Pressure is mounting on Ofsted after the death of the Berkshire headteacher Ruth Perry, whose family have called for an urgent review of the schools watchdog, describing its inspection regime as “punitive” and “fatally flawed”.
The family intervention came as teachers and parents took part in a protest outside another Berkshire school that was expecting Ofsted inspectors on Tuesday morning, despite pleas from teaching unions to pause inspections amid the growing outcry.
Perry’s sister, Julia Waters, said her family were in no doubt she had taken her own life in January as a “direct result” of the pressure put on her by the process and outcome of the Ofsted inspection, which downgraded her school from outstanding to inadequate.
She added: “In our opinion, the findings of Ofsted were disproportionate, unfair and, as has tragically been proven, deeply harmful in their implied focus on one individual.”
School leaders elsewhere are also considering taking collective action in response to Ofsted inspections as a mark of solidarity. The Suffolk Primary Headteachers’ Association (SPHA) is discussing displaying a photograph of the late headteacher, wearing black armbands and starting inspections with a minute’s silence.
