Ruth Perry: Education secretary to meet family and local teachers

The education secretary has agreed to meet with the family of a head teacher who took her own life ahead of the release of an Ofsted inspection report.

Ruth Perry knew the report would rate her primary school as inadequate when she died in January.

Her family has blamed her death on the pressure and outcome of the inspection at Caversham Primary in Reading.

The meeting follows a request in parliament by Reading East MP Matt Rodda on Monday.

He said: "I am pleased the education secretary has agreed to meet me, local heads and Ruth's family."

Mr Rodda added he hoped Gillian Keegan would "listen to local teachers and Ruth's family" and said he would be urging her to "reform Ofsted including ending single-word judgements on reports".

The MP previously said Ms Perry's death had been a "devastating event for her family and our community".

"Ofsted must now ask themselves some tough questions about their role and how we prevent further tragedies in the future," he said.

Calls were made following Ms Perry's death for Ofsted to pause inspections - a move they resisted, claiming it would not be good for children.

The NAHT school leaders' union has warned England's schools watchdog could face legal action over that decision.

The Ofsted report for Ms Perry's school described a "welcoming and vibrant school", where staff-pupil relationships were "warm and supportive", and bullying was rare.

But it also highlighted a lack of "appropriate supervision during break times", which meant pupils were "potentially at risk of harm".

Ofsted's chief inspector Amanda Spielman previously said it was "unquestionably a difficult time to be a head teacher".

She acknowledged the debate about removing grades, where a school is given an overall mark of outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate, was a "legitimate one".

But she added the grades do give parents "a simple and accessible summary of a school's strengths and weaknesses" and are used by the government to identify struggling schools.

Watch: Tested To The Limit - The Ruth Perry story

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