Teachers who have served a lengthy service see Ofsted as less reliable

According to the annual Ofsted attitude teacher survey, the longer a teacher has worked in schools, the less likely they are to trust Ofsted.

The poll also shows that seven in 10 teachers think that Ofsted is in place to push the government’s agenda, but found that inspections are getting friendlier.

More than 1,000 teachers were quizzed in the poll, which was carried out by YouGov in February.

The results show that teachers with less than five years of teaching experience are more likely to have their attitudes towards Ofsted shaped by general reputation and views of colleagues rather than personal experience.

It also revealed that teachers with more than six years of experience are more likely to have information about inspection and how Ofsted works shared with them by their senior leadership, or through membership of a teaching association or union.

In terms of Ofsted inspections, 82 per cent of primary teachers said that they found them to be highly stressful for everyone, compared with 69 per cent of secondary teachers.

Half of all teachers’ (52 per cent) last personal experience of being inspected in a school setting was in the last two years. Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of teachers working in an outstanding school last experienced being inspected over five years ago.

Teachers inspected within the last 12 months are significantly more likely to have found the experience better than expected compared with teachers inspected between one and five years ago.