Be hopeful on bad days, Ruth Perry told pupils

Head teacher Ruth Perry told pupils they should "be hopeful" on "bad days", in the first video footage of her released since her suicide.

Mrs Perry sent a video message to children when they were learning from home during the pandemic.

It was played to teachers at the National Education Union conference in Bournemouth during an address by Mrs Perry's sister, Prof Julia Waters.

Mrs Perry killed herself while waiting for an Ofsted report last year.

Mrs Perry filmed her video message at Caversham Primary, in Reading, Berkshire, telling pupils: “You will have good days and you will have bad days, but I know that you’re strong [and] you will show each other compassion.”

“Talk to the people you love, be kind to each other, be hopeful,” she said.

“Take care of yourselves and each other.”

Prof Waters played the video during a speech in which she urged anyone “having thoughts about ending [their] life” to “think again” and “get help”.

“I wish I had been able to tell [Ruth] that before it was too late. But I can’t, so I’ll say it to all of you now, instead,” she said.

“You are trapped by an inhumane, unaccountable inspection system – but you don’t have to put up with it any more. If you feel despair, you need help and hope – not to think that suicide is a way out.”

Ofsted downgraded Mrs Perry's school from "outstanding" to "inadequate" because of safeguarding concerns, after visiting in November 2022.

Mrs Perry said she had not been allowed to talk about the Ofsted result to anyone and spent the next eight weeks "constantly returning obsessively to the trauma of the inspection".

She died in January 2023.

A coroner ruled in December that the inspection "contributed" to Mrs Perry's death and said there was a risk of further deaths "unless action is taken".

Ofsted apologised fully the following month for the role it played in Mrs Perry's suicide and promised a review of lessons to be learned.

It has now rolled out an updated policy for complaints about inspections, following a consultation last year, which it said would allow complaints to be escalated earlier.

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said all inspections "should be carried out professionally and with courtesy, empathy and respect".

"But should anyone have concerns, we will always want to resolve them as quickly as possible," he said.

"I want to assure providers that we will acknowledge any mistakes made and take steps to put them right."

Speaking to journalists after her speech, Prof Waters said it was “disappointing” that Ofsted’s independent learning review had not yet started.

Labour has previously said Ofsted's system of one-word judgements "can’t capture the breadth of school life".

Asked about the party's proposal to replace them with a “school report card” - which it has previously said would "give more information on what's happening in schools" - Prof Waters said: “I don't really know what it means.”

In her speech, she also said there would be “no point” in calling for Ofsted to be abolished - as the NEU has done - but it should change and become “better and kinder”.

NEU members described Ofsted as “toxic” in a debate after Prof Waters’ speech.

Speakers voted for the NEU to campaign for the Health and Safety Executive and the government to agree that Ofsted was “a stressor that has been a considerable factor” in work-related suicides.

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