A flurry of new acronyms has entered the teaching profession. DDDs, IIIs and a plethora of others that are still leaving me mystified have entered the corridors of schools and the insomniac hours of teachers and school leaders. 

The middle leaders seem to have been particularly hard hit. They’re learning to dive deeply, while teaching others to do the same, at the same time as wondering who the hell thinks up these slightly filthy-sounding terms. And why they’re rewriting schemes of learning for the fifth time in as many years.

Deep dives: Ofsted workload prompts teacher wellbeing fears

Social media: ‘F**k Ofsted’ Instagram post lands MAT boss in trouble

Opinion: I’m holding my nerve in my support for the new Ofsted

I can’t help but wonder whether our profession is subject to a kind of Stockholm syndrome, and has been for years now. 

Led by moral purpose

To be clear: I’m not without unsympathetic to the obsession with second-guessing what Ofsted wants. It’s all well and good, when you’re a gold-standard, star-studded, huge-bannered “outstanding’ school”, to say you’re led purely by moral purpose and the good of young people.

But when a school is struggling for its reputation and very existence, the story can be quite different. 

Let’s imagine a school that’s faced any or all of the following: a dip in results; struggles to recruit and retain teachers and students; a previous rating of “requires improvement” or “inadequate”; a poor reputation in the community; and a place in the bottom section of the league tables.

To attract bums on seats, schools need to move up performance tables and get decent Ofsted ratings - like it or not, parents make a beeline for these. To move up performance tables, interventions for targeted groups seem essential. To gain a decent Ofsted grade, it’s not unreasonable to try to understand and pre-empt what the inspectorate wants.

Misunderstanding human behaviour

Ofsted stated that it “doesn’t expect teachers (or TAs) to take any steps to prepare for inspection; we will speak to pupils and teachers, look at work and visit lessons but this is work that is already in hand in every school” in a tweet on 8 October. 

But this represents, for many teachers, a fundamental misunderstanding of human behaviour - as one teacher says, it’s like “telling people not to tidy up before the in-laws come to visit”.

So, are we stuck in an endless catch-22 here? Ofsted tells us it wants to see us as we are. We don’t believe it. We work our teachers into the ground to try to pre-empt the next visit. 

Ofsted seems to be shifting towards a position where it genuinely wants to work with teachers and show that it is prioritising wellbeing and a reasonable workload. Many schools go on to pile on more work, because they genuinely believe they can’t afford not to. 

Stress and disillusionment

Heads are stressed. The stress gets passed on to middle leaders and, in turn, to teachers and TAs, so many of whom have already been through mock deep dives. 

And then more teachers get disillusioned and consider walking away from the profession. As long as we continue to place Ofsted on a mythical pedestal, we’re caught in the cycle - and the teaching crisis threatens to deepen further.

There’s only one way out of what I see as a kind of collective insanity: audacious leadership at all levels. 

Is it risky? Hell, yes. 

Is it possible? There are so many principled leaders out there who actually do put their values and visions ahead of the fight, flight or freeze terror of what Ofsted wants that persists in staffrooms across the country. 

So I asked around. I asked people to tell me about schools and leaders who are resisting the perceived pressure of Ofsted. The responses were numerous and refreshing. 

‘It’s not Ofsted’s school’

One assistant headteacher expresses her pride in her school’s aim to “defend childhood”, placing students’ wellbeing and happiness as the first priority.

A primary school headteacher confidently defended her school’s feedback policy: “When I tell people my teachers don’t mark outside the lesson and I don’t observe lessons, they ask me, ‘What will Ofsted say?’ - I simply reply, ‘It is not Ofsted’s school’.”

A head of maths told her team to refrain from aiming for “outstanding” in their individual observations, but to aim, as a team, for “solidly good”. The result? Outstanding progress for their students.

A primary school teacher expresses pride in his school: “Our school resists [Ofsted pressures] and is thriving. Our school values, staff wellbeing and creativity are not sacrificed for bureaucracies or to satisfy an Ofsted haunting.”

This is a tiny sample of thousands of schools and leaders and teachers who value whole humans over mindless accountability.

What do these accounts have in common? Pride, yes. A sense of fun and enjoyment as well. And, by the way, most also report improved results (and Ofsted ratings). 

Visit these schools, speak to these leaders, find more like them and tell everyone else about them.

Take heart, take strength - there is another way. 

Dr Emma Kell is a secondary teacher in north-east London and author of How to Survive in Teaching. She tweets at @thosethatcan