Above is an image of the late Ruth Perry. She was the headteacher of Caversham Primary school in the suburbs of Reading. She had worked there for thirteen years. Married with children of her own, she was very anxious about her school's forthcoming OFSTED report.
OFSTED is a quango, spawned and funded by the Conservative government. It stands for Office for Standards in Education. The quango's main function is to visit schools and make intensive inspections over a week. A report is made and then the inspection team disappears from that school, never to be seen again. They make an overall judgement on the school that can be either: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate. "Satisfactory" disappeared a few years back.
In my opinion that end judgement is far too simplistic. You might have a school that has a fine reputation for say practical science and music education but if the inspection team are concerned about breaktime supervision then that school might still be judged to be "Inadequate". And that is exactly what happened at Caversham. In its previous inspection, the school was judged to be "Outstanding" but now because the new OFSTED team spotted some issues with breaktime supervision, the school was judged to be "Inadequate".
Ruth Perry was mortified and that is why she killed herself in January . Her sister Julia said her death was the "direct result" of the pressure put on her by the "deeply harmful" inspection.
In the week that the tragic news broke, the leader of OFSTED appeared on the BBC's Sunday morning political show. Dressed in a dark and austere outfit, the sympathy she declared with regard to Mrs Perry's death was platitudinous. She went on to defend OFSTED's judgement of the school and remarked, without evidence for saying this, that parents appreciate the headline judgements that OFSTED dish out after inspections
The leader of OFSTED is called Amanda Spielman. It is worth noting that she has never been a teacher and has never had to deal directly with the challenges that teaching can present. A couple of years ago I saw her captaining her old university team - Clare College, Cambridge - in a Christmas edition of "University Challenge". She was quite frankly "Inadequate" in spite of her jovial captaincy. She knew much less than one might have expected from a Chief Inspector.
Surely someone who leads an organisation that inspects and judges schools should herself have some experience of working in classrooms. Without that you are hardly qualified to make those judgements. Needless to say, she was appointed by the Tory government, members of which tend to send their children to fee-paying private schools which are bypassed by OFSTED.
The death of Ruth Perry should ignite a searching inquiry into OFSTED's methods, the way it judges schools and how it should have evolved now that we are in different times. Sadly, Spielman's instinct has been to pull up the drawbridge, admit no fault and signal "There's nothing wrong here". It's good to know that she will have left her lucrative position by the end of this year.
Amanda Spielman
That is so tragic not least because it was so unnecessary. Why do governments keep creating these useless bodies headed up by people who couldn't organise a pissup in brewery? Even if she DID have knowledge of education, I fear these people get their jollies from nit picking.
ReplyDeleteThey think that being tough or hard-headed is the way to lift education but it's not. Better to be supportive and to advise on the best ways to make use of limited funds. Spare the rod and save the child.
DeleteThe system measures a very narrow part of the overall education system. Somehow they tend to look on the negative side and so their judgements can be negative. For someone who's worked their guts out to have a good program for kids, it's sad that they have been broken.
ReplyDeleteShe is not the only one. Many teachers have felt traumatised and belittled by OFSTED. Teachers need encouragement and wise guidance - not being reduced to tears
DeleteSo if I understood correctly, the entire functioning of the school was judged inadequate because of a single issue ?
ReplyDeleteIt's a terrible story and I'm unsurprised that the bureaucrat involved is skipping any responsibility. So long as they get their bonuses and keep their votes up, who cares about anything else?
I think you get the picture very well Kylie. Many teachers have retired early or have left teaching altogether because of OFSTED. To me it is a destructive force not a helpful supporter of schools.
DeleteI just read an article about what happened. Sounds like a bunch of bullshit, as usual, and why in the hell aren't the OFSTED people required to be teachers? I also read about Amanda Spielment who sounds like she was supremely unqualified for the job.
ReplyDeleteFilled with her own self-importance and enjoying use of her cane. But on "Celebrity University Challenge" she gave us a sight of who she really is. As hollow as a drum.
DeleteAs you know, I have never been a teacher myself (apart from giving basic trainings in data/privacy protection to my clients' employees), but I was a student long enough to understand that teaching is very important and very challenging work. To inspect any place and make a fair judgment of it, one should have experience in that particular area, be it hospitals, factories, hotels or schools. That Amanda Spielman has no teaching experience and yet has made it to the top of school inspectors is inexplicable and inexcusable.
ReplyDeleteBut I hesitate to make her (or OFSTED as a whole) responsible for Ruth Perry's suicice. You say she had a family of her own, and yet the pressure she felt in her professional life was not outweighed by the love for her own children and to be there for them no matter what. Some people are more resilient than others. It is truly tragic that a person who took her work so seriously felt she could not handle the pressure in any other way, but again - I don't think it is as easy as that, to blame OFSTED. Usually, there is more than one factor contributing to a person's decision to take their own life.
Thanks for your interesting reflections. Ruth Perry is not alone. Many teachers in this country have felt broken by OFSTED. The announcement of a forthcoming OFSTED visit fills most school staffrooms with dread. Should it be like that? It doesn't seem right or healthy to me.
DeleteI absolutely agree - it is neither right nor healthy. Everyone, no matter how old they are and what they do, thrives on praise rather than pressure.
DeleteI too wonder why successive governments create useless bodies, paying them excessive salaries and letting them go on the rampage, often destroying something that had previously worked well. I've come to the conclusion it's all about ego and making a name for oneself.
ReplyDeleteWhen you and I, YP; and no doubt many of your UK followers were young, there was no such thing as OFSTED. We just had decent teachers we respected and received a decent education. Time to go back to the old ways?
There were school inspectors back then but they were generally wise, experienced and supportive - linked to local authorities. They did not come along to cane schools nor to create divisive league tables.
DeleteMeike makes a good point. The narrative being spun may not be the only one, but it does seem to have been a contributing factor. When you reward crap and bullshit, it piles down from the top, and those who put their hearts into their work and don't play the game get buried in it.
ReplyDeleteSpielman's pretend sympathy was sickening. She has no idea.
DeleteSounds like a tragic system with tragic outcomes. There are so many variables in education. They should put you in charge.
ReplyDeleteIf I ruled the world...!
DeleteIts not just in schools that Ofsted have created fear, anxiety and at times havoc. They also " inspect " children's social care with similar results.........inspectors who have never been social workers and have simply no clue about what young people and their families need, no idea about the pressures on social workers and so on. Having participated in an inspection I can honestly say it was no more and no less than a tick box exercise with HUGE repercussions for the children & young people, their families and us social workers. I wholeheartedly support an inspection regime but not the current one which is so punitive.
ReplyDeleteWe need inspection regimes that understand issues like funding and staffing and aim to give helpful pointers to improvement without coming out with horrible terms like "Inadequate". What use is such labelling?
DeleteI listened to a Radio 4 programme on the car radio the other day. They were discussing the national curriculum. It seems there are people setting themselves up as a private company, advising teachers how they should be presenting their lessons. It seems the curriculum nowadays is nothing like we used to get. Personal and sexual relationships, seems to be more important. I was horrified that they teach such matters to young children. Perhaps I am out of touch.
ReplyDeleteMany people have made lots of money through private educational consultancies. They are like parasites sucking blood from the host.
DeleteI have never before encountered the word "quango," but I certainly know what Ofsted is. We were also downgraded and it unleashed a firestorm in our administration. I subsequently learned that Ofsted was on a mission to be harsher on schools than they had been in years previously -- that there was a feeling they were giving too many schools positive results. So, basically, they had a quota of "inadequates" to fill.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I doubt Ruth Perry's suicide was all about Ofsted. Obviously I don't know her, but I suspect there were also other factors.
Having been a teacher myself, I know firsthand how traumatising OFSTED inspections can be and receiving an "Inadequate" judgement when you have worked your socks off for years can be doubly hurtful. Many good people have quit teaching because of OFSTED. You may be right that Ruth Perry had some other reasons but there is no doubt that OFSTED tipped her over the edge.
DeleteI remember only one school inspection from my primary years, the inspector spent time in each classroom for a week seeing how teachers and children interacted and whether the children were learning satisfactorily and if they were happy at school. I never learned of any outcomes, children don't care about such things, but my teachers always seemed happy.
ReplyDelete