My Lords, I support what the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, said, which was echoed by the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick. These measures should not be used as a means to punish academics but should rather be used to support them in developing their game. As a trustee of a mental health charity that works with schools, I am well aware of the morale among teachers and head teachers and regret to say that it is very often extremely poor. They
are of course at the opposite extreme. As a former Chief Inspector of Schools has said, we have the most measured pupils in the world, and we probably have the most measured teachers in the world. So many of them are worrying, “When is an Ofsted report going to come along to tell me how badly I’m doing?”.
7 pm
Lucy Crehan, a former teacher and an academic, recently published a book, Cleverlands, which looks at the best-performing schools in the world. She visited Finland, and what she found there was a complete contrast. When teachers were struggling, they would receive support. When they continued to struggle, they would receive more support. In contrast, in this country and the United States, when a teacher or a school is struggling, we attack them and punish them. That is going a bit overboard—there is good work in getting schools to support other schools. Predominantly, however, there is a far more punitive approach here. I would hate to see that coming into the higher education system. I look forward to the Minister’s response.