High-profile traditionalist names added to Ofsted advisory group on teacher education

A roll-call of high-profile traditionalists has just been added to a group advising Ofsted on the future of teacher training inspections, in a move which seems likely to add to concerns that the inspectorate has been captured by one side in England’s bitterly-contested trad-prog wars.

Tom Bennett, who has advised the Department for Education on pupil behaviour, the author Daisy Christodoulou and Mark Lehain, who leads the traditionalist pressure group “Parents and Teachers for Excellence” are among five names just appointed to the group.

They are joined by Matt Hood and Marie Hamer, both of the newly-named Ambition Institute. Although less associated with one side in the trad-prog debate, the Ambition Institute has been heavily backed by the Department for Education, so they seem unlikely to be critical of the government’s traditionalist perspective.

The list of members of the group was disclosed by Ofsted as it faced criticism following the resignation from it of the academic Viv Ellis, of King’s College, London.

Ellis, professor of educational leadership and teacher development, had tweeted about his departure from the group.