Former JFS headteacher speaks out amid calls for end to Ofsted inspections

Former Ofsted chief and interim JFS headteacher Sir Michael Wilshaw has addressed calls to pause school inspections following the suicide of a head teacher.

Ruth Perry took her own life while waiting for a report from the schools watchdog that downgraded her school, Caversham Primary in Reading, to ‘inadequate’.

Since Ms Perry’s death, a number of head teachers have removed references to Ofsted from their websites, job adverts and letters. Many teachers have called for inspections to be paused altogether amidst calls for reform of the system.

Wilshaw, chief inspector of Ofsted from 2012-16, stepped in at JFS, the biggest Jewish school in Europe, as interim head teacher following the sudden departure of Rachel Fink in 2021. He became the fourth head at the school in five years.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: “Despite all the problems, Ofsted, I believe, has been a force for good over the last thirty years. Yes, it does hold schools to account, but it has helped to raise standards, it has challenged schools to do better and it has challenged, over the years, governments as well, when Ofsted as an independent inspector believes, it’s going wrong. It has changed over the last thirty years and I’m sure it will continue to change. The great debate now is whether we continue with grades, in particular, the summary or overall effectiveness of grades, or not. And there are problems in doing away with that, that the next chief inspector will have to address because a  judgement of ‘good’ is what parents want to see.”

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman says that stopping inspections would not be in the best interests of children.

The National Education Union handed a petition to the government on Thursday calling for Ofsted to be replaced.