Reaction as Ofsted suspends inspections for mental health training following death of headteacher

New Ofsted chief Sir Martyn Oliver announced the immediate suspension of Ofsted inspections on January 2 while inspectors undergo training around mental health and the implications for future school inspections.

The training comes in the aftermath of the death of headteacher Ruth Perry and a coroner’s investigation which concluded that an Ofsted inspection of Caversham Primary School, in Reading, had contributed to her decision to take her own life. 

Mrs Perry, 53, committed suicide while awaiting the publication of a report downgrading her school from outstanding to inadequate. 

The coroner concluded the inspection had "lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity" and was at times "rude and intimidating".

Following Mrs Perry’s death, former Schools Minister Lord Jim Knight led the ‘Beyond Ofsted’ inquiry which branded the system as “toxic”.

In a 17-year career covering various middle leader roles in the teaching profession, I experienced the full spectrum of judgements in at least 10 inspections.

While the training is to be welcomed, it will have little impact on the suffocating pressure experienced in schools if the inspection system remains in its current guise.

Firstly, it's important to note that I'm not against teachers and schools being held to account and Ofsted reports provide a useful tool for parents.

However, it needs to be a system which is fair and does not create a culture of suffocating pressure that stifles creativity, risk, and ultimately pushes good teachers out of the profession and prevents recruitment of new teachers - two massive issues currently prevalent in schools.

Current inspections will often involve a one or two day visit with inspectors getting a 15 minute snapshot of an individual teacher’s lessons before placing what they've seen into a category of outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

While inspectors will say they're not categorising that teacher, but simply passing judgement on the snapshot they have seen, the reality, particularly if placed in the bottom two categories, is the opposite.

I’ve seen first-hand the massive emotional impact this can have on teachers who feel a whole career is being unfairly categorised based on a 15 minute snapshot.

While the vast majority of my lessons were judged to be good or outstanding, I’ve also experienced the overwhelming feeling of letting the children and your colleagues down on the couple of occasions I got a requires improvement judgement.

Unlike other professions in which you may be working with machinery or rational adults, success in the classroom is dependent on the response of children and teenagers and the inevitable unpredictability that entails.

Ultimately, no matter how well a teacher may prepare, there are so many variables beyond their control which may be impacting on the home life of a child and their emotions which renders a lesson as irrelevant when an Ofsted inspector walks in.

If this situation comes to the fore during a teacher’s 15 minute snapshot, then that’s just tough luck.

At the start of my teaching career, inspections would often last one week and you would experience five or six full lesson observations. While this inevitably meant a longer period of pressure, at least you felt the inspection team left with a fairer picture of the school and you as an individual teacher.  

Other industries, of which I’m now a part, will no doubt lambaste the teaching profession for needing to toughen up, but it’s important to recognise the level of emotional investment in a career which is built on a vocation of wanting to help children succeed.

It’s the same emotional investment which drives teachers to go above and beyond to support their children which can have a devastating mental impact when things go wrong - as was sadly the case with Mrs Perry.

While suicide is tragically the ultimate manifestation of this weight of emotional investment, the profession is littered with people experiencing mental health issues.

The pressure cooker environment which is fuelled  by Ofsted ultimately led to me becoming dependent on over the counter sleeping tablets to get to sleep at night as well as a chronic health condition which ultimately led to me leaving teaching at 39, after 17 years in the profession.   

I’m one of thousands of teachers who’ve left the profession in the last 10 years with the Government failing to hit annual recruitment targets to find replacements and schools now facing a chronic shortage in key subjects such as mathematics and the sciences.

While Ofsted is there to ensure accountability and high standards, if it’s creating a culture in which teachers want to leave and graduates don’t want to enter into a career in the classroom, then surely this is counterproductive and the system behind it needs to be scrutinised.

Another issue which needs to be addressed is the current rudimentary categories of grading.

While mental health training may create an empathy for those being inspected and lead to improvements in interaction, there’s only so many ways you can tell a teacher who's emotionally invested in their profession that they are inadequate, based on a 15 minute snapshot of an entire career.

It’s also important for Ofsted to recognise the individual challenges faced by schools with vastly different characteristics which the current ‘one size fits all’ framework fails to address. As with any system interpreted by people, inspections are also open to subjectivity and the unfairness this can involve.

Despite my post-teaching rant, there does need to be an inspection process which needs to be ratified by an independent body. Allowing schools to solely self-assess is inevitably open to a natural human instinct of self-protection.

However, the current divide between schools and Ofsted is enormous. Perhaps the solution is a more collaborative approach with some degree of self-assessment with the identification of strengths and weaknesses then ratified by an inspection team working in partnership over a period of time. The same inspection team can then support schools in the implementation of strategies of improvement rather than simply walking in, passing a judgement, and disappearing off over the horizon. 

Working in partnership over a period of time will also create a fairer and more accurate judgement.

Any inspection process should also place greater emphasis on the holistic success of a school and wider development of its pupils. While academic attainment is important, schools should be more than exam factories driven by statistical data at the expense of everything else.

Hopefully this current suspension of inspections will allow time for a more detailed look at the Ofsted process. 

Ultimately the fact inspections have been suspended to enable mental health training for its inspectors speaks volumes of the impact of the process in its current format.

What did new Ofsted chief Sir Martyn Oliver say?

After referring to Mrs Perry’s death as a “terrible tragedy and a real shock”, Sir Martyn said: "Ultimately we have to be about high standards and say to parents 'these are the standards that are being provided'. But I think we can do that in a way that is far more empathetic.

"I am determined that we shall learn those lessons and we shall review our practices, we shall work with others and we shall respond fully to the coroner's inquest.

"We will be taking time before we begin our inspections in the New Year to make sure the right level of training is in place.”

How have local teaching union representatives responded?

Teacher and NASUWT North East officer, John Hall, said: “We welcome the suspension but hope this is just the start of a massive review into a system which isn’t fit for purpose.

“The current grading system is just a political tool to enable the Government to say how many good or outstanding schools they have.

“The current system is creating a pressure cooker environment in schools which is resulting in people both leaving the profession and not wanting to enter teaching.

“The whole system needs looking at and one of the problems is it has taken the tragedy of what happened to Ruth Perry for Ofsted to sit up and take notice.

“It’s tragic what happened to Mrs Perry, but the pressure experienced by headteachers filters down and is affecting the mental health of teachers at all levels in schools.

“There does need to be an inspection process but the current grading system needs to be put in the bin. They're misleading and don’t give a fair reflection of the whole school.

“There should be a report which identifies strengths and weaknesses. Inspection teams should then work in collaboration with the schools to address these weaknesses.”

It’s a sentiment shared by NEU secretary Daniel Kebede who said: “Sir Martyn Oliver's announcement of a pause in school inspections signals that the Chief Inspector recognises that it's now time for Ofsted to listen to the voice of educators and their unions. The pause should be the start of a root and branch reform of school inspection.

“Our present system is inconsistent, unfair and unsuccessful in promoting school improvement. Ofsted is a harmful presence in our schools and needs to be replaced with a collaborative system that truly reflects a rounded picture of the work of schools. Parents, students and teachers all deserve better.

“The independent Beyond Ofsted report chaired by Sir Jim Knight, shows all too clearly that the current regime is not fit for purpose and Ofsted is out of touch with the profession.”