'Modest' Ofsted reforms 'go nowhere near far enough'

Both the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) welcomed the changes unveiled on Monday (June 12) but voiced their on-going frustration at the lack of more significant reform.

In particular, both unions are calling for the removal of “blunt and reductive” single-word judgements.

Ofsted’s changes were unveiled as part of the inspectorate’s response to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry, who at the age of 53 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 but there has been an outpouring of anger from the profession and increasingly loud calls for change to the high-stakes Ofsted regime.