Chris_Woodhead

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Chris Woodhead

Christopher Anthony Woodhead (born 1946, Edmonton) was the Chief Inspector of Schools in England from 1994 until 2000 and is one of the most controversial figures in debates on the direction of English education policy. He is currently the Chairman of Cognita, a company dedicated to fostering private education.

Early life

His father was an accountant, and his mother a school secretary, and he had no brothers or sisters. He went to Selsdon Primary School on Addington Road in South Croydon, then Wallington County Grammar School in Surrey, where he was caned twice. A graduate of English from the University of Bristol, Woodhead briefly worked as an English teacher at Wallington County Grammar School for Boys and two other state schools before moving into teacher education. He became a lecturer at the University of Oxford and held a number of posts in education development, including Deputy Chief Education Officer in Devon in 1989, as well as posts in Shropshire and Cornwall. Woodhead then held a number of national posts such as head of the National Curriculum Council, which became the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, and Schools Curriculum Assessment Authority, culminating in his appointment as head of the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), the schools inspection service, in 1994.

OFSTED

Woodhead is particularly associated with support for "traditional teaching methods" and for taking a scornful view of "progressive educational theories" introduced into English schools from the 1960s onwards. Supporters claimed that Woodhead was a radical reformer willing to tackle the failings of the education system and only encountering the defensiveness of the educational establishment. Critics argued that he was generating poor morale, rarely identified successes in schools, and that the "progressive teaching" he attacked was a straw man, with little resemblance to actual classroom practices. Woodhead most prominently identified weaknesses in schools with poor teaching and repeatedly asserted this view. Amongst his controversial remarks he claimed there were "15,000 incompetent teachers" and "I am paid to challenge mediocrity, failure and complacency". His blunt approach gained him many enemies, especially in the teaching profession.

When the Labour government came to power in 1997 there was much political pressure to replace Woodhead, either immediately or when his initial term expired in 1998, but instead he was retained and his appointment renewed by Education Secretary David Blunkett. In 1999 Woodhead came under immense pressure to resign when it was claimed by his ex-wife that whilst working as a teacher he had had an affair with a pupil , however he stood firm with the support of Blunkett. Woodhead and Amanda Johnston, the pupil concerned, insisted that although they had met while he was her teacher, the relationship (which lasted for nine years) had only developed several years later in Oxford after they had both left the Gordano School. In February 1999 Woodhead addressed an audience of trainee teachers and was asked for his views on legislation to ban sexual relationships between pupils and teachers. His response was that such relationships, while regrettable, could be "experiential and educative on both sides" , a remark for which he later apologised.

Resignation

On November 2 2000 Woodhead announced his resignation, to much rejoicing amongst the teaching unions.

In February 2005, The Guardian obtained information using the UK Freedom of Information Act, which confirmed that in 1997 Woodhead had overruled a unanimous decision by his own inspectors, and a subsequent inspection visit by HMI inspectors, in order to declare that Islington Green school was failing and required special measures According to the head of the school at the time, "the consequences for staff and pupils were catastrophic". Despite Woodhead's enthusiasm for evidence-based inspection, he has never made public the reasons for this decision.

Lecturer and columnist

He was employed as a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times newspapers. Subsequently he stated that he felt the school-inspection system was now in a strong position and that he "felt unable to defend some aspects of government policy."

In 2002 he was appointed a Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham. He continues to speak out in public on many issues relating to education at both school and university level, often provoking great controversy. In 2004 Woodhead became chairmain of Cognita, a company that owns and runs independent schools.

Personal life

He met his wife, Cathy, at Bristol and they married in 1969 and had a daughter in 1975 whilst living in Bristol. They divorced in September 1976 and she now lives in Deganwy. He lives in north Wales. He enjoys rock climbing.