Ruth Perry: Northwood Primary head teacher resigns after Ofsted inspection

An Isle of Wight head teacher has said an Ofsted inspection was "the straw that broke the camel's back" and forced her to leave her job.

Sarah Hussey said she suffered a series of cardiac emergencies caused by stress.

The Northwood Primary head teacher believes they were triggered by Ofsted inspectors visiting the school.

It comes after Berkshire head Ruth Perry took her own life following an inspection. Ofsted declined to comment.

Inspectors visited Miss Hussey's school on the same day Ms Perry had an inspection at Caversham Primary in Reading.

While Northwood Primary received a good rating in the inspection, the 52-year-old headteacher said the stress led to a series of events resulting in her deciding to resign.

She said: "I didn't feel that they came with an open mind, it felt quite personal that they were trying to catch me out and what I was saying wasn't necessarily true.

"I regularly worked 55-60 hours a week, I could tell you about that school inside and out and about every child in that school and every member of staff, but I felt like I was having to prove that.

"It didn't feel like they were coming to improve the school, it just felt like it was a very different agenda."

A week after the inspection, Miss Hussey was on a school trip to Osbourne House with a group of year one pupils.

When she started to feel pins and needles in her arm on the journey home, she put it down to the pupil who had fallen asleep on her arm, but then she noticed some chest pain.

"Within days I was in hospital and told I'd had a series of cardiac events, which were leading up to something bigger if I wasn't treated immediately," she said.

Miss Hussey acknowledged she has other pressures and ongoing health conditions, but "Ofsted was the straw that broke the camel's back".

She said: "After 25 years in education, my main feeling for weeks after being poorly was that I'd failed, that I'd let the community down - and that's with a good Ofsted.

"I can't even imagine what it must have been like for poor Ruth Perry and for her family and her school community. Ofsted is not supportive of schools and we need something to change."

Ruth Perry's sister, Professor Julia Waters, is set to address members of the National Association for Head Teachers union(NAHT) on Saturday.

She is calling for a "radical reform" of Ofsted and is expected to say her sister's legacy "must be that no other family go through the pain of losing someone after an inspection".

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