Dead Chris Woodhead

[Grim Reaper 186]

The Chris Woodhead thread

[SalmonMousse 25]

A man whose only claim to fame appears to be stating the obvious about schools and extreme dullness.

[wildstorm 297]

I remember when Canadian Paul originally suggested Chris Woodhead a few years ago- at the time I couldn't even find a Wikipedia page for the guy, thus I didn't bother to look into any news stories/updates about his condition. Surprised he hasn't already offed himself by now.

[Deathray 2,941]

Is he really a deathlisty pick? I thought they had to be genuinely famous?

[Imelda 621]

Is he really a deathlisty pick? I thought they had to be genuinely famous?

 

He'll get obits and almost certainly a 10 minute section on Last Word. He was a pretty contrversial figure as Chief Inspector of Schools.

[JR976evil 909]

Is he really a deathlisty pick? I thought they had to be genuinely famous?

 

I'd heard of him

[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

What made him controversial?

[Imelda 621]

What made him controversial?

 

http://www.theguardi...odhead-teaching

 

There are few giants in education as big as Chris Woodhead. Love him or loathe him, his tenure as chief inspector of schools was full of incident and drama. His rows with the teaching profession were legendary: the claim, just months into the job, that 15,000 teachers were incompetent and should be sacked set the tone of his relationship with the profession. His rows with the then education secretary, David Blunkett, were just as memorable. He left in 2000.

 

And if you trust Wikipedia (though most it matches up with my memory):

 

OFSTED

 

Woodhead was appointed head of the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), the schools inspection service, in 1994.

Woodhead is particularly associated with support for "traditional teaching methods" and for taking a scornful view of "progressive educational theories" introduced into English schools from the 1960s onwards. Supporters claimed that Woodhead was a radical reformer willing to tackle the failings of the education system and only encountering the defensiveness of the educational establishment. Critics argued that he was generating poor morale, rarely identified successes in schools, and that the "progressive teaching" he attacked was a straw man, with little resemblance to actual classroom practices. Woodhead most prominently identified weaknesses in schools with poor teaching and repeatedly asserted this view. Amongst his controversial remarks he claimed there were "15,000 incompetent teachers" and "I am paid to challenge mediocrity, failure and complacency". His blunt approach gained him many enemies, especially in the teaching profession.

When the Labour government came to power in 1997 there was much political pressure to replace Woodhead, either immediately or when his initial term expired in 1998, but instead he was retained and his appointment renewed by Education Secretary David Blunkett. In 1999 Woodhead came under immense pressure to resign when it was claimed by his ex-wife Cathy Woodhead (they divorced in 1977) that whilst working as a teacher he had had an affair with a pupil, Amanda Johnston.^[7][8] His version of events is also hotly disputed by some former colleagues.^{[citation needed]} However Woodhead stood firm with the support of Blunkett. Woodhead and Johnston insisted that although they had met while he was her teacher, the relationship (which lasted for nine years) had only developed several years later in Oxford after they had both left the Gordano School, near Bristol. He was Head of English at the school from 1974-6. In February 1999 Woodhead addressed an audience of trainee teachers and was asked for his views on legislation to ban sexual relationships between pupils and teachers. His response was that such relationships, while regrettable, could be "experiential and educative on both sides",^[9] a remark for which he later apologised.

 

Resignation

 

On 2 November 2000 Woodhead announced his resignation.

In February 2005, The Guardian obtained information^[10] using the Freedom of Information Act, which confirmed that in 1997 Woodhead had overruled a unanimous decision by his own inspectors, and a subsequent inspection visit by HMI inspectors, in order to declare that Islington Green School was failing and required special measures.^[11] According to the head of the school at the time, "the consequences for staff and pupils were catastrophic".

[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

Cheers. Baldly stating there are 15000 incompetent teachers? We could do with someone so forthright down here in Aus (and I say that as a former teacher who has long abandoned the profession.)

[Youth in Asia 1,087]

15,000 is probably an underestimate

[Magere Hein 1,400]

15,000 is probably an underestimate

 

Possibly. How many teachers does the UK have? To quote Shaw: Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

 

regards,

Hein

[EGN 121]

I'm not sure if it counts as a 'crass generalisation' to base ones assumptions based solely on an individual's experience, but every teacher I know personally is the kind of social, financial and general fuck up that I wouldn't let mind my dog, let alone a child.

 

One in particular (who is considered something of a 'rising star' in her profession) was recently interviewed by the police after meeting a spanish barman while on holiday, inviting him to live with her in the UK after a two week whirlwind romance and then allowing him to stay with her while he embarked on a series of armed robberies.

 

And this person spends 6/7 hours a day teaching primary school children how to succeed in life.

 

I think we need to return to a time when teaching was considered a prestige employment, rather than the default setting for the wet and unambitious which it now seems to have become.

[Spade_Cooley 9,562]

If you weren't alive in the UK back in the late 90s, you wouldn't know how famous this guy was at the time. He was on the fucking news every third episode, he was the kind of guy mediocre satirists would do gags about in their TV shows. RT this if you're a 90s baby.

[time 8,641]

I'm not sure if it counts as a 'crass generalisation' to base ones assumptions based solely on an individual's experience, but every teacher I know personally is the kind of social, financial and general fuck up that I wouldn't let mind my dog, let alone a child.

 

I think we need to return to a time when teaching was considered a prestige employment, rather than the default setting for the wet and unambitious which it now seems to have become.

 

It does.

 

Though I wouldn't disagree with your final sentence.

 

Personally, I've met many teachers who I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire, but there are some good, even brilliant, teachers about; just not enough.

[themaninblack 2,112]

Cheers. Baldly stating there are 15000 incompetent teachers? We could do with someone so forthright down here in Aus (and I say that as a former teacher who has long abandoned the profession.)

 

Well they're all so quiet and unassuming down under, aren't they? Not in the least bit forthright...

[Perfect Passing 277]

If you weren't alive in the UK back in the late 90s, you wouldn't know how famous this guy was at the time. He was on the fucking news every third episode, he was the kind of guy mediocre satirists would do gags about in their TV shows. RT this if you're a 90s baby.

 

My daughter was born in 1998 and at the time you had to register your child as soon as possible into the local primary school, otherwise you'd soon learn that your school of choice, just around the corner, would be over allocated with Eastern Europeans (by the way this is fact, not racism, I am myself 2nd generation British from Ukrainian grandparents, fully integrated!!)

Chris Woodhead was driven by the fact that teachers needed to be fully accountable for their salary and inspected annually to keep them on their toes, which I imagine pissed off a lot of primary school teachers when within their class of 33/34 kids, half of them couldn't speak any English & they would have Woodhead with his Civil Service clipboard ticking boxes and taking away their bonuses for not meeting his targets.

The 90's, harsh times with Mr Woodhead around!!

[Bibliogryphon 9,597]

I'm not sure if it counts as a 'crass generalisation' to base ones assumptions based solely on an individual's experience, but every teacher I know personally is the kind of social, financial and general fuck up that I wouldn't let mind my dog, let alone a child.

 

One in particular (who is considered something of a 'rising star' in her profession) was recently interviewed by the police after meeting a spanish barman while on holiday, inviting him to live with her in the UK after a two week whirlwind romance and then allowing him to stay with her while he embarked on a series of armed robberies.

 

And this person spends 6/7 hours a day teaching primary school children how to succeed in life.

 

I think we need to return to a time when teaching was considered a prestige employment, rather than the default setting for the wet and unambitious which it now seems to have become.

 

It is this situation that the OFSTED regime has contributed to. Who would expose themselves to the ritual humiliation of this type of witch hunt when there are many easier ways of earning a living. This becomes a vicious downward spiral.

 

After finishing her degree a few years ago my niece, who had always wanted to be a teacher, tried to enrol on a post-graduate teaching course. However as the recession had just hit the course was filled by people who couldn't get other jobs and thought that teaching was a good stop gap until the job market picked up.

 

My daughter has been taught by some brilliant teachers but also some incompetant ones. In every profession there are a range of abilities and talents.

 

In reality the OFSTED inspections should be an opportunity to improve schools by highlighting best practice and suggesting areas of improvement but in an atmosphere of fear and mistrust they cannot be currently seen as constructive.

[EGN 121]

I disagree. Teaching doesn't strike me as a profession which allows timely internal identification of bad practice. If a copper messes up an arrest/loses evidence/lies, can be held accountable by the court/his chain of command/IPCC immediately. If the milkman gives you gold top instead of silver, you can tell his boss and he'll be gripped immediately.

 

Unless there is a high profile incident (assault, inappropriate relationship, etc...) I don't really see how poor teachers can be easily identified, other than by rigorous inspection by an independent agency.

[Phantom 2,537]

I disagree. Teaching doesn't strike me as a profession which allows timely internal identification of bad practice. If a copper messes up an arrest/loses evidence/lies, can be held accountable by the court/his chain of command/IPCC immediately. If the milkman gives you gold top instead of silver, you can tell his boss and he'll be gripped immediately.

 

Unless there is a high profile incident (assault, inappropriate relationship, etc...) I don't really see how poor teachers can be easily identified, other than by rigorous inspection by an independent agency.

 

The process is generally over the period of a couple of years, if a teacher consistently has students failing their exams in a particular subject, then their teaching methods need to be addressed or they're just not cut out for the job.

[maryportfuncity 10,662]

A bit of additional spot colour in Woodhead's story is that he had a sexual relationship with a sixth former when he was a young teacher, something a few of his (many) his enemies would later raise when talking to the press.

[Guest Droosy]

he seems to be immortal!!!

[Guest Droosy]

During his reign at the Education Department, I got Cs instead of Bs at school, and I blame him for that, cuz I wasn´t so dull to get such low grades!!!

[Bibliogryphon 9,597]

During his reign at the Education Department, I got Cs instead of Bs at school, and I blame him for that, cuz I wasn´t so dull to get such low grades!!!

 

I can understand blaming individual teachers, the school/headmaster, the dog eating your revision, your mother dying just before your exams but putting the blame on the chief inspector of schools doesn't really cut much ice as I imagine not everyone in your year/school/class got poor results.

 

But I am sure that you bounced back from adversity and made something of yourself.

[Sean 6,340]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/470650/Paraplegic-Sir-Chris-Woodhead-Suffering-from-Motor-Neurone-Disease-has-positives _Sir Chris has recently battled kidney stones and cancer and is now quadraplegic.I saw him on Sky News about an hour ago talking about a sex scandal in a school he is associated with and he is very lucid and his voice is still strong so I cant see him in immediate danger of going to dignitas.

[maryportfuncity 10,662]

http://www.express.c...e-has-positives _Sir Chris has recently battled kidney stones and cancer and is now quadraplegic.I saw him on Sky News about an hour ago talking about a sex scandal in a school he is associated with and he is very lucid and his voice is still strong so I cant see him in immediate danger of going to dignitas.

 

He was on Radio Four last week talking about his (currently good) quality of life, and - basically - agreeing with you.