ZACK POLANSKI hit out at school academies and “toxic” Ofsted inspections in a blistering address at the National Education Union’s (NEU) annual conference today.

The party leader also raised concerns over a blanket social media ban for under-16s being considered by the government.

He backed restrictions on age-inappropriate content but wanted to assess a “more responsible” plan by social media firms before introducing legislation.

Mr Polanski’s speech received a standing ovation as he vowed to abolish “toxic” Ofsted schools inspectorate and “tick-box” standardised tests and tackle the cost-of-living crisis with wealth taxes.

He told delegates in Brighton: “Academies were pushed on to teachers and children by previous governments’ ideological drive to marketise our children’s education.

“This government came in promising to fix the failures in the system but their schools white paper will only entrench them.

“It is yet another failure to grasp the root of the issue and it’s not good enough.”

But when asked if he backed bringing academies to council control, he told reporters: “I don’t have a model to present to you and say this is the perfect model; what I know is that it’s not working.

“We need to listen to the unions, the teachers, the educators, the support staff to go: ‘Actually, what do we need to make sure pupils have the best inclusive space that’s accessible to have the best possible learning outcomes?’

“Let’s design it that way, rather than designing for cutting corners to save money or indeed to make sure the CEOs of academies are earning huge salaries.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer signalled at the weekend that he was prepared to take action to curb features that keep young people addicted to social media, with the government currently consulting on an outright ban for under-16s.

Facebook owner Meta, and Google were ordered to pay £4.6 million in damages last week after a landmark case in the US found them liable for a woman’s childhood social media addiction through deliberately designing addictive products.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede told reporters that recent polling showed the Greens are his union membership’s favoured party after more than 60 per cent voted for Labour in the 2024 general election.

A Green Party spokesman said: “The policy is still that we are oppose to creating more academies and free schools, and it is still to integrate academies and free schools into the local system.”