Julia Simpkins, secretary of the Bolton branch of the National Union of Teachers, recently canvassed local teachers for comments on their workload and was overwhelmed by the response. She gathered together all the replies and forwarded copies to Bolton MPs David Crausby, Julie Hilling and Yasmin Qureshi. ‘They were shocked by the picture that was painted of teachers’ lives and asked what they could do to help’ said Julia. ‘We talked about treating qualified teachers as professionals. If a teacher has been good or outstanding for 10, 20 or 30 years why do you need to observe them to check that they are still outstanding? I was in a school recently where teachers are subjected to a ‘learning walk’ every week. They do not know when it will come but they can expect someone to look at their teaching every week and it is recorded on a computer programme, so no verbal feedback is needed. That can only add to the stress’.