'Ofsted's brutal verdict drove my headteacher mum to suicide eight years ago'
A daughter has spoken of her headteacher mum's suicide after a brutal Ofsted verdict which mirrored that of Ruth Perry.
Lucy Woodward said the news of Ruth's death last week came as a terrible blow and a reminder of the tragedy of her own mum, Carol who passed away in 2015.
Both were dedicated to their professions and respective schools who'd built stellar reputations over many years only to be left broken by inspectors scoring them "inadequate".
It comes amid calls for the watchdog to be scrapped altogether, with inspectors even stopped from entering Rankin School in Newbury this week.
Teachers stood outside wearing black armbands and photos of Ruth were hung on the school fence.
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Caversham Primary School headteacher Ruth Perry took her own life (Brighter Futures for Children)Ruth, 53, was head at Caversham Primary School in Reading, Berkshire, and killed herself in January.
The inspection report found the school to be "good" in every category - apart from leadership and management, where it was rated "inadequate".
Carol died by suicide at 58 and Lucy, 25, remembers how her mum came home late into the evening almost every day running what was then Woodford Infants, a popular Plymouth primary school.
But by the time of the Ofsted visit she "pretty much lived at the school", and they hardly saw her.
She had been appointed in 1996 and quickly transformed the school to the extent that in 2009 it was singled out as among the best in the country following an Ofsted inspection.
Teachers at Rankin School in Newbury stood outside wearing black armbands after Ofsted inspectors were not allowed in (SWNS)Carol was invited to attend a celebratory reception in London.
The following year the infant school amalgamated with the junior school and Lucy's mum became overall head for both.
The soaring demand for places led the local council to expand it, with £2.5million spent on building works from early 2015.
Carol was essentially made project manager on top of her already expanded workload.
Lucy said her mum, like Ruth, would have been informed by inspectors at the time of their departure that they were downgrading the status of the school.
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Ruth with her sister Julia (BBC South Today)Despite the news not being made immediately public, Carol confided in her husband Roger and daughter who saw how much of an impact the damning assessment had.
Ruth's sister, Julia Waters, spoke this week of the "intolerable pressure" placed on her sister after learning Ofsted was to brand her a failure.
"Looking back, I can see that she was in emotional turmoil," Lucy told the Daily Mail.
"She wanted so much to 'fix' things, but there was also an immense anxiety that she had let everyone down."
Julia spoke this week of the "intolerable pressure" placed on her sister (BBC South Today)Carol worked "all day, every day", she added.
That included July 28, Lucy's 18th birthday, which saw the them celebrate with a meal alongside extended family at a restaurant in which Carol "seemed happy".
The next day, her body was found at home. She had not left a note.
Many hundreds of ex-pupils attended the funeral.
A photograph of Ruth Perry attached to the fence outside John Rankin Schools (PA)"Afterwards some people said there must have been other factors that made Mum do what she did, but there really wasn't,' said Lucy.
"There was such a clear before and after in terms of the impact that Ofsted had."
Coroner Ian Arrow agreed at Carol's subsequent inquest that her mental health had suffered a swift decline coinciding with the building work and Ofsted visit.
He said she felt "under so much pressure".
Protesters Ellen (left) and Liz outside the gates to John Rankin Schools in Newbury (PA)Carol and Ruth are not the first head teachers to struggle due to Ofsted inspections and ultimately take their own lives.
Three years before Carol's death, Helen Mann, 43, another primary school head, died by suicide over concerns that her Sytchampton, near Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, would be losing its 'outstanding' rating.
She had only joined the school six months earlier.
Helen, a married mum-of-two, had been off work for four weeks with work-related stress before her body was found in a stairwell at Sytchampton First School in November 2012.
Caversham Primary School (Google)Three years earlier, the body of Irene Hogg, 54, was found in her car in a country lane 10 miles from her home following a visit from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education — the Scottish equivalent of Ofsted — to her school, Glendinning Terrace Primary, in the Borders town of Galashiels.
She had been in charge of the school for 10 years and a subsequent inquiry into her death heard that she had become "extraordinarily stressed" by the administrative workload and "almost shell-shocked" by the inspection.
Lucy said the "simple consequence" of the Ofsted inspection meant her mum "felt inadequate and that she had failed the school she loved".
Following Ruth's death protests have been held outside some schools by parents and teachers calling for the inspection system to be reformed.
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) led by Deputy General Secretary Niamh Sweeney, at Parliament Green (PA)A petition calling for an inquiry into the inspection of Ruth's school has reached 171,000 signatures.
Campaigning group Positive Ofsted Reform is asking for signatures for their open letter to Ofsted, calling for an overhaul to the "brutal" current inspection system.
Founder Jan Francis, a retired teacher herself, said the inspections boil down to an outsider coming in and seeing a "tiny sample" of what goes on before producing a report of just a couple of pages and everything is "boiled down to a one-word value judgement".
She added that Ofsted are "almost entirely unaccountable for its decisions", with the complaints process largely internal.
Ofsted head Amanda Spielman this week responded to calls for inspections to be paused, and an overhaul of the current grading system.
She said it is important for them to continue due to the important role they play for schools and parents.
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