Ruth Perry - OFSTED ‘contributed to death of Headteacher’

[JVJ24601]

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.

JVJ "*The crucial aspect about stress in teaching is that it isn’t the teaching that makes it stressful.

It isn’t the job that’s stressful - it’s OFSTED that’s stressful.*"

This can not be emphasised enough. An inordinate portion of my work -hours each week, and especially on weekends- is directly related to ensuring we are prepared for an Ofsted inspection, both in my classroom teaching and in my multiple leadership roles. And there is only so much time in the day. The inspection protocol's fixation on scrutinising teaching and learning in individual subjects, quizzing children on facts and 'deep diving' subject leadership forces colleagues to micromanage each other to an unhealthy degree and target and drill pupils to 'deliver' in ludicrous roles as 'subject ambassadors' who can shine in the event of an inspection (common practice in my LA, actively encouraged by the LA's advisors, literally putting the brightest, most confident and eloquent children in front of inspectors to field questions about learning in allocated subjects).

Were the unreasonable expectations of 'Ofsted readiness' to be removed and replaced with a more constructive process, my professional experience would be quite transformed. Teaching is by its very nature labour intensive, and that’s inevitable. The job is never done: you always want to provide a little bit more, give a little bit extra. Doing so from a place of wanting to provide the very best for the children in your care is rewarding and delightful. The extra things teachers have to prioritise and give their time to on account of Ofsted frequently detract from creating the kind of learning experiences that really benefit children.

Thank you - I'm the same! I read them but the most important judgement is the one I come to based on first hand evidence from visiting the school myself and second hand evidence from parents and pupils whose judgement I trust, who I can ask specific questions about things relevant to my specific child.
I would find it far more useful to have reports that all cover the same categories, decided upon through research with parents but most likely factual info provided by the school verified by the inspector, covering subject specific stuff plus sporting ethos and facilities, library resources and access/promotion of reading, creative subjects approach eg D&T/art etc facilities/access, music facilities, languages emphasis, science, school trips, catering, MH support/pastoral care, drama opportunities etc then some degree of qualitative overview of ethos/discipline etc etc so that each school has the same factual info, you can more easily compare like with like and there is less subjective judgements that might just be based on what happened on 1/2 days of visits.
The reports all read a bit meh and just like any individual child could sail through a school with a string of top grades and friends while another could be miserable and bullied, any one inspector could easily find a totally different school to a different inspector one week later - they're really unhelpful.

I was talking to my husband about this and like many I have been horrified by this whole case. The head of Ofsted comes across so appallingly every time she speaks.

Alan Derry's behaviour as an Inspector is now on public record.

I have met workplace bullies before - thankfully few. Ruth Perry went into this inspection with confidence that her school was a good one - because it was. As I said to DH - this was her mistake. In my experience bullies are triggered by this and immediately set out to destroy. They want people to be afraid. I suspect the immediate response from Ofsted was - how dare she be confident in her work? How dare she not be more afraid? Let's show her.

I would be interested to have some quiet chats with people who know all the Ofsted staff involved in this case. And yes 100% the system is flawed which is why teachers who have other options are leaving the profession in droves. This Government had a chance to do some good but instead they chose to defend the same inadequate system.

Evesix is spot on. The amount of my work that is just for OFSTED is huge. Also the way the whole school, and even sadly the children, have to pivot in the inspection year to face them and be ready and rehearsed is appalling. All they seek is a more and more artificial version of a school day and a child. If they come next week - should I stop the Christmas play rehearsals?

Id be really interested to hear from any OFSTED inspectors reading this thread - can you please respond to some or indeed any of the points and criticisms above?

Myothernametoday makes a great point about bullying.

We had a wonderful TA who 8 years ago in an inspection (TA had just announced her retirement) gave the best response I’d heard to an inspector.

The inspector was giving the whole staff their usual speech at the start of the day.

I am here to inspect your school without fear or favour…. Do you mean professionally? The TA interrupted. Er..well..yes of course said the Inspector. Well we know that said the TA - why the dramatic fear and favour quote - the last inspector tried that one and we still got a good back then.

What @EveSix says.
Lots of time ensuring children are able to parrot what they’ve learned for a deep dive. No time to follow a discussion in a lesson. No joy. We do our best but the primary curriculum is packed and we are always aware that the children must know more, do more, remember more… for an inspector.
Plus the ever changing ideas of what is good. Reading review - so what made us good last time might not be right this time. Maths review, ditto. Like playing football uphill with someone moving the goalposts every couple of minutes.
Forced academisation with no evidence that it improves anything.
Much time ensuring all staff can say exactly the same thing because if one person says ooh I’m not sure let me check ….
Subject leaders expected to have a secondary level of knowledge - about a subject that has been dumped on them with no pay and no time to lead it.
I love teaching but the whole system is broken and Ofsted are a major part of this.

Alan Derry, the Lead inspector, was singled out for his behaviour during the inspection at Caversham. Let's not forget that the two other inspectors, Gavin Evans and Clare Wilkins, also put their names to this report; they were (perhaps still are?) working for an organisation which isn't fit for purpose and were part of this inspection which we now know officially contributed to the death of a great head teacher.

No child came to harm at Caversham. The safeguarding paperwork wasn't up to scratch and some staff weren't clear on procedures. Is that really worth inadequate when all other areas were good?

We recently had a similar inspection at my school. Good in all areas, inspector noted all children were safe however there was a concern over some paperwork. It was being done but not in what the inspector felt was the best way, we nearly got inadequate as a result. She was very dismissive of the headteacher.

Surely a better outcome would be education and support for schools where issues exist. Explain why the system isn't great and help staff to put an alternative in place.

An inadequate judgement when all other areas are good/outstanding and children are safe seems very unfair.

Absolutely. When you run a study/piece of research, it should be replicable, so that you get the same result. I think many Ofsted inspections are so arbitrary and subjective that there’s no faith in the system, as a different inspector could come in and give a totally different result. It feels like it boils down to just the opinion of one or two inspectors on the day. if you could just roll your eyes at that ‘opinion’ and get on with your day job, that’s one thing, but when that opinion is a one-word judgement that not only sticks to you for 4/5 years, but can also mean your school is sucked into an academy chain and you lose your job, the accountability has got to be changed.

When you can’t challenge that result as when you do, and it actually reaches the very top of the chain for a public response (most complaints get much less than this) the head of Ofsted just replies saying she was happy with the inspection and it was all done professionally. It’s like dealing with a robot. That’s why heads feel so helpless.

Even now, with the weight of a corner’s court finding the Ofsted inspection to blame for a suicide, hardly anything has changed and Amanda Spielman still gets to do nothing.

Who is auditing Ofsted? Who is checking that they do actually raise standards in schools? I would argue that they decrease standards in schools as you can’t get the best out of children with a workforce that are so demotivated and stressed, they can’t think straight and a huge number are desperately trying to leave.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-67639943.amp

An interesting article here. The bit about the parent group finding 24% of parents find the one-word grade useful whereas Ofsted say it’s closer to 80% made me laugh. Where’s the evidence there?! Why does nobody hold them to account?

It feels very much though that Ofsted and the government are going to focus on throwing a bit of token ‘mental health’ support at schools as a result of this case, ie here’s a number you can phone if you’re feeling like you can’t cope, and of course you can discuss it with your GP that you are feeling too stressed to manage, rather than actually making the process less stressful in the first place.

I hope I’m wrong.

That article mentions the one word judgement is unlikely to change as that’s what they use in hospitals and prisons, which is really depressing. I’d say changing that is likely to have the biggest impact on retention and recruitment as well as general stress level-I don’t know enough about how that works in other sectors to comment though.

@Appuskidu @HarrowToCroydon

A Re-run would be the worst. The sense of relief at the end of a ‘good’ inspection also has many leaders in tears.

I've been in inspections where a Re-run is used as a threat by the Lead Inspector around confidentiality of the judgement before publication. ‘News gets out, we will be back’. This is to save OFSTED’s own back in there being a change of judgement in the quality assurance process.

Even when the option is for Re-visit in a shorter time frame, to evidence an improved grade, leaders choose for this not to happen, due to the stress on themselves and their staff.

Adding the petition again for those who haven't read the whole thread. Please sign.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/652057?fbclid=IwAR2aO1OTudbv3YOLLQDRKMSXtHzb3lh5RCxYVzL-y3L7n3c2u251ZuqoHL8

Subject leaders expected to have a secondary level of knowledge - about a subject that has been dumped on them with no pay and no time to lead it.

It's not even a subject. I lead three. I'm also the SENCO. Oh, and I'm part time. All my documentation has been produced in the holidays whilst I'm paying for two children to go to childcare because when else can I fit it in? Teaching in a small school is already more than a 40 hour a week job, without subject leadership. Even if I do have the odd spare half hour (unusual), I don't think in many jobs people would sit down at 5pm to start a new, important piece of work involving lots of thought. They'd do it first thing in the morning when they are fresh and have a good chunk of time to tackle it.

I hope we get a Labour government because at least then we should see reform to the one-word judgements.

I'd happily see Ofsted dismantled overnight. No inspector need worry about being jobless.... I mean there are literally thousands of teaching and Headship vacancies...

Thank you. Have signed.
There is no need for teaching to be a job that only the very toughest survive. I take my hat off to the dedicated teachers who manage it but really it should not be like that.

Could @JVJ24601 add this to the first post? So important that we put pressure on the givernment.

How quickly could OFSTED reform be implemented if Labour get in?

I personally am in favour of narrative reports which are more regular and read more like an ongoing improvement plan. I would scrap entirely ‘inspectors’ and instead have school improvement partners whose expertise is in supporting positive change (or shock horror… just sustaining being a good school!).

A summary should be available to parents listing key improvements that are taking place. It would still ensure schools dealt with issues that need dealing with but would stop the insane (deadly) pressure.

Ofsted don't really care about safeguarding though. My school was ofsteded earlier this term and before that they hadn't been for 14 years. They didn't bother to check on our safeguarding all that time, but in this case it was the be all and end all.

Oh how I would love for inspection reform to become an election issue. The profession would turn as one.

I naively thought inspections are not a big deal in a well organised school.
after all it's a couple of meetings, questionaires and observations.
and the reports themselves are rather short and only the rating is of relevance for parents.

this verdict and posts from school staff are very enlightening.

I think the other thing that needs to made clear to the public is the huge tax that ofsted is on staff time. Due to the frankly unbelievable level of paperwork that is required most teachers spent almost as much time recording and analysing things than they do actually teaching children. As a result they are exhausted pretty much every day. Do we genuinely think exhausted people are at their best? Are you at your best as a parent if you’ve been up until 1am working?
The absolutely daft thing is that most teachers know their children well enough that all this analysis and paper work tells them precisely nothing of value. I could sit with you and tell you every child and their strengths and what they needed to work on. I could also tell you what was happening in their home life and which families needed a bit more TLC. I didn’t need a spreadsheet.
If the ofsted tax on time was totally gone. Radically gone. Imagine how much more time teacher’s would have both to be at their best due to having rested well but also to be alive to the person in front of them, open to parents and actually preparing resources (!).
As a SENCO I ended up spending as much of my time evidencing progress data as actually training, supporting and resourcing strategies for children. That cost the children, not just me.

I’ve just seen people widely sharing on Twitter that Ofsted’s 1 day delay of inspections next week so they can train their staff in recognising mental health distress, is actually a 90 minute virtual meeting only for lead HMIs.

So when the coroner said that Ofsted must not just pay lip service to her comments, that is exactly what they are doing…

An absolute disgrace.

So the life of Ruth Perry, a respected, long serving headteacher, is worth a 90 minute virtual meeting.

I can't even express my emotions right now.