News

Ofsted reviews safeguarding judgements as inquiry calls get louder

As a petition calling for an inquiry into Ofsted’s role in the death of headteacher Ruth Perry nears 250,000 signatures, it has been revealed that the inspectorate is reviewing its approach to how it judges safeguarding.

Speaking in Parliament on Monday (April 17), education secretary Gillian Keegan said that the chief inspector “has listened to school leaders who have expressed concern about the way in which safeguarding is inspected”.

There has been an outpouring of grief and anger after it emerged Ms Perry, the 53-year-old headteacher of Caversham Primary School in Reading, took her own life ahead of the publication of an Ofsted inspection report that was due to downgrade her outstanding school to “inadequate”.

An inquest into the death is to be held at Berkshire Coroners’ Court with a pre-inquest review scheduled for July.

Meanwhile, a petition calling for an inquiry into the Caversham inspection has now reached around 235,000 signatories and counting.

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