image source, A brighter future for children
Ruth Berry was the headteacher of Caversham Primary School in Reading
The Minister for Education has agreed to meet the family of the headteacher who committed suicide before an Ofsted inspection report is issued.
Ruth Berry knew the report would classify her elementary school as inadequate when she died in January.
The meeting follows a request in parliament by MP Matt Roda from Reading East on Monday.
He said, “I am delighted that the Secretary of Education has agreed to see me with the local chiefs and the Roth family.”
WATCH: Lisa Teeling said Ruth knew of her school’s Ofsted result for 54 days but couldn’t tell her staff
Rhoda added that he hoped Gillian Keegan would listen to local teachers and Ruth’s family and said he would urge her to “reform Ofsted including ending one-word rulings in reports”.
The lawmaker had previously said Perry’s death was “a devastating event for her family and our community”.
“Ofsted must now ask themselves some tough questions about their role and how we prevent further tragedies in the future,” he said.
Calls were made after Berry’s death to Ofsted to temporarily halt inspections – a move they resisted, claiming it would not be beneficial to the children.
‘tough time’
An Ofsted report described Ms Berry’s school as a “welcoming and lively school”, where relations between staff and pupils were “warm and supportive”, and bullying was rare.
But it also highlighted the lack of “appropriate supervision during break times”, which meant pupils were “potentially in harm’s way”.
It conceded that the controversy over removing grades, where a school is awarded a general mark of outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequacy, was “legitimate”.
But, she added, the scores give parents “a simple, accessible summary of a school’s strengths and weaknesses” and are used by the government to identify struggling schools.