His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, today announced that he has appointed Dame Christine Gilbert to lead an independent learning review into Ofsted’s response to the tragic death of Ruth Perry.
The independent review was among the measures detailed in Ofsted’s response to the Coroner’s Prevention of Future Deaths report, published in January. The review will consider:
- the actions Ofsted took in response to hearing about the death of Ruth Perry
- Ofsted’s communications, its engagement with stakeholders and information-sharing within Ofsted regarding the incident
- the support Ofsted offered internally to staff, including inspectors, and how its approach was informed by clearly defined policies
The review will not examine the inspection of Caversham Primary School in November 2022, nor the judgements it made.
Dame Christine spent 18 years in schools as a teacher and secondary headteacher, and has worked in London boroughs as both director of education and chief executive. She served as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector at Ofsted from 2006 until 2011, during which time she brought 3 different inspectorates together to create a new organisation. She has led or participated in several service reviews, mostly in education but also including Baroness Casey’s review of the Metropolitan Police, published last year.
