Ofsted inspections halted after teacher’s suicide: Are teachers under too much pressure?
Are school teachers under too much pressure to perform? After a coroner ruled an ofsted inspection contributed towards the death of a teacher last year, inspections have been paused by the watchdog's new boss. Do you agree with the move? And what could replace in-person inspections? We went out and about to ask some of you.
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00:00 My ex-wife, she used to get inspected by Ofsted and they were so strict, unbelievably strict.
00:11 So I think they are under massive pressure, really do.
00:14 Yeah, take your chill pill a little bit, you know.
00:17 I have four children and they go to different schools, so I know.
00:22 So I'm talking from a standpoint of, and I know what goes on.
00:27 Some of the pressure, they model it up by the end of the day.
00:30 They are there for a purpose.
00:31 If they are not allowed to do their job effectively, it makes no sense.
00:35 I don't know enough about education and I don't know enough about inspection.
00:39 And I suspect that the inspections were started for a good reason, but that's no reason to
00:43 continue to do the same thing.
00:45 The case with Ruth Curry was just awful, really awful, and lessons have to be learned.
00:49 I don't, I'm not well placed to know what those lessons are, but it doesn't, the data
00:56 that's given, I'm not sure anything would be worth a life.
00:59 In 2023, headteacher Ruth Perry took her own life after an Ofsted inspection rated her
01:04 school inadequate.
01:05 A month ago, a coroner ruled the primary school's rating downgrade was a contributory factor
01:10 in her death.
01:11 Now, Ofsted's new boss, Martin Oliver, has bowed to the pressure from teaching unions
01:16 to halt in-person inspections.
01:18 Oliver has promised an inquiry into Ruth's death and said inspections will not resume
01:23 until assessors have been properly trained in protecting the well-being of school staff.
01:28 Do you support the decision?
01:29 Are teachers under too much pressure?
01:31 And what could ensure school standards instead?
01:34 There's hope now for the future.
01:35 The new head of Ofsted, he's an ex-teacher and he's done a lot of good work in schools.
01:41 He's very appreciative.
01:42 He knows exactly what the worries and the concerns were when an inspection was coming
01:49 up.
01:50 And I think that change in leadership, he's acknowledged the fact it was awful.
01:54 And this one word, you know, one word sums everything up.
02:00 No, it's not 100% bad or something like that.
02:02 I know we're in Wales and we don't have Ofsted.
02:04 I think it's Estyn.
02:06 And so I'm not sure whether that's affected or not.
02:08 But I'm not even sure of what the headteachers are meant to be having to do to get through
02:15 their Ofsted and Estyn reports.
02:17 But whatever it is, it must be awful for somebody to take their own life.
02:20 It's horrendous.
02:21 So I think maybe all of Great Britain should stop.
02:25 What the Scottish, I don't know what the Scots use, but maybe everybody should think about
02:29 it and rethink the kind of criteria these schools have got to be following.
02:33 Because it's not honest.
02:34 If someone is doing that, you know, it's just something wrong with it.
02:37 So yeah, it's probably a good idea for everybody to stop them and make them a little bit less
02:41 severe for the schools to have to follow.
02:44 Because that is just unacceptable.
02:46 I'm sure there are plenty of ways in which they can both modify their approach, possibly
02:54 even change their assessments.
02:57 And most of all, how they make that known to the head and to the wider public.