Ruth Perry Inquest

[GrammarTeacher]

Anyone else following this. It's devastating. The awful way the inspection was handled is very believable to me. I've had good and bad experiences with OFSTED and the bad was dreadful. Some of the verbal feedback was hypocritical and contradictory. Fortunately I attended it remotely with camera off because I was one of the 'majority who cry' according to the lead inspector. The whole experience and aftermath led to me stepping down as a staff governor to protect my mental health.
The weight of knowing a result that you can't share with colleagues yet is a large one and difficult to bear.
I do believe we need accountability but there must be a better way! But what can we do?

The thing is, every state school and every child is being assessed by the same, yet inconsistently implemented, criteria. How is it fair to assess all children at GCSE against progress from 2 exams they sat 5 years prior, where they were most likely being hot housed by the school for a year straight? In those 5 years lives happen, they are not the same people. And that's just for starters. The problem is, accountability should happen but only of what we are in control of. What are schools achieving DESPITE the challenges that they face from their intake. And that is the issue, schools are expected to entirely overcome issues outside of the classroom and in many cases fix them, which is neither realistic nor fair.

It's heartbreaking.
Ofsted is a terrible system.
Headteachers and their staff dread it for years. Years! I am sure it single-handedly puts people off being senior management, I know it does me.
It is the only profession I can think of where judgements about an entire company are reduced to one public word.
How about a system where every 3-5 years, a supportive team of experienced teachers turn up, speak to SLT, observe some teaching, compile a list of what the school does well and what they need to improve on, and give support and advice to anything the management feel they are struggling with. Support systems or mentoring could then be put in place. The list of good things and things to improve on would be visible to parents online. Only if there were serious concerns for the education or safety of the children would things be taken further.

It really is a flawed system and everyone I know has experienced the craziness of being observed my someone who has no idea what they're doing e.g an ex high school geography observing me and my Reception class and admitting he didn't really know what he was looking at.

It's a tragedy that a dedicated and highly respected headteacher felt compelled to end her own life because of a group of people judging her on just a few short hours spent in her school . I hope that lead inspector has had a good long talk to himself and changed his methods.

Judging by his responses to the inquest it seems he has not.

Is he still working as an inspector? Hasn't he been suspended? Questioned at the very least and given feedback on how he can manage the inspections better?

I don’t believe so. I have seen comments on Twitter saying that he shouldn’t be personally named and criticised publicly as it’s unfair. This is rather how people in education feel about ofsted reports though!

I see this morning that Ofsted have used as part of their defense that they have staff wellbeing as a key part of their training, but current ofsted inspectors are stating this isn’t true. Ofsted have now been told to present their training material as evidence.

It will be interesting to see the findings of this. Might anything happen as a result? If the coroner states that Ofsted did play a part in this tragedy, can they be directed to make actual changes? Or will Amanda Spielman just say, ‘oh, right-we’ll add a bullet point on watching out for teacher wellbeing into the training manual, sorry-that didn’t seem to be in there like we said it was’ then they will just carry on as before?!

I have done many Ofsteds-they have all been horrendously stressful and none of them the same. I don’t believe they have raised the standards in any school I have worked in either. They are brutal, inconsistent and largely pointless. The current model with subject ‘deep dives’ is totally unfit for use in a small Primary setting as well.

I would like to see the removal of one-word judgements, separate models for different phases and an HMI attached to schools who are accountable for school improvement-a critical friend-not someone who appears, sees what they want to see and has the ability to ruin careers and lives. They should be in and out of the school regularly, getting to know the staff, modelling lessons, following up on suggestions, sharing good practice, supporting new leaders. Safeguarding should be something separate.

Schools should also not be turned into academies against their will based on just an arbitrary snapshot.

So true! Even in secondary the deep dives aren't always useful. We had an English deep dive with a non-specialist who told me that studying Dickens wasn't challenging in KS3 (a popular GCSE text) because they had DONE Dickens in primary! No idea. At all.

FFS! It proves nothing really either. Yes, history may be brilliant in an afternoon Deep Dive, but if they don’t look at languages and they are dreadful, it’s all still just a snapshot.

Schools are often pretty good, though Outstanding at some things on some days and maybe crappy at other things on other days. When you’re dealing with people, that’s often the way.

Wouldn’t it be more sensible to have a cut off for ‘Meets agreed standards’ across the board and then do a www and ebi?!

This is the article I read about the wellbeing training claim:-

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/02/ofsted-misled-inquest-death-teacher-ruth-perry-training-claim?CMP=share_btn_tw

Im History lead at my local Church primary school and had a deep dive in History in2019.

We were one of the first schools to be inspected under the new framework and the inspector hadn't got a clue about our History scheme of work as we followed a 2 year rolling programme at the time and he struggled to see the progression across the year groups. We really had to argue our case.

We did end up with a good outcome but it was touch and go for a bit.

Retired now of course, but I am old enough to just remember the old system where an HMI would come and do more or less what you suggest. They were seen as a professional discussing with a fellow professional ideas for improvement and maybe new ideas. None of it was confrontational or threatening and I don't recall anyone crying.

Yep, that’s pretty much how a family member who is a retired HT remembers it. Why did that change and how did we get to the point we’re at now?

I have been teaching a very long time and honestly don’t think I can go through another inspection-waiting for the last one nearly broke me. It’s not like I’m anywhere near retirement either! Things are seriously wrong-there are 144 thousand members on a Facebook group about how to exit teaching and Ofsted is often cited as the reason why. Amanda Spielman still wants Ofsted to continue as it is, as she believes it drives up school improvement.

Does it? At the expense of our own family? Health? Happiness? Well-being? Why does she get to decide that’s how it is? Is there actually any evidence this high-stakes system of inspection is the best way to monitor schools?

It should be a great job but-at the moment, it really isn’t :(

Also in a v small church primary and it was clear we were at a disadvantage by not having single year groups. Inspector thought we should be teaching different TOPICS to the two year groups in a class. Literally, how would one do that? But then Ofsted have basically admitted small schools cannot be Outstanding under the current framework.

I'm well aware of the difference. Whilst there are some policy level issues here, the inquest isn't really about that. What we are seeing in it is some shocking elements of implementation (nothing to do with the DfE) that make the process even more difficult. Ofsted is meant to be independent. It is perfectly possible to want reform of both how the DfE works and OFSTED

I hardly ever cry at news items, but I've cried over this one. That poor, poor woman spiralling for 6 weeks and forbidden to talk to anyone about it properly. She sounds to have been a fantastic headteacher. What a cruel, devastating loss.

The confidentiality bit while you wait for the official report is just plain cruel and isolating. Reducing the number of people you can turn to for support is just wrong. And as for the 'accountability' procedures? Just laughable.

I find the concept of deep dives done by non-specialists/experts so odd. I know someone who was observed teaching languages by an inspector who couldn't follow the lesson, and didn't understand the basics of the language being taught. If Ofsted are going to go down this deep dive route for secondary (I agree it has major issues in primary), it MUST be done by specialists who are familiar with current exam specs!

For primaries, especially small primaries, it's a major problem- the was a HMI who posted on linked in it's basically impossible for very small primaries to get outstanding under the current framework.

We didn't even have a specialist for our English deep dive!

the description of the safeguarding issue is not quite as I've seen it described elsewhere. Particularly as the issue would have been resolvable in days (not the case if a DBS hasn't been done). Easily fixable clerical errors that don't actually endanger anyone do happen. And if it is a clerical issue then schools should have an opportunity to redress that. In fact, due to campaigning after Ruth's death, they do now have that opportunity if such a thing was the only issue.
I know of several inspections that this would have changed.

Ofsted didn’t officially inspect the school for over a decade. So had someone been a while ago and told her and the governor about the problem and they still had not fixed it? No. We all make mistakes or forget and need a reminder. Ruth Perry was busy doing other things well. Also is it fair to downgrade the whole school? I don’t think it is. I do think she was a great head teacher even when she forgot about the DBS checks. Written by someone who actually has children at the school.

My friend’s infant school was inspected by a solitary secondary school head of geography. He wasn’t even SLT, let alone a head teacher. He knew nothing of the KS1 curriculum, let alone EYFS and hadn’t heard of the phonics screener!

The system is broken. Yes, some inspectors may be fair and reasonable, but when so many seem not to be, and when so many frameworks are totally unsuitable for the setting, that provides high levels of inconsistency. This makes it more luck than judgement and hardly raises any standards!

I feel there should be a set of baseline requirements that schools should be doing and inspectors come to check those things-maybe call it compliance! Basically, saying, ‘yes-you are doing all the things you should be’ and then on top of that, they could come up with some suggestions for the future and comment on any particularly good bits.

No one word judgements, no forced academisation, no knock-on impact on estate agent ratings/community house prices (one of the things Ruth Perry was feeling desperate about). I think the feedback from Ofsted should be recorded so inspectors can’t deny what/how they said things later (I’ve heard lots of cases of this happening). There should also be a proper independent complaints process, a system for pausing inspections if necessary and no lengthy period where the result can’t be shared. Imagine not wanting to go to counselling/therapy for support in your village community for fear that word will get out about the inspection outcome and things will be even worse for you than getting an Inadequate rating? School leaders (who are generally competent and pretty robust) shouldn’t be on medication, suffering palpitations, and poor mental health, let alone crying or breaking down during inspections-that is no way to get the best out of anyone.

So many changes that could be made, yet when reform is suggested, all you get is angry comments online saying, ‘well of course teachers should be held accountable, do we want to go back to the 70s?!’ when nobody has suggested anything of the sort!

There needs to be a complete overhaul of Ofsted. They don't just inspect schools. Local authorities, nurseries, childminders, childminder agencies etc. have all reported problems with bullying inspectors who do not understand their remit and use petty issues to downgrade and even suspend.

Childminders often face these inspectors alone. If an inspection goes badly, they are left unsupported with young children in their care. Several have been so upset, they had to request parents to collect their children. They report rudeness, lying and bullying by the inspectors.

This is about Ruth Perry's inquest, but the wider picture is a disgrace.

My reading of the case is that the missing safeguarding document was quite a minor misdemeanour and that OFSTED said at the time that the children were safe, and that backtracked. Am not an expert though and I accept that newspapers don't always convey nuance very well. But she does sound to have been excellent in so many respects. My heart goes out to all those affected in the community.

The former system of the critical friend approach followed up by something more rigorous if guidance isn't followed would surely be more effective and humane.

quoting a post above
“Any suicide is tragic loss of life. But don't envangelicalise her ability as a head teacher. She did not have background checks and DBS in place for her staff. In a parallel universe we could have been talking about a tragedy involving a child. Then people would be saying Ofsted should have done something about it. The frame work is clear. So clear Ruth Perry knew on day 1 of the inspection that she'd messed up. The inspection may have triggered an unfortunate series of events but you've got to own it.”

This post is very upsetting and I asked for the administrators to take it down but they refused it. The last sentence is wrong on various levels when discussing a suicide or suicidal person, but not according to mumsnet guidelines. Maybe one day the view on how mental health is discussed on the forum will change but it looks like today is not the day.