One of the most prominent anti-grammar school expansion campaigners has blamed “charlatan headteachers” from comprehensives for the emergence of plans to increase selection.

Former Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw claims that some school leaders, who have been unable to get the basics right, have led some to think “to continue the comprehensive ideal is a failure”.

“I get very frustrated sometimes by headteachers at comprehensive schools who really don’t have ambition and do some of the things that got comprehensives such a bad name in the 1970s and 1980s,” he told Tes.

“The heads who fail often are the ones that haven’t learned the lessons of that era. We still have them, unfortunately. They are what I call charlatan headteachers.”

‘Letting down a whole system’

Sir Michael, who was a headteacher at comprehensive schools for nearly 30 years before joining Ofsted in 2012, admitted that the system had improved in later decades.

But he said the public image of state education being like TV show Grange Hill remained, and school leaders had helped to reinforce it.

“Charlatan” comprehensive heads do not worry about behaviour, patronise children and spend too much time out of the school at consultation meetings and headteacher roundtables, according to the former Ofsted chief. 

He added: “Headteachers who are running comprehensive schools that don’t give time and attention to the basics are letting down a whole system. They undermine the great work that is being done by the great comprehensive headteachers out there.”

But Vic Goddard, principal of Passmores Academy, Harlow, said: “To say that comprehensives haven’t been good enough because of headteachers - and that’s why the grammar school conversation is there - I just think is nonsensical.

“It’s a shame that the brilliance that Sir Michael had in running his school, and some of the really strong work that was done at Ofsted - that sort of stuff ends up being overshadowed by that sort of comment.”

Goddard added that Sir Michael has picked the wrong time to criticise school leaders: “We don’t need another kicking,” he said.

“This feels like somebody’s just joined the queue - it’s worse when it feels like it’s one of us that’s doing it to us. It’s not easy being a head at the moment.”

This is an edited article from the 5 May edition of Tes. Subscribers can read the full article here. This week’s Tes magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here

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