Ruth Perry's sister criticises 'rushed' reforms

The sister of a head teacher who took her own life after her school was downgraded in an Ofsted inspection, has warned the proposed new system for assessing schools has the "same risks" as before.

Ruth Perry's sister, Julia Waters, joined education professionals in an open letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in asking for delays to the plans which she said are "rushed" and "fail to learn" from Ms Perry's death.

Ofsted has proposed a new system which involves report cards and is due to come in this autumn, rather than the old one or two-word judgements.

The Department for Education (DfE) said reforms played a "central" role in work to raise school standards.

Ms Perry took her own life after her school, Caversham Primary in Berkshire, was downgraded from "outstanding" to "inadequate".

An inquest into her death heard how she felt "powerless" and believed her career could be over after the inspection in November 2022.

The proposed new system of Ofsted inspections will no longer give a single overall grade to an institution.

Speaking on Today on BBC Radio 4, Prof Waters said there was "no evidence the new system will work".

"The proposal that's coming out, in this new report card, just fundamentally fails to address the key concern which is the very real and present risk of more terrible and preventable deaths like my sister's.

"My very real fear is the introduction of this report card will introduce more areas of inspection, more judgements and really poorly defined criteria," she added.

The open letter signed by school leaders, national organisations and former inspectors warned against "excessive pressure, ill-health and stress for the profession".

"In particular, we believe the proposed new report cards and the new grading system fail to address the recommendations of the coroner following the tragic, preventable death of Ruth Perry.

Ed Barnett-Ward, a parent at Caversham Primary who campaigned for changes to Ofsted inspections following Ms Perry's death, said the proposed changes "don't go far enough".

He said: "Our argument was never simply about the removal of single word judgements which we have managed to achieve.

"We need to have a system that gets rid of excessive pressure, inconsistency and we need to get a fair independent complaint process," he added.

National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said Ofsted needed to "come up with a system of accountability that reduced pressure on schools".

"But the reality is it's turned into a big ignore and we are facing a big disaster," he said.

The DfE said it wanted to make inspections "more powerful" and "more transparent".

"The system this Government inherited was high stakes for teachers but low information for parents, which is why we're removing single-word judgments and introducing school report cards".

It said answers to Ofsted's and the department's consultations would be carefully considered before an approach is finalised.

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