There aren’t enough words to damn Ofsted’s one-word school reviews…

As the government doubles down on its requirement that every school be given the briefest summary – in spite of the death of headteacher Ruth Perry – James Moore says being dismissed as ‘inadequate’ is far from the only pressure leaders in education face

Headteacher Ruth Perry took her own life after Ofsted downgraded her ‘outstanding’ primary school to ‘inadequate’ (PA Wire)

Who would work in a school today? Ofsted’s controversial one-word summaries – which can mean an otherwise “outstanding” school that has slipped up in one area can be branded as “inadequate” – are here to stay.

Which is a pity. According to the government, these gnomic, TripAdvisor-style judgements confer significant benefits to parents. Well, not this parent.

There have been calls for this blunt grading system to change in the wake of the death of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from the top rating to the lowest. Relatively minor safeguarding concerns was the sole category in which her otherwise “outstanding” school left itself down, and it was declared “inadequate”.