Ruth Perry looked in physical pain after Ofsted inspection, inquest hears

Ruth Perry was the head teacher at Caversham Primary School, in Reading

The inquest into the death of a head teacher who killed herself has heard how she looked in "physical pain" after a school Ofsted inspection.

As it became clearer the school may be downgraded, lead inspector Alan Derry said, Ruth Perry "was very upset, very tearful", saying "she couldn't show her face again".

Mrs Perry was head teacher at Caversham Primary School for 13 years.

Her death led to a debate about how Ofsted inspections in England worked.

Mrs Perry died two months after Mr Derry visited her school, in Reading, in November 2022, with two other inspectors.

Rated "outstanding", it had not been inspected in 13 years.

The day before the inspection, Mrs Perry had been "very professional, very clear, and very confident", telling him: "We are ready and have been for a really long time," Mr Derry told the inquest.

But the next day, she had seemed "less confident in person than she had on the telephone".

"It was a marked difference," Mr Derry said. She had been "much quieter" and given "shorter responses".

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At a meeting to discuss record-keeping and safeguarding issues, Mrs Perry had said to him: "It's not looking good, is it?", which became a repeated phrase, Mr Derry told the inquest.

"She was tearful - I made sure she had a tissue," he said. And he paused the meeting.

"The personal, human Alan" had worried she was finding it "really challenging and needed some support", he said. And it had been important to reassure her there was much of the two-day inspection remaining and inspectors considered all the evidence before making a collective decision.

In a written statement, school business manager Nicola Leroy told the inquest Mrs Perry had looked "flushed" after the meeting and had said she "needed to leave right now".

'Ruth's story'

The next day, as it became clearer an "inadequate" grading was likely, Mrs Perry had been quiet and "looked sad", Mr Derry said. And in the final feedback meeting, "she was very upset and very tearful".

Asked if he now conducted inspections differently, Mr Derry said the events had "changed" him and it would make sense that the way he conducted inspections had changed as a result.

In her opening remarks, coroner Heidi Connor said she was aware of "the strength of feeling" around the inquest.

Ms Connor addressed the family, saying "your Ruth's story lies at the heart" of the inquest and "I will not forget this".

The inquest will look at four questions - who was Ruth Perry and when, where and how she died.

Mrs Perry died as safeguarding concerns led to Caversham Primary School being downgraded from the highest Ofsted rating, "outstanding", to the lowest rating of "inadequate". It has since been reassessed and judged to be "good".

The decision behind the grading the school received is not something that falls within the scope of the inquest but it's important to have a "clear understanding of how it works and the effect of that system on Ruth", Ms Connor told the court.

Chris Russell, Ofsted's director of education, explained to the inquest how inspections worked, but said the consequences of an inadequate judgement lay with the Department for Education and the "likely outcome is academisation".

Mr Russell said a judgement of ineffective safeguarding would be made only after careful consideration, and was "very rare".

Asked by the coroner how inspectors took reasonable steps to minimise stress, Mr Russell said it was a "core value" of how Ofsted worked, but the responsibility for the welfare of head teachers "sits with others" including the governing body and local authority, "as they have an ongoing relationship".

He said Ofsted did not have written guidance on how to manage the stress of inspections on headteachers at the time but that inspectors are trained to manage inspections in a way that "reduces stress" on schools.

'Lessons can be learned'

Mrs Perry's sister, Julia Waters, told BBC News, if there were "lessons that can be learned so that no head teacher has to go through what Ruth went through and no family has to go through what we are still going through", then that would be a positive outcome.

We needed to "look after" teachers and head teachers "if they're going to look after our children", Ms Waters said, and "reintroduce humanity to the school inspection system".

Following Mrs Perry's death, MPs launched an inquiry into school inspections in England - but some changes have already been made.

From January, schools will be able to contact Ofsted the day after an inspection if they are unhappy.

But Ofsted has said its one-word ratings system, which is not being scrapped, provides clarity to parents and much of the anxiety about inspections comes from the government interventions that follow an "inadequate" rating.

An Ofsted official said they were "deeply saddened by the death of Ruth Perry".

"We are continuing to support the coroner's inquest and we will give evidence at the hearing this week", the official said.

The inquest is due to last five days, with the coroner expecting to deliver her conclusions on 7 December.

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