A TEACHING union has spoken out against East Lancashire schools conducting so-called "mocksteds" to improve their Ofsted rating.

Schools across the region are turning to registered inspectors from the education watchdog to carry out reviews in order to boost their grade.

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Among those who have employed inspectors recently are Our Lady and St John Catholic College in Blackburn and Longridge High School in the Ribble Valley.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) in the region has said that the process puts its members under "greater pressure" and that the extra inspections "don’t guarantee success".

Simon Jones, who represents the NUT in East Lancashire, said: “We have heard of a few problems with these "mocksteds" where an inspector has come in and said that the school is good and then Ofsted has reviewed it and they have downgraded it.

“It happens the other way around as well and that just shows how subjective an Ofsted inspection really is.

“For the union these "mocksteds" mean that teachers are put under more pressure more often as they are subjected to the high stress levels of a normal Ofsted inspection.

“Doubling up like this isn’t good for anyone.”

In January Longridge High School employed an Ofsted inspector to help it regain its "good" rating.

It was downgraded to "requires improvement" by the education watchdog last year.

At the time headteacher Jane Green said that they would work to quality assure the school’s judgements on teaching and learning.

She said that joint lesson observations with senior and middle leaders had taken place and that the inspector said that the school’s judgements on the quality of teaching and learning are "accurate".

Our Lady and St Johns Catholic College in Blackburn was praised recently by an Ofsted-accredited inspector as a "good" school.

The school, which was placed into special measures two years ago, has rung in the changes since February 2014 which have seen it being upgraded to "requires improvement" by the education watchdog in July last year and praised further in December.

Ahead of an expected review after the summer GCSE exams, the inspector revealed that it’s meeting the requirements of being rated as "good".