Opinion article

Teacher ‘Told to sound less northern’ after southern Ofsted inspection

A school in Berkshire has argued against their recent Ofsted report due to the southern Ofsted inspector telling a one of the school’s female teacher to tone down and sound less northern as a result of criticism towards the school by the inspectors.

Many would see that a teacher being told to tone down her accent as a positive thing. This is due to the fact as teachers being seen as role models and a figure within the school to look up and aspire too. This results in the students especially in the younger years to pick up on the teacher’s accent, pronunciation, variety of words and sentence types therefore use this variety of language for themselves. This helps students to reach their target which enhances their performance due to adults using a wider range of vocabulary. With students spending around 7 hours a day within school the school from the age of 4 to 18 then students are more likely to pick up habits due to secondary socialisation occurring within the school environment. An example of this could be the Essex accent. Imagine a teacher with a strong Essex accent in a local school, the child are very likely to have similar accent therefore will pick up much more of their pronunciation. The Essex accent is very rural, most people seem to think that people from Essex have a cockney accent. Nowadays due to the East London overspill. For example people from Essex say ‘gunna go’ instead of ‘going to go’. The accent usually miss out letters such as “t”. This is due to the high amount of slang that people from this area occasionally use. Regardless of is your child has picked up on a teachers accent, they must like the teacher due to this meaning that they are learning and picking up knowledge from them.

Paul Watkins, executive member of the National Association of schoolmasters declined the name of the school due to it being uncomfortable towards the teacher. This shows that the teaching is delivered to a high standard but the criticism from the southern Ofsted inspector is due to how his way of speech is widely different from the northern accent. It has been said that the school has had ‘a number of on-going issues in the school’ such as a potential transportation into the academy. This shows how the developments within the school are on-going within the school for the advantage of the students at the school.

Louise Green, the editor of the Lakeland Dialect society, added that the Cambrian accent was the most wonderful thing meaning that it should be embraced within the county. She quoted that “To try and remove it is like trying to remove the Beefeaters”. She decided that “we should be celebrating our different regional ways of speech, prompting and protecting them.” This allows to be beneficial with many different children as it creates a greater chance of the being more unique and specific while they are growing up.

As an alternative the school given their pupils a list of ten banned regional phrases such as “ya cor”, “you can “and “ay” instead of “pardon”. This helps for the school to get their students ready for job interviews helping to benefit the in the future.

In contrast, this statement by the Ofsted inspector, “it could be written off as humorous at first sight – but the more you think of it the more it can make your blood boil and should stagger you”. This shows the statement about ‘told to sound less northern’ after southern Ofsted inspection’ is unprofessional and inappropriate as accents are natural not put on. This strong statement was strongly disapproved as it was about an ethnic minority group then the inspector would have been accused of racism due to the discrimination of an individual. Accents are always advanced and is a natural way of speech therefore trying to sound less northern is heard as the “most ridiculous thing ever heard of”.

Within this specific school, the incident has gone down like a lead balloon in Cumbria. Eric Robson the chairman of the Cumbrian society said “That the school should be put into special measures immediately. It’s ridiculous”. This extreme statement does not support the views of how the school is improving such as the process of the school turning into an academy. Therefore it shows how much impact that this recent issue has caused.

Overall my opinion on the opinion piece on the ‘Teacher “told to sound less northern” after southern Ofsted inspection’ is that it doesn’t matter of the accent of the teacher but the Ofsted should be more interested in the value of the teaching within the school. Due to all things considered, the amount of appropriate education that the students in the school are receiving is much more important. This is due to the grades received by the students within the school from the age of 4 to 18 which will stay with them for the rest of the life benefitting them with their job and everyday life in the future.

By Megan Wibrow