‘I thought about breaking my own arm’: Why teachers want to see changes to the Ofsted system

While they may not seem like much to those outside the profession, Ofsted inspections can be a source of enormous stress for teachers and other school staff. Lauren Crosby Medlicott gets the inside story

(PA Archive)

After the tragic death of Ruth Perry, the head of a primary school in Reading who took her own life while waiting for the results of the Ofsted report that downgraded her school to “inadequate”, teachers have been sharing their stories about the impact of the inspections on teachers, schools and children.

Ofsted, or the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, is the government organisation that carries out inspections to judge the quality and performance of schools, and grade them.

Schools are notified at midday on the day before the inspection is to be carried out. Once it’s over, the school will be given one of four ratings: outstanding, good, requires improvement, or inadequate.