Former Ofsted chief defends verdict on Ruth Perry’s school
The Guardian|April 03, 2024
Ofsted's former chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, has refused to concede that her organisation made errors in its handling of the inspection that contributed to the death of a headteacher, Ruth Perry.
Richard Adams
Former Ofsted chief defends verdict on Ruth Perry’s school

Perry took her own life last year, after Ofsted's inspection of Caversham primary school near Reading downgraded the school she had led for more than a decade from its highest grade of outstanding to inadequate, its lowest.

Berkshire's senior coroner ruled that Perry's suicide was "contributed' to by an Ofsted inspection" after an inquest heard testimony from colleagues and medical professionals of the mental distress Perry suffered during and after the inspection.

Asked in Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women podcast if she thought Ofsted "did exactly the right thing, at the right time" over the inspection, Spielman said: "I absolutely did what I think was the right thing at a tremendously difficult time, when it would have been very easy to say we got the inspection wrong. I couldn't do that.

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