Teachers being 'bullied' by heads who invigilate them

Teachers are being driven out of their jobs and into ill-health by headteachers who bully them with repeated inspections of their lessons, a teachers' union conference heard yesterday.

The annual conference of the NASUWT voted unanimously to condemn headteachers who were using changes in Ofsted inspections as a way of persecuting their staff. Under new Ofsted rules, schools are required to show visiting inspectors how well they can evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses.

But delegates told the conference in Birmingham that many heads were using this repeatedly to "inspect" lessons themselves, often with little warning.

Brian Cook, a teacher from Wolverhampton who proposed the motion, told delegates that a number of heads were acting like "dictators and tyrants" and seemed "unable to treat teachers as people".

* Ministers were accused of a U-turn last night over a pledge made during Tony Blair's second term to provide all nursery school classes with a qualified teacher. A new consultation paper makes it clear that classes can be staffed by a teacher or by another adult qualified to degree level.