Ofsted: One-word grades for schools to be scrapped

But shadow education secretary Damian Hinds said the headline inspection outcome was “a vital indicator for parents” and scrapping it is “not in the best interest of pupils or parents”.

Mrs Perry, the headteacher of Caversham Primary School, took her own life in January 2023.

She was waiting for the publication of an Ofsted report she had already been told would grade the school “Inadequate”, after inspectors raised concerns about systems and training for keeping children safe.

An inquest later heard that no child had come to any harm and, despite this, Mrs Perry had been tormented by concerns she had let the local community down.

Under the current system, concerns about safeguarding lead to an automatic bottom grade, and often the headteacher losing their job.

The inquest found the Ofsted inspection had contributed to Mrs Perry’s suicide, and raised wider questions about the pressures of inspection on headteachers.

The senior coroner for Berkshire, Heidi Connor, issued a formal Prevention of Future Deaths report , external setting out the concerns that needed to be addressed to avoid a similar suicide.

In it she questioned how the same one-word judgement could be used to sum up both a school with issues that could be fixed quickly and a school “dreadful in every respect”.

A separate inquiry by MPs into Ofsted’s work with schools heard the inspectorate had lost the trust of the teaching profession, and parents wanted change too.

It led to the Education Select Committee calling in its report for single-word judgements to be replaced, external, while still keeping a mechanism for the government to step in when a school was truly failing.

At the start of 2024, a new chief inspector took over and Sir Martyn Oliver promised Ofsted would learn the lessons from Mrs Perry’s death, announcing mental health training for inspectors.

Ofsted now revisits a school graded Inadequate over safeguarding within 3 months and an inspection can be be paused if a headteacher is in severe mental distress.

An independent review of Ofsted’s response to Ruth Perry’s death is expected to be published on 3 September alongside further details of how inspections might change.

Prof Waters said the organisation needed to show it had the capacity to change its culture.

“It really shouldn’t have been like this – it shouldn’t take a bereaved family member to push for change for such a long time but yes it’s a relief that no other headteacher will have to go through what Ruth went through.”