only a distant memory.

Gill, Southampton, UK

It might well be that it is the oppressive impact of central power which has disproportionately affected these people. Dr David Kelly might have been in a different environment but he was a robust person with no obvious reason to kill himself, who was faced with a very heavy power background. This could have a disproportionate to normal effect on people seen as being able to handle awkward situations. If you are faced with an influence which you see, for some reason, as allpowerful, then you may be struck by a feeling of hopelessness; and it is that which can kill.

Henry Percy, London, UK

This is more complicated than many of the contributors argue. I am the Chair of Governors of a small rural primary school and have seen at first hand how difficult it is to manage in a school. Our head is exemplary but in order to make the school a success, she works many hours - starting at 7 in the morning and into the evening, weekends and holidays. To be successful requires the utmost in effort and skills across a huge range. Small wonder that many heads find it too stressful, especially in the long run. Ofsted inspections are part of the deal. Our school has had a full inspection, a literacy and nursery inspection in less than two years. Burdensome yes, though ultmately positive. But to suggest that schools shouldn't have systems in place to review their progress is wrong. Any enterprise of the importance of a school must demonstrate it is striving to improve. Our children deserve nothing less. Tthe process should of course be humane and our experience is that it is.

Ricky, Derbyshire, UK

To describe grammar errors as serious in a response to a tragic death is in my humble opinion appalling. The only serious matter here is the tragic loss of life. Grammar police get your priorities right. Getting priorities right is exactly what good school inspections should do. They often fail. Whose monitoring the inspections?

pat Duffy, brentwood, essex

Congratulations Melanie Reid, this is an excellent article, one every parent should read. Fifty years later; I remember my mother saying , Inspectors and Councillors were teachers who gravitated to these positions because they could not teach. She obviously knew what she was talking about. Shame, because my recollection of teachers are wonderful. They taught me to enjoy reading, and the joys of math. They taught me how to win and how to lose graciously. They taught me to look at failure right in the eye and challenge it. I sure did not know they woul be judged for the irrelevent . What a shame, those teachers who have taken their lives obviously cared so very much about teaching. It is time for the teachers and parents, together, to put a stop to the unnecessary harassment of teachers. The time is now .

Johan, Toronto, Canada

I am struck by the contrast between two articles in today's paper. On the one hand I read of Adam Applegarth who has ruined his bank and cost the country billions being given a million pounds for his trouble and then I read of headteachers killing themselves because of the intrusive and stressful crticism to which they are subjected. It seems to me that the wrong people are being inspected and the wrong people rewarded.

sheila, LEICESTER,

Having worked in schools for the past twenty years, believe me, they are not inspected enough. The truth is that schools very often have little or no committment to doing a good job. The minute an 'inspection' team walk out of the door the school becomes a different place.

judy, Liverpool, England

The gent from Truro mentioned the "tick box mentality."
How apposite this term is for so many of our government's claims concerning alleged improvements of all sorts.

Edwin, London,

I agree with the need for teachers to have mentoring support available - they are (agreed, not uniquely) subject to enormous pressures whilst trying to carry out a highly valuable job. In my view, the problem is one of general negativity in the world today - it seems that society/media love to point out faults rather than praise achievements. As a former head of a school and having also been part of inspection teams, I always felt it important to challenge in a loving way, to respect the humanity of the people and their commitment whilst not shirking from pointing out areas for improvement.

Teachers and their pupils and the pupils' parents are human - so let's treat them as such. The inspectors have a responsibility to role model behaviour they would wish to see in the teachers and students.

spike, Estepona, Spain

Oh dear, A Gilroy. Your three lines defending your profession contain two serious punctuation errors, and one serious spelling mistake.

Wilf, London,

Excellent schools should not be hounded to be better. If they stay at the level they have achieved we should be happy. Any improvements should come naturally, initiated by the teachers.
It may seem that inspection by skilled,devoted teachers with a positive attitude might have some use. Unfortunately teachers of that calibre are needed in the classroom, so who does the inspecting ?

Judymay, Leighton Buzzard, Beds

The article is accurate and well founded and I am astounded by some of the negative comment about it. I had to retire through stress and depression, the catalyst being hypercritical Ofsted inspections even though I personally was acknowledged as a good teacher. If I had not left, I would have been a suicide statistic, so thanks Melanie for the balanced article - it's about time someone drew attention to this huge problem of antagonistic and confrontational inspections

David, Lincs,

Performance monitoring is Stalinist. It's the old Stakanovitch 5 year plan trick wrapped up in neocon economic theory, i.e. you perform to the target and the thing that you are actually supposed to be doing (e.g. teaching) is sidelined. We constantly hear about striving for "excellence" - a blissful utopian state which nobody seems capable of describing.

Performance monitoring is self-serving nonsense and its culture goes hand in hand with market mechanisms that shouldn't be allowed anywhere near education or health. At some time in the future we'll look back on this stalinist target culture and sigh in disbelief.

Mortice, london,

Here in the United States we have schools teaching to a test for the national program "No Child Left Behind". The scheme behind it is to achieve improved test scores and schools found doing poorly can be closed or their federal funding diminished. I personally know many educators who have told me in private, they waste so much time teaching to a certain test that they can't accomplish their curriculum in the 180 days we have to have each year for public education. There is probably no easy answer for any country.

Gary Klein, Sheboygan, USA / WI

Jeanne, Paris, France. Well said and I couldn't have said it better myself. I wish I had read your response before submitting mine earlier as we both seem to have the same thoughts of the UK from opposite ends of the world. And if anyone wonders, there is a link to your paper from the Melbourne Herald Sun. www.heraldsun.com.au

Ron Cornish, Melbourne, Australia

What a fantastic article and one which will resonate with all of us involved in educational management, and leadership. It is a sad reflection on a results driven agenda that someone so inspirational feels this is the only way out. My sympathies go to her and her surviving family members.
Steve-Head Teacher in London

steve davies, London,

*How many of us could imagine having our performance at work put under the microscope, relentlessly, for days on end?*


Lots of us actually.
Teachers don't generally, although of course they are doing it to their pupils!
Maybe it is the reality of having the tables turned on them that they find so difficult.

Jen, London,

Excellent article. I can only mention my older brother who from his mid-teens wanted to teach, to "put something back" and spent years at university gaining his degrees. He has spent a lifetime of study to gain even more honours only for his school to be inspected by a retired farmer.

I wonder how many of us in our jobs would accept being inspected in such a manner?

David Knight, Ellesmere Port, UK

I can understand completely many of the views expressed in this article but I believe that Ofsted reports and inspections are anything but detrimental to a school's well-being and progression.
These cases are a rarity and the deaths are the result of many factors - not the inspections alone - these individuals were obviously emotionally unstable and the school governing body failed to address that.
Rather than condeming Ofsted, we should be focusing on the lack of emotional and counselling support available to teachers - a busy, time-structured environment where a helping hand is probably needed the most.

Jennah, Manchester, UK

It used to be said that if you were useless at teaching you had two career options: if you were young, trendy and useless you became a lecturer in a teacher training college to teach other people how to teach; and if you were old, nasty and useless you became and inspector. If you couldn't even manage that you write books and articles on education :o)

Remember that paragon of educational excellence Chris Woodhead? He was chucked out of teaching because of allegations of inappropriate behaviour with his teenage wards.

Of course Ofsted inspections are necessary but they should really be augmenting the work of the head who should be maintaining a constant check on his/her staff. Really it could and should be a check on the head. Kind of like an annual appraisal of the kind familiar to anyone in business.

Stu, London,

Mrs Hogg's suicide is of course a tragedy. I think, however, that the growing concerns many parents have with the quality of state education would make the idea of fewer inspections by HMIE a non-starter, as it were.

HMIE fulfils a vital role in education. Without their inspections standards in schools would fall. I can see, however, why some parents and many teachers would support having fewer inspections.

Des, Edinburgh,

I was a pupil of Irene Hogg at a Borders primary school in the early 80s, and my family lived round the corner from her. I remember her as someone with integrity and passion, particularly for Scottish history and Borders folklore. She taught the school rugby team - I remember her demonstrating front-row scrummaging techniques to me. It seemed entirely normal at the time to be taught how to play rugby by Mrs Hogg, because she was a true Borders lass - down to earth and determined, displaying intelligence, wit and commitment to her pupils and local community.

I Stewart, London, UK

We fought two major wars to defend the British way of life - at the core of which was the tradition of common sense - and now we have thrown it away. The computer is an interesting toy, but using it as a cosh for walloping hard-working people on the head is just plain silly. It destroys the human and social values which our ancestors fought so bravely to defend.

Edmund Burke, Kingston upon Thames, England

I think you are all overlooking the obvious, here. Someone who can deal with a classroom of children is not going to kill themselves over inspections which of course we all suffer.

However, if you want to get rid of an inconvenient teacher what better way than "suicide" So next time an inspector comes toyour workplace consider a pre-emptive strike.

Brenten, Sydney, NSW/Australia

I'm currently in part-time teacher training. My current tutor has related how on one observation by OFSTED she was told to ask more direct questions of her students. at the next she was NOT to ask direct questions! As has been said the problem is always people (in this case inspectors) justifying their jobs. They can't go away with a blank sheet.

Ben, York, UK

The demented inspection regime is one thing, but lets add in the relentless derision for teachers, piled on by newspaper columists amongst others. How many times do I read the tedious insult "those who can't, teach" in the newspapers (but never "those who can't, write about it"). Teachers used to be respected, but now they are fair game for all the blame going, even though most "failing schools" merely reflect the fractured society around them.

As in some of the posts here, all teachers are tarred with the daftest statements from the NUT, even though many are not even members (there are other unions, and of course plenty of non-union teachers), and many who join do so not for its politics, but so as to have someone on thier side in case they are accused of negligence/abuse etc.

In this climate who would want to be a teacher? Not me.

Nick, France,

To A Gilroy of Newcastle, 'a teacher of 11 years', it's 'definite' not 'definAte'...

jollytall, suffolk,

Ms Robinson accurately portrays much that is wrong with our society now. Convinced by tabloid headlines that "the scum which prey on our children" lurk in every school and park, there determined, like the witch-finders of old, to discover evil whether it exists or not.

Too bad that this means ALL children have to grow up unable to play outside, unable to form relationships with adults - by which I mean a favorite teacher who puts in a bit more effort to get them to read, or simply to get a hug when they skin their knee. Unable to be children.
Too bad this means ALL adults with any sense who deal with children now have to have a tough hide to cope with the continual flow of suspicion. Show real affection for a child? Not on your life. No matter that real predators are vanishingly rare.
Ms Robinson, I'm really sorry, I really am but you and people like you are stuffing children's lives now, stifling their childhood, robbing them of people like Irene Hogg. You are the abusers now.

Roger, London, UK

What a balanced view of the teaching profession you have Zoe, you come across as a definate social malcontent. As a teacher of 11 years i find your comments disgraceful in the extreme!

A Gilroy, Newcastle, UK

Did you listen to the NUT conference the other day? Sorry folks, but if I had children, I wouldn't trust them with that army of hysterical half-wits. Ofsted inspection is necessary to provide some sort of early warning when schools are messing up.
Also, no-one commits suicide over some footling criticisms in an Oftsted report. There must be other reasons. I notice that Melanie didn't quote any statistsics showing a correlation between the amount of inspection and teacher suicide. Why not

Colin MacKinnon, Oxford, United Kingdom

Oh for goodness sake - aren't people getting a bit carried away about this?

Why this notion that teachers, uniquely, have their performance monitored? Hardly anyone escapes performance monitoring these days, and not just once every few years. The problem used to be that teachers were almost unique in NOT having their performance monitored. If Ms Hogg took her own life over some "silly" criticisms, perhaps she had pre-existing mental problems.

As a parent and the spouse of someone who has to move around quite a bit for work, I find the Ofsted reports invaluable. Why shouldn't I be able to easily discover the different strengths and weaknesses of local schools?

If under-performing Heads and teachers are exposed, that's a good thing. Children only get one chance at each year of their education, and while many of us remember good teachers, from our schooldays, let's face it, we also remember those who should never have been allowed anywhere near a classroom.

Seasider, Hampshire,

Oh come on, Ofsted inspectors are not the Gestapo. This culture of moan, moan, moan about anything and everything is really boring.
You cannot tell me that a person with a sound mind is going to committ suicide simply over these criticisms. So what if she gets the sack (highly unlikely) for these transgresions her pension would have afforded her more time to play golf. Get real.

Eddie Reader, birmingham, england

And on the other side of the coin take a look at some 'successful' institutions. I could name a 'beacon college' within a few miles of me that is a local laughing stock and a byword for corruption, managerial incompetence and waste, but which regularly fools inspectors with smoke and mirrors illusions which pander to the tick box mentality that dominates much so called 'education today.

Anthony Price, Truro,

My wife used to work as a classroom assistant in a primary school. I remember her saying how petty most of the Ofsted criticisms were and how the inspection over several days distracted and worried the teachers. The inspectors were often young, with little practical experience of the classroom, but were paid a lot of money compared to the teachers. They probably felt they had to come up with some criticisms to earn their wages.

Phil, Bishop's Stortford,

And of course sometimes school children commit suicide after being criticized by teachers. That hasn't meant an end to teachers criticizing students.

How hypocritical of teachers to complain about others doing unto them what they do unto others almost every working day.

What school teachers are objecting to, with blanket condemnations of inspections and testing, is being held accountable for carrying out their jobs properly.

I agree, we do need to adjust and improve inspection and evaluation methods in education.

While teachers can theoretically be evaluated on a results basis, the analysis techniques to do this in practice are not perfect yet.

We need to continue evaluations and recommendations for improvement, and to strive for better techniques.

Keith S, Winnipeg, Canada

As an anglophile going back to the age of 12, I follow the regress of sclerotic Britain with sadness. However, it is somewhat comforting to know that Gordon Brown will fall in with the sheep of the European Union. This can only result in good for the competitive position of the USA

Allan Bilder, Hammonton, NJ USA

I'm sorry to say this but Ms Reid is wrong in her assertion that Ofsted ignore such things as warmth and kindness. They look for just that, but they have to be on the constant look-out for even the smallest hint that something is not right with a school, or a childminder, or a nanny.

If they were not looking out for these things, they may never uncover the hidden dangers that so many children face in this country. Most bad childminders, and bad schools, don't show Ofsted how bad they are, they hide the pain and suffering they cause because they don't want to be caught out.

This is why Ofsted come across as if they are looking for any sign of 'weakness' and it's why they pick up on any wrongdoing, no matter how small. They are driven to act like they do by the scum that prey on our children.

Zoe Robinson, Manchester, Greater Manchester

The last time I visited England, I was appalled at the petty, officious bureaucratic nonsense that one had to navigate, the tendency to fault-find, and overall the acceptance of this state of affairs by the locals. How can the citizens accept it? This attitude when absorbed by children creates stupidity. When there are all these set standards and objectives, one doesn't have to think for oneself anymore.

Jeanne, Paris, France

Well said

Robert, Polmont, U.K.