MUCH has been written about England’s teaching watchdog, Ofsted, in recent months, with the conclusion generally being that the obvious bullying by inspectors has to stop, and that its one-word judgements have to go.

A more sensible judgement, however, would be to say that Ofsted has never worked properly, too often the tool of government, too often responsible for inaccurate judgements, and in need, not of reform, but of banishment to the history books where it belongs.

Now we have what surely must be the final straw — even our myopic government cannot ignore the latest revelations about its failing schools inspectorate.

The Observer newspaper has recently reported on its investigation into two Hackney schools run by the Mossbourne Federation after complaints from parents. The schools in question are Mossbourne Victoria Park and Mossbourne Community Academy.

It found that for over two decades horrendous tactics have been used to enforce discipline. Staff were encouraged to scream into children’s faces, only centimetres away, for minor offences, causing untold damage to the mental health of the pupils, described as “systemic and lasting emotional harm.”

Many staff were appalled and left, with the final straw for many being a teachers’ training session entitled “healthy fear.”

One teacher reported on another briefing, this time for a transition day when year 6 pupils would visit the school in preparation for their move to secondary education, a very exciting but nervy day for the pupils, as most parents will attest.

The teacher said that they were instructed, given any opportunity, to shout at the children and make them cry, in order to frighten them ahead of their starting in September.

A  father reported that his 10-year-old was screamed at in front of all the other pupils in a lunch queue, put on a chair facing the wall in a corridor for three hours, and told by a senior teacher that he was disgusting.

But with excellent examination results being the focus of attention, the heads were praised for their excellent leadership, setting standards for others to emulate, and the schools, of course, awarded the “outstanding” grade by Ofsted.

Whether the fact that Michael Wilshaw was head of one of these schools where he gained the description “superhead,” and then went on to become chief of Ofsted from 2012 to 2016 and lauded by the then secretary of education Michael Gove, is of any relevance in this case is a moot point.

It is certainly difficult to explain how Ofsted inspectors, regardless of the schools’ good examination results, could fail to notice both the appalling ways discipline was being enforced and their shocking after-effects.

Did they even look, or were they disgracefully so besotted with the examination results? Mossbourne Federation claims it was subject to “rigorous scrutiny” from Ofsted and the local council, but could that really be the case?

Over the years didn’t inspectors see children being screamed at, interview unhappy children or worried parents, check timetables of inset training days, or scrutinise data regarding the pupils being offloaded to other schools?

The last point is of particular relevance, here, to the children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), who were frequently the targets for the bullying, subject to unfair punishment, and “pushed out” to other schools.

The tragic death of headteacher Ruth Perry, after a ridiculously harsh Ofsted verdict on her school, led to warnings from former education secretaries and education leaders that Ofsted inspections were no longer a trustworthy guide to school quality.

But hasn’t this been the case since its inception in the early 1990s?

There has always been a suspicion that inspections were driven by the “confirmation bias” of the team leader, and the need for inspectors to find evidence to “fit the narrative.”

Ofsted’s chief inspector from 1994 to 2000, Chris Woodhead, just months into the job, stated that there were 15,000 incompetent teachers needing to be sacked, a view which certainly influenced all inspections under his tenure. The fact that he wasn’t sacked by Blair after the 1997 election speaks volumes.

Ofsted was criticised as “not fit for purpose” in 2007 by the House of Commons education select committee, and when Wilshaw took over and made contractual changes, 40 per cent of inspectors who wanted to continue working were not rehired.

The latter was done “on the grounds of quality,” according to Geoff Barton writing in the Times Educational Supplement (TES).

It’s clear that Ofsted throughout its history has affected teachers’ workload and morale, and bears much responsibility for the recruitment and retention problems in teaching today.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson recently told 1,500 school and academy trust leaders that “wellbeing and belonging hold the key” for improving the lives of young people.

Well, she must know where to start — and that means Ofsted being, not reformed, but relegated to the dustbin of history.