Former headteachers on the personal and professional toll of dealing with inspections

I was deeply saddened to read about Ruth Perry, the headteacher of Caversham primary school (Headteacher killed herself after news of low Ofsted rating, family says, 17 March). Over 20 years ago, I was an inner-city primary school headteacher whose school was subjected to one of the first Ofsted inspections. The school was placed in special measures, despite the fact that we were providing a safe and caring environment for our children. The inspection itself was dominated by Sats results and took little account of the school’s overall circumstances. One morning, during the inspection, a nine-year-old boy was sitting in my office – we were waiting for a social worker to attend since the boy had come to school high on cocaine and cannabis. An inspector saw us and told me that she was going to have to note that the boy was “not receiving equal access to the national curriculum”.

Read more letters in the Guardian

Special schools not always getting specialist Ofsted inspectors, cross-party Education Committee is told

Inspections of special schools are not always being carried out by “specialist” inspectors, a headteachers’ union has told MPs.

Read more in Tes Magazine

• Barnacre Road primary school went from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ in Ofsted report
• The school has been placed in special measures after the report this week

A much-loved headteacher has taken long-term sick leave, apparently because he is suffering from stress, after being criticised by Ofsted inspectors, MailOnline has learned.

Simon Wallis, hailed as ‘inspirational’ by the controversial schools watchdog just a few years ago, is not expected back at work after Barnacre Road primary school, Longridge near Preston, was placed in special measures and dropped from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ in this week’s report.

The news follows the shocking case of Berkshire head Ruth Perry, 53, who killed herself in January after her school dropped from outstanding to inadequate – an experience she called the worst day of her life.

Read more in the Daily Mail

Prof Colin Richards stands by his 1990s criticism of the schools regulator, Michael Pyke says it was set up to enforce a marketised system, and other readers give their views

Twenty-six years ago, following a contentious departure from Ofsted, I wrote an article for the Guardian (The high price of inspection, 3 June 1997). Little did I realise how high that price would be in terms of teachers’ mental health, ruined careers, demoralised schools, retention crises and, in extreme cases, individuals’ suicides (Punishing Ofsted regime is driving us out of education, say school leaders, 24 March). Doubtless many schools did improve as a result of Ofsted inspections, but some did not. Some schools benefited from, and gloried in, Ofsted accolades, but many did not. In the many negative instances, both children’s and teachers’ interests were poorly served.

I finished my article with: “There has to be a better way.” I still stand by that contention, and not just through removing misleading, simplistic overall grades. A better way can be found by drawing on the previous experiences of HM Inspectorate of Schools, abolished in 1992, and on inspection systems in other jurisdictions, including Wales. That will require political goodwill, as evidenced in Labour’s education plans, and determined but humane leadership once the current cloth-eared, ideological chief inspector steps down, or is forced to do so.
Prof Colin Richards
Spark Bridge, Cumbria

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In the wake of Ruth Perry’s suicide, headteachers speak out about the stress and fear that Ofsted visits can cause

Senior teacher Rob Dyson* says his last Ofsted inspection remains a “trauma”. Drinking tea in the staff room of the academy in the north of England after the inspector left, having delivered the verdict that the school had plummeted from “outstanding” to “requires improvement”, he says everyone was “ashen faced”. Noticing that the deputy head had turned a “terrible colour” and looked unwell, Dyson ushered him into the toilets.

“He started having a heart attack right there in front of me,” Dyson recalls. “It was absolutely shocking.”

Dyson got home that evening, after his colleague had gone to hospital in an ambulance, and took the dog for a walk. “I stood on the riverbank and I was just looking at that river. I had this awful sense of injustice. Our school was warm and friendly; it was absolutely bubbling,” he says. “But I snapped out of it and came home.”

Read more in the Guardian

After Ruth Perry’s family demand urgent review, Amanda Spielman says she is open to debate about grading

Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools in England, said she was “deeply sorry” over the death of Berkshire headteacher Ruth Perry, and backed “legitimate” debate over how Ofsted inspects schools in the future.

But Spielman, in her first public comments since Perry’s family attributed her death to a harsh Ofsted judgment, rejected calls by local authorities and school leaders to suspend inspections, defending them as necessary to help schools improve.

“Ruth Perry’s death was a tragedy. Our thoughts remain with Ruth’s family, friends and the school community at Caversham Primary. I am deeply sorry for their loss.

“Ahead of the coroner’s inquest, it would not be right to say too much. But I will say that the news of Ruth’s death was met with great sadness at Ofsted,” Spielman said.

Read more in the Guardian

Following the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry, teachers are calling for a fundamental reform of ‘punitive’ Ofsted inspections

Headteachers are in revolt. The system by which they are judged – Ofsted – is badly in need of reform, they say. Not only has it been downgrading schools for “unfair” reasons, they argue, but “punitive” inspections are placing a devastating personal strain on school leaders, costing them their health, potentially their careers and, in extreme cases, their lives. 

This week, a wave of outrage swept through the teaching profession following the death of Ruth Perry. The 53-year-old headteacher at Caversham Primary School in Reading took her own life in January while awaiting an Ofsted report that would downgrade her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”. Her family said in the past few days that they were in no doubt “Ruth’s death was a direct result of the pressure put on her by the process and outcome of an Ofsted inspection.”

Read more in the Telegraph

A small, red-brick primary school in Reading is an unlikely starting place for a seismic shift. But the death of Caversham Primary School’s head teacher, Ruth Perry, feels like one of those rare moments when something fundamental has altered in public perception.

Ms Perry took her own life in January, weeks after an Ofsted inspection. The Ofsted report, published after her death, downgraded her school’s rating from Outstanding to Inadequate – going from the top to the bottom of the scale.

It’s as though a dam has burst, with her family blaming her death on the pressure of the inspection and head teachers and teachers coming forward to talk about their own experiences of the Ofsted process.

Read more in BBC News

Shadow education secretary to reveal that a Labour government would also introduce an annual review of school safeguarding

An incoming Labour government would consult on replacing Ofsted inspection grades with a school scorecard, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has told headteachers today.

Read more from tes, John Roberts