The teachers’ unions take on Ofsted, Osborne and Gove

I counted five issues which the NUT conference suggested that teachers might strike over. But in a conference full of the usual bluster, the most noteworthy threat was not to cooperate with Ofsted inspections.

Ever since the new chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw — who was hugely successful as the head of Mossbourne academy — announced that a merely satisfactory grade would no longer be regarded as good enough, the teaching unions have taken agin him. But not cooperating with Oftsed would be unlawful. Anyone who tried to block an inspection would be liable to prosecution and a fine.

Another issue exercising the unions is George Osborne’s proposals for regional pay for the public sector. But given that soon more than half of all secondary schools will be academies, this opposition is rather futile as academies already have the power to vary teachers’ pay.

But, perhaps, the most depressing image of the weekend was Chris Keates of the NASUWT haranguing