By Karam Bales

Calls have increased for a rethink of school inspections after the tragic suicide of Ruth Perry, the headteacher of Caversham Primary School, which has been linked to the personal impact on her from the school’s recent Ofsted inspection. Public attention on the subject increased further on Monday when the headteacher of John Rankin Primary and Nursery school initially announced that after receiving ‘the call’, she would be refusing to allow Ofsted into school on Tuesday.

The announcement gained considerable attention in the press and on social media with educators and parents saying they would come to the school to show solidarity and support. On Monday night the headteacher requested that people not come to the school gates the next day due to the concern that a potential spectacle of protestors and a media circus might have on the wellbeing of her students. Unions have called for an immediate pause to Ofsted inspections and a petition calling for an inquiry into Caversham Primary School’s inspection has already gathered close to 100,000 signatures at the time of writing.

Unfortunately this isn’t an isolated incident. Since 1998, Ofsted inspections have been linked to at least ten headteachers taking their lives, and the pressure on the mental health of school leaders and the wider school community is apparent in all the statistics. There is currently a shortage of candidates for headteacher positions across the county and the average time leaders stay in position has been on the decrease for a decade now.  The head who runs their school for a decade or two is now a rarity in the state sector.

The toxicity of this accountability system permeates from the top, down through the entire education system.  Ofsted and the Department for Education pressures on school leaders and governors leads to pressure on classroom teachers which then leads to pressure on students. This leads to our schools being unhealthy pressure cookers, with the well-documented impact on student mental health and staff retention.

The reliability  of Ofsted judgements are also a subject of fierce debate. Research conducted prior to the pandemic found that schools in wealthier areas were more likely to get better Ofsted grades than schools with the same levels of student progress with a higher proportion of students on pupil premium.

The seemingly arbitrary nature of harsh judgements is worsening since Amanda Speilman, the head of Ofsted, announced in 2021 that she would be raising standards so that only around 2,000 schools would be rated as outstanding. The figure at the time was over 4,000. No reasonable explanation has been given regarding how the figure of 2,000 schools was reached.

Calls to reform or replace Ofsted have been growing for years now. When inspections were paused due to Covid there were hopes that this would provide a period of reflection and improvement. Unfortunately since inspections resumed, it appears the opportunity was wasted with some schools still struggling with high absence rates being told by inspectors that ‘Covid is no excuse.’

With Covid, pay and now Ofsted, education workers are redisovering their collective voice. A number of staff at John Rankin School decided to wear black arm bands during their inspection. A nearby school in Reading has decided to remove the Ofsted logo and grading from letter heads and banners. Another school in Suffolk is considering the same. 

John Rankin is in West Berkshire National Education Union District, and the Branch Committee is recommending to their members and reps to lobby their workplaces to replicate these acts of resistance.

Ruth Parry’s sister, Professor Julia Waters, has also called on local media to stop reporting on Ofsted reports, and for estate agents to remove all references to Ofsted ratings from their sales particulars of houses.

Labour constituencies should support such actions in solidarity with education workers, and for the sake of all children who deserve a school accountability system that focuses on improving the quality of their education rather than arbitrary tick-boxing.

Momentum is growing. An Urgent Motion has reached the required number of members’ signatures to be submitted to the NEU’s annual conference in April. Its demands are:

– call for a freeze of all inspections in order that a full investigation of mental health impact assessment on teachers and school leaders be established

– abolish Ofsted

– recognise alternative accountability is possible and more effective in promoting improved outcomes for young people

– work with the National Association of Head Teachers/ Association of School and College Leaders and call on all NEU leadership members to refuse to participate as inspectors in any further inspections until a full review of health and safety hazard is conducted

– demand that all work-related suicide data is collected and collated, in order to assess the full extent of the risks to health created by toxic work and accountability pressures.

Karam Bales is a former member of the National Education Union Executive, writing in a personal capacity.

Image: Teachers marching through London, March 15th 2023, c/o Mike Phipps