It was early this year when Ofsted’s new chief inspector vowed to make changes to its inspection regime, one year after the tragic death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
The 53-year-old headteacher of the Caversham primary school in Reading killed herself in January 2023, 54 days after Ofsted inspectors told her they planned to downgrade the school from outstanding to the lowest grade – inadequate.
At Perry’s inquest in November, Berkshire’s senior coroner found that the inspection had contributed to Perry’s death, and she described Ofsted’s conduct as “rude and intimidating”.
The death by suicide of Perry, a married mother of two teenage girls, made national headlines and prompted an outburst of testimony from school leaders and teachers, who described the distress caused by England’s school inspection regime and its impact on heads.
Through unimaginable grief, Perry’s family joined forces with unions and the teaching profession and set off on a dogged campaign demanding urgent reform and change. Perry’s sister, Prof Julia Waters, warned: “What happened to Ruth could happen again.”
A review commissioned by Reading borough council said in July that the tragedy should “highlight the folly of the macho culture of high-stakes accountability” inflicted on England’s schools.
The review’s authors said: “In the United Kingdom there is a history of public reports which, by accident or design, have led to the public excoriation of individuals. If Ruth’s death tells us anything, it is that that practice must stop. Our public services are run and delivered by human beings.”
And now, 19 months since Perry’s death, the government and the inspectorate will make the change which has been the cornerstone of their campaign: scrapping the single-word grading system which designates schools as either outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.
Instead, the government said it will introduce school report cards from September 2025 which will “provide parents with a full and comprehensive assessment of how schools are performing and ensure that inspections are more effective in driving improvement”.
In response to the news, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “We have been clear that simplistic one-word judgments are harmful and we are pleased the government has taken swift action to remove them.”
Perry grew up in Caversham and attended the primary school which she later led. For the 12 years she served as head, the school was only ever graded outstanding by the inspectorate, with Perry described as confident, capable and compassionate by staff and those who knew her.
An Ofsted inspection in November 2022, which Waters said was the worst day of her sister’s life, prompted the 53-year-old to deteriorate. Fearful of losing her job and the wider impact of the Ofsted report on the local community, Perry confided in her husband to having “dark thoughts” before seeking help at a psychiatric hospital and GP surgery.
“The Christmas holidays were awful for the whole family … Ruth became more isolated and distressed, constantly going over the same worries in her mind but unable to do anything about them,” Perry’s husband, Jonathan, said.
“Ruth just saw this one word, ‘inadequate’, as summing everything she had ever achieved and it was targeted at her. That is how she felt and it just crushed her,” Waters, a professor of contemporary French literature at Reading University, told the Sunday Times.
The lack of progress from the government prompted fury from Waters earlier this year when she criticised the former education secretary Gillian Keegan for failing to scrap single-word judgments.
Ofsted had mostly dismissed concerns about the inspection at the Berkshire primary school until the coroner ruled the critical Ofsted report contributed to Perry’s death, describing the inspection as lacking in “fairness, respect and sensitivity” and having been at times “rude and intimidating”.
Martyn Oliver, who took on the role of chief inspector at Ofsted in January this year, said in response to the inquest: “As a fellow headteacher, I was shocked and saddened by the death of Ruth Perry.
“As the new chief inspector, I am determined to do everything in my power to prevent such tragedies in the future. We accept the coroner’s findings and have responded to the recommendations of her report in full.”
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, described the removal of headline grades as a “generational reform and a landmark moment for children, parents and teachers.
“Single-headline grades are low-information for parents and high-stakes for schools. Parents deserve a much clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing – that’s what our report cards will provide.” she added.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
