How about Headteachers and Inspectors having to do teaching practice every few years?

[SiriusStar]

I have been thinking for a while now that Headteachers and inspectors from a teaching back ground should have to do a teaching practice of a few weeks every few years where they are expected to teach the way teachers do NOW, not years ago when they were in the job. This could be a day a week or a block of time and they would be required to provide evidence of observations made by other staff at the school, consultants and ofsted or link inspectors.
I truly believe that they would be better at their day jobs and that staff would have more respect for their head teachers and inspectors if they knew they had hands on knowledge and experience that was recent and subjected to the same standards.

I totally agree with you.

When I did my PGCE the senior tutors had to do this and they were generally highly respected, usually published type people they called it R&R - recent and relevant experience.

In my first school I had one of them in my yeargroup on placement, she was a well known author of the text books we'd had at college! It was a bizarre thing to have her there. But she was fab and it was great fun.

My head teacher has a timetable. She teaches regularly anyway and she's only 41, so I think she's pretty much 'on task' so to speak!

DD's head teacher and all SLT do the same too.

I think it's very important, not only for them to see the school from inside the classroom, but also to be evident around the school, getting to know their students.

I agree with the inspectors though. A lot of them very possibily haven't been in a classroom for years and are too used to looking at things from a text book point of view.