More to Ofsted reports than one-word grades, boss says

Matthew Purves has been Ofsted's South East regional director since 2022

An Ofsted boss has said parents should look further than its one-word judgements when school inspections are published.

Matthew Purves, its South East regional director, said there were "strengths and weaknesses" in ranking establishments as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Berkshire head teacher Ruth Perry took her own life in January 2023 after being told her school was being downgraded from outstanding to inadequate.

The government said the judgements should stay in April.

Ruth Perry was the head at Caversham Primary School in Reading

Mrs Perry's sister, Prof Julia Waters, has previously said inspections were "punitive".

Earlier this month, she said there was "overwhelming evidence" one-word summaries have caused harm.

Mrs Perry's Caversham Primary School was given an overall rating of inadequate after inspectors found concerns with safeguarding in November 2022.

But four of five other areas were rated good.

It was given an overall good rating when it was inspected again in June 2023.

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• What is Ofsted and how do inspections work?

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On the one-word judgements, Mr Purves said: "The strength is they're really clear for parents.

"As well as working in education for 20 years or more, I'm a parent and when I sit around with other parents and they think about schools, they start with that one-word judgement. It helps them understand. That's a strength.

"But the weakness is it's simple and so you shouldn't stop the conversation there."

He told BBC Radio Solent: "...I say 'have you read the really rich inspection report that goes along with that written from the point of view of what it's like to be a child at the school?'"

He said Ofsted's Big Listen consultation was part of how it was "listening to what the right thing to do is going forward".

In January, MPs on the cross-party education select committee said the single-word judgements should end.

Prof Julia Waters said there was "overwhelming evidence" one-word inspections cause harm

All Ofsted inspectors had mental health training following Mrs Perry's death.

Inspections can be paused if staff are distressed and a hotline has been set up to reach Ofsted officials, Mr Purves said.

“We listened to what the coroner found, we apologised for our role in the tragic events there and what we did before a single inspector set foot in a single school after that was we trained all of our inspectors...

“It doesn’t mean that all inspectors are mental health experts - not all of us can be – but we’re continually building that awareness.”

Last month, the regulator said it would review its response to Mrs Perry's death.

But that would not examine the school's inspection or the judgements made.