Ofsted is finally on the right path – but it still has a long way to go

The organisation’s new boss is off to a good start, writes James Moore – but amid a recruitment crisis and a wave of teachers quitting the profession, is it now time for more radical action?

Sir Martyn Oliver, the new boss of Ofsted, has suspended inspections and has met with the sister of Ruth Perry (PA)

On what for many children was back-to-school week, the new head of Ofsted has been showing welcome signs of a willingness to learn.

Sir Martyn Oliver held a meeting with Professor Julia Waters, the sister of the much-loved headteacher Ruth Perry who took her own life after a bruising Ofsted inspection in which her school was rated as “inadequate”.

A coroner concluded that the inspection “likely contributed” to the death of Ms Perry, whose family said “urgent lessons” needed to be learned. And how: colleagues and family members told the inquest that meetings with Ofsted inspectors had left her so distressed that at times she was unable to speak.