Suspend Ofsted inspections to help schools in wake of coronavirus crisis' says West Calderdale headteacher

Judy Shaw who has been in charge at Tuel Lane Infant School in Sowerby Bridge since 2005, also wants the Government to engage in an honest conversation with the teaching profession about funding cuts.

She said: “Many pupils will have had a very difficult time since schools closed and the long-term damage caused by social distancing in terms of loss of trust and difficulties with human interaction isn’t known.

“We will be able to support our pupils, we will know what they need, but we can only deliver what they need if we are freed from unnecessary bureaucracy and the threat of punitive Ofsted inspections.

“I am more than happy to be held accountable for what we do, but I don’t want my staff having to look over their shoulder for an inspection which judges success by such rigid criteria.

“A time will come for Ofsted to be re-instated. We will all know when that is, but it isn’t now.”

Mrs Shaw is expecting 40 of the school’s 100 pupils to return on Monday, but having seen funding per student fall by more £400 since 2013-14, she believes the wider education system needs an immediate cash injection.

She added: “Schools, not just ours, have been struggling for years to fund vital services such as educational psychologists and special needs support. Those non-teaching staff are going to be even more important as we go forward from September, and the Government can’t avoid the funding issue any more.

“Proposed summer camps are great, but they are a sticking plaster not a cure for the gaps in education. It would be lovely to think that Ministers would put the same kind of trust in teachers as they have in doctors and give us adequate funding to devise local solutions.”