A minister has suggested that the way some Ofsted ratings are made should be reconsidered following the death of a headteacher. The family of Ruth Perry, who was headteacher at Caversham Primary School in Reading, said she killed herself in January while waiting for an Ofsted report which downgraded her school to the lowest possible rating.
The school was rated as 'good' in every category apart from leadership and management, which was graded as 'inadequate', which led to the overall rating. Levelling up secretary Michael Gove says Ofsted should look at how schools, like Caversham Primary, can be rated inadequate overall if they only fail in one area in an inspection.
He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that the grades used by Ofsted are 'important', but added: "There is one issue which I do feel we need to reflect on and look at which is that if a school is found to have failed its safeguarding criteria, then that is what is called a limiting judgment and if a school is found inadequate in that area, that means it is inadequate overall, even if it has strong teaching and learning and its other areas are good as well.
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“Safeguarding is the set of rules that govern the wellbeing of children within the school, the health and safety and protection and so on. I do think we need to look at the way in which a limiting judgment as it’s called, a technical term, means that a failure in one area means failure everywhere else - but that is not a criticism of Ofsted.
“Ofsted do a great job, the Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman is someone absolutely committed to supporting teachers to do better.” Mr Gove also paid tribute to Ms Perry, saying she was a 'talented, passionately committed person'.
Teachers have called for an overhaul of Ofsted in the wake of Ms Perry's death. Chief inspector Ms Spielman has acknowledged the debate about reforming inspections to remove grades 'is a legitimate one' but insisted school checks aim to raise standards and should continue.
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