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The sister of a headteacher who took her own life after an Ofsted report has accused the government of ignoring a coroner’s findings into her death by failing to change the school inspection regime.
In 2023, a coroner ruled that an Ofsted assessment that sharply downgraded Caversham primary school in Reading, contributed to the death of Ruth Perry.
On Monday, Perry’s sister Prof Julia Waters urged the government to pause its overhaul of Ofsted because she said they would leave in place an inspection system that was unsafe because it was “based on shame”.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Waters said: “There needs to be a system that is supportive, that’s safe, that’s fair, and that takes very real warnings of the coroner at my sister’s inquest seriously, and doesn’t just try to ignore them and pretend that everything’s OK.”
She added: “At the inquest into my sister’s death, the coroner warned that there was a risk of future deaths if only lip service was paid to learning from tragedies like Ruth’s death.
“But in launching their consultations, neither Ofsted nor the Department for Education even referred to Ruth’s death. Instead, they have proposed a new system that is really the old system with a few tweaks around the edges and is not the radical reform that’s needed.”
Waters joined school leaders, national organisations and former inspectors in writing an open letter to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to call for a rethink of proposed changes to the inspection regime.
She said: “It is still a system that’s based on shame. Is still a system that’s based on competition rather than support. It’s still a system in which headteachers risk losing their jobs because of an inspection that’s unreliable.”
The letter to Phillipson states: “We believe the proposed new system will continue to have a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of education staff and hence on students’ school experience.
“In particular, we believe the proposed new report cards and the new grading system fail to address the recommendations of the coroner following the tragic, preventable death of Ruth Perry.
“They also fail to address the recommendations of the education select committee’s inquiry into the work of Ofsted, which was launched as a result of wider concerns highlighted by Ruth’s terrible death.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said the proposed changes played a “central” role in its work to raise school standards.
“The system this government inherited was high stakes for teachers but low information for parents, which is why we’re removing single-word judgment and introducing school report cards,” the spokesperson added.
“Both Ofsted’s and the department’s consultations have provided an important opportunity for everyone to have their say and both organisations will carefully consider all responses before finalising the approach.”
The government announced last year that headline Ofsted grades for overall effectiveness for schools in England would be scrapped. Previously, the regulator awarded one of four single-phrase inspection judgments: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.
In February, Ofsted launched a consultation on its plans to introduce a report card system that would grade schools in England across eight to 10 areas of a provision, including attendance, inclusion and behaviour, using a colour-coded five-point scale.
They would receive ratings – from the red “causing concern” to orange “attention needed” through the green shades of “secure”, “strong” and “exemplary” – for each area of practice.
