In his speech at the Freedom and Autonomy for Schools - National Association (FASNA) autumn conference on Thursday, schools minister Nick Gibb said: “No longer does the scourge of the ‘Ofsted teaching style’ dictate pedagogy in English classrooms. Now teachers are free to pursue and debate the most effective teaching methods.”

This came after Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, recently published a commentary on Ofsted’s curriculum review. Ms Spielman said: “One of the aims of this work was to challenge ourselves, as well as schools, about whether Ofsted has always recognised what is best in curriculum design, development and implementation. If we have not, I wanted to know whether inspection has played a role in bending the curriculum out of shape.”

I admire her courage - and I think she is right. However, I don’t think Ofsted is historically entirely to blame. Undoubtedly, Ofsted has driven behaviours in our education system, but the compliance approach has a host of other agents.

As a young teacher in the late 1990s, I was astonished that my profession would blithely accept that there was only one way to teach a lesson - and it was in the three parts. I accept that the National Strategies were ambitious change management programmes. I accept that standards improved over this period. But I believe that they left behind a legacy of compliance.

From 1998 the “strategies” provided what was essentially compliance training to teachers through a three-tier delivery model, comprising the Department for Education and a very large “national field force”, local authorities funded to deploy some 2,000 of their own advisers, and, in turn, schools and settings.

Taken alongside the National Curriculum and an approach to initial teacher education that is still badged “training”, at least two generations of teachers have been systematically deskilled in curriculum design and teaching methods. 

As Ms Spielman said in the introduction to her commentary: “What do we understand to be the real substance of education? When we think about what the core purpose of education is, what comes first to our minds? …At the very heart of education sits the vast accumulated wealth of human knowledge and what we choose to impart to the next generation: the curriculum.”

The curriculum is our core business. The approaches we use to instruct our pupils should be our bread and butter. Instead, for more than two decades, we have accepted that government and its agencies - its “field forces” and inspectors - could dictate to us.

Reclaiming the ‘secret garden’

So yes, it is time that we reclaimed the “secret garden” - not so that we can return it to secrecy, but so that we can have proper, evidence-informed professional discussions.

Autonomy is not an end in itself. First and foremost, autonomy must be effective in securing better outcomes for children. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development states: “Greater autonomy in decisions relating to curricula, assessments and resource allocation tend to be associated with better student performance, particularly when schools operate within a culture of accountability.”

There is no doubt that we operated within a culture of accountability in the English education system - but we need that culture to be a force for good. In order to do so, we must not let Ofsted (or any other agency or “field force”) scare us so easily.

We must take back from government and its agencies our professional responsibility for the curriculum and teaching methods.

We must develop and articulate powerful, evidence-informed curricula models that make a positive difference in the lives of the children and young people we serve.

Compliance in matters of curriculum and pedagogy? Ultimately, we must be able to say, “No such thing here.”

 Leora Cruddas is the chief executive officer at Freedom and Autonomy for Schools - National Association (FASNA). She tweets at @LeoraCruddas. Until the summer, she was the Association of School and College Leaders’ head of policy 

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