After her suicide and the coroner’s judgment, Ruth Perry’s name will mark not just the downfall of Ofsted’s reign of fear, but an end to the pitiless exam and inspection-driven education era in England.
The coroner’s exceptional verdict of “suicide: contributed to by an Ofsted inspection” found the inspection of Caversham primary school in Reading, where Perry was headteacher, “lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity” and was at times “rude and intimidating”.
