Teachers are being overwhelmed by the amount of marking now required to comply with Ofsted inspections, headteachers have warned.

Inspectors have stopped grading individual lessons, but are now focusing more attention on marking and assessment in pupils’ books to judge the overall quality of teaching.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT headteachers’ union, said the change had caused serious problems for teachers in terms of extra workload. He is due to meet with Ofsted officials next month to press his case for reform of the inspection regime.

Kevin Bullock, head of Fordham CofE Primary School in Cambridgeshire, said the extra scrutiny was pushing teachers to go part-time so they could cope with the paperwork.

Ofsted has published a “clarification for schools” document saying that inspectors did not expect to see “unnecessary or extensive written dialogue between teachers and pupils in exercise books”.

But Mr Hobby said this failed to explain what inspectors did want to see when visiting schools.

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