The head of Ofsted wants to fine ‘feckless’ parents. Is he in the wrong job?

Sir Michael Wilshaw may have been in charge of Ofsted since January 2012 — he is arguably the most important educationalist in the land — but in his head he is still very much a head teacher. He’s bossy. He wants to fine parents he doesn’t think are trying hard enough. He has told the Sutton Trust that, when he ran a school, he ‘would have loved’ to impose fines on mothers and fathers who didn’t turn up to parents’ evenings. Asked to clarify what he meant, he added: ‘If it’s a parent that’s doing their very very best but they can’t because of all sorts of personal circumstances, fine,’ he said, ‘but the feckless parent who just does not support the school, they should be told unequivocally that they’re not supporting it and, if necessary, be fined.’

You can take the head teacher out of school, but you can’t take school out of the head teacher.