Ruth Perry - OFSTED ‘contributed to death of Headteacher’

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The Coroner today recorded that OFSTED contributed to Ruth Perry’s death.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-67612233

An OFSTED inspector - ALAN DERRY - and his lack of professionalism, his lack of fairness, contributed to another human being’s death.

That is not an opinion that is a fact as recorded by the Coroner.

The Coroner also found that “parts of the ALAN DERRY’S inspection were conducted in a manner which lacked fairness”.

Regulators like ALAN DERRY exist to ensure fairness and proper procedures are followed by others. Why did ALAN DERRY allow his inspection to be unfair?

Our children, teachers, support staff and headteachers need immediate protection from an inspection process so appalling that is has contributed to a person’s death.

The Head of OFSTED has announced a day of training next week to fix this issue.

A day of training.

A day of training to help Inspectors not contribute to a person taking their own life. If an organisation needs training so that its employees don’t contribute to the deaths of others - then that organisation is not fit for purpose and its leadership, culture and moral compass are either absent or so woeful and professionally incompetent that they are simply negligent in the duties as a public body.

I believe a crowdfunding page is being established this week to possibly fund and pursue a case of Corporate Manslaughter against OFSTED now that their role in Ruth Perry’s death has been established.

How awful that a system of school inspection has become such a deranged quango. All power and no responsibility is such a toxic mix - and one here that has contributed to the death of another person.

What if another Head or Teacher takes their life in the coming weeks or months because of OFSTED - how awful would that be? How culpable would that make those who do not make seismic changes now.

Unprofessionalism of this level will not be cured by a day’s training and some tweaks.

Only complete and immediate overhaul - led by the SoS for Education and the Government can ensure this tragic event is not repeated in the coming months.

I thought his press statement was all going so well until he blamed all ills on attendance! FFS sending small children in poorly because school keep sending stupid letters home threatening parents, is absolutely not the problem in schools. A bigger cure would be to double the number of SEN, therapeutic and PRU places so that mainstream wouldn’t be dominated by the high needs of these children. I say this as a primary teacher and parent of a child moving to an SEN school. I had to fight hard for it but it was incredibly unfair on the other children in their class and his poor teacher. As well appalling for my child not getting their needs met. Inclusion on the cheap serves no one well.

This is so right, and why l left teaching.

High functioning SEND kids are shat on by this system. Not severe enough for a special school, but struggle in mainstream. This whole area is totally ignored.

It’s also really irritating that they are now spending two weeks giving their inspectorate the mental health training that they said was already a key part of their training!!

Shouldn’t they be saying, ‘sorry, what we said in court about our training, that wasn’t actually true!’

Agreed.

I'm not sure he has good credentials https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/exclusive-mps-demand-answers-outwood-grange-about-flattening-grass

Anyone in charge of a MAT that thinks this is a good idea doesn’t sound like someone who cares too much about anyone’s wellbeing!

In the blog, Mr Tomsett referred to an anonymous MAT using a behaviour policy called “flattening the grass”, which involved MAT executives visiting the school “en masse”, standing around the edge of the room during assemblies, and singling out pupils “in front of their peers until they cry”.

OGAT ( Outwood) are very tough, zero tolerance, isolation booths, often struggle to meet individual pupil needs.

Great if your child can comply, not so much when they can't. These children are picked up by other local (maintained) schools.

They ‘improve’ schools by tough measures.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ogat-threatened-with-academy-rebroker-over-high-suspensions/

And more…

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ogat-and-isolation-rooms-what-the-data-shows/

So, will the new head of Ofsted, who thinks it’s fine for heads to get rid of tricky pupils, be happy with all other heads doing it as well?

Exactly….a lot of the updated OFSTED framework, around ‘offrolling’ was to address trusts doing this.

NC for this but am regular poster.

This is nothing short of a tragedy. OFSTED have to be made accountable and the system MUST change. A day of training is an insult.

I was a HT and had the most dreadful year of my life with behaviour problems and a horrible build up to and OFSTED inspection. It was just awful. I’m not being dramatic to say I was traumatised. I was diagnosed with cancer 6 months later and absolutely believe this level of stress contributed to my diagnosis. I was not high risk at all. How many other HTs and school staff have had serious health problems due to this frankly unnecessary stress of OFSTED?

They are only concentrating on schools and not including any other sector. They need a complete overhaul. There are nursery owners and childminders today who are writing of devastating inspection experiences and are furious that they have again been forgotten.

Until Ofsted holds its hands up and commits to do some really serious work on its attitude and procedures, nothing will change. This is just a window-dressing exercise.

And let's add to this that secondary heads inspect secondaries and primary heads inspect primaries. It's awful to know considerably more about the curriculum than the person doing the inspecting, and still be told what you're doing isn't right.

The comments on this article are very illuminating. It's amazing that solitary confinement hasn't been challenged in the courts before.

My friend is an HMI, was a secondary middle leader (not slt) and had ONE DAY of primary training before he started inspecting primary.

I know of several infant schools who have been inspected recently by secondary school heads of humanities departments. Not heads or even deputies! They knew absolutely nothing about little children.

What is the point of that-does the view of a secondary school geography teacher about an infant setting tell the government if the school is providing value for money? Does it inform parents about which is the best school school to choose? Does it raise standards?

I don’t think it does any of those things and for someone wielding that much power, it has the capability to destroy a school as well as head teachers’ lives if they do it wrong because they don’t know anything about what they’re looking at.

I can also provide similar information.

Secondary department lead commenting that the ‘safeguarding team’ should be taking responsibility rather than the (overworked) headteacher….of a two teacher school…

In one inspection again, LI, a secondary lead, the report was glowing, much more glowing than the HT, school adviser and CoG ( ex primary HT) had evidenced. The LI’s ‘polite, well mannered, learners’, in our view was passive, disengaged learning, with a class of children that could achieve so much more.

Where it is really evident is early years.
LI’s with little knowledge check ‘cutting skills’ - they ask for a developmental plan for cutting - something included as children develop in their access to DT/collage/creativity but not major as a planned developmental process.

Having staff asked for the plan in three schools, and talking further to question why, apparently ‘cutting skills’ are part of the inspectors one day of training.

Really does show their limited understanding.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-didnt-bother-recording-headteacher-distress-inspection-pauses/

Surprise surprise! Maybe because it never happened…

I see that Ruth Perry’s sister and governor met with the new Ofsted head yesterday and have high hopes of reform. I can’t help but wonder though what Martyn Oliver can do though, that isn’t just tinkering around the edges. Recognition of the stress caused by Inspection does nothing to reduce it. Without removing the one word judgement (which the DfE said they won’t do) that pressure is still immense. Then the other issues of doing badly being linked to forced academisation, career-ending job losses, estate agents dropping the ‘outstanding’ label etc impacting on house prices-all remain the same.

A day of mental health training and a hot line to phone if you’re not happy is pissing in the wind really. The number of heads posting over the holidays how they were on anti-anxiety/depression medication is really worrying.

Of course they can't prove it because in any case most HT’s see too scared to share their stress with an LI.

HT’s in the main, cover their own stress.
They are concerned about their own staff.
They are concerned about the implications on the L&M judgement if they appear weak.

I've sat on the floor with a stressed HT.
I've talked HT’s round, to attend day 2.
I've supported HT’s to be calm so that they can evidence their work and that of their school.

I've prevented HT’s blaming themselves when the inspector is accusatory about safeguarding.
I've worked with a school where post inspection a teacher took her own life. The impact of that on the school community is massive, especially when scrutiny returns.

I've tried to support schools request a deferral ( turned down even though the HT would not be able to attend inspection, due to the timing of her radiotherapy appointment on day 1).

I've only ever been involved in one paused inspection.

It took serious LA involvement to ensure the pause, even though during the inspection news came through that an incident in the local community meant that staff and children in the school had lost young family members.
The inspection resumed two weeks later.

It took serious LA involvement to ensure the pause, even though during the inspection news came through that an incident in the local community meant that staff and children in the school had lost young family members.The inspection resumed two weeks later.

Wow.

Yet I read on a long thread on Twitter about inspections that an inspector had to leave a school early one day because of an ‘emergency’ whereby she had to go home and collect her husband’s passport and take it to him.

Yet ‘emergencies’ such as a head teacher’s surgery, imminent death of a close family member or a loved one’s funeral have not been deemed important enough to warrant a pause though.

All of these are so shocking - or should be to the population as a whole - and yet, are just not surprising to anyone with experience working in schools. It is so common it almost becomes the norm.

What depresses me so much that nearly all the comments I read from the general public (ie not on an education-type account) are people saying a combination of the following

-She shouldn’t have been a head if she wasn’t up to the scrunity.
-Of course schools should be inspected, it’s public money-they just want to get away with doing nothing.
-fine, the Ofsted might have contributed to her suicide but what else was going on?
-teachers with mental health problems should be sacked.
-Heads are accountable to the rest of us, if they don’t want to be, then they can just leave.
-Ofsted can’t just say only nice things for fear they might offend someone.

Maybe the other comments are deleted, I don’t know, but I find it rather hard to stomach.

@Appuskidu it's absolutely double standards isn't it? And in the case of some full time HMIs I know of, they'd never stand up to the responsibility and scrutiny of running a school themselves. They've never been a Head but are happy to work within a toxic framework judging others who've got the balls to do the job.

The discussion should be widened to include the other sectors that Ofsted deals with.
This isn’t only happening in schools and it’s too easy to dismiss if people think it’s just teachers, or just unions making a fuss.

Yesterday, I read of a childminder who has been told that Ofsted is coming to inspect her, even though her husband has just died.
I read of a whole nursery left distraught after an inspection with a rude, antagonistic inspector.
I heard from a childminder left so traumatised by Ofsted, she collapsed and needed medical attention.

And that’s just in one day. There are still stories being reported to Early Years organisations. Really appalling, distressing stories.

It’s all very well for the Times to complain that unions have got it in for Ofsted. They ought to be asking why there’s so much ammunition.
Ofsted needs to stop behaving like a bully whining that everyone’s just picking on him and take some responsibility.

I haven't watched it yet, but here is the inspectors MH training.