Council which employed Ruth Perry calls for forced academisation policy to be scrapped

The employer of the headteacher Ruth Perry, whose death prompted a national debate over the future of inspections, has called for an end to the policy of “forced academisation”.

Reading Borough Council, as part of its reaction to the tragedy, has released a response to Ofsted’s “Big Listen” consultation exercise, in which it criticises the notion of forcing schools which fail inspections to leave their local authorities as part of an “impossible high stakes…culture”.

Ms Perry’s school, Caversham Primary in Reading, received an “inadequate” verdict from the inspectorate, following an inspection in November 2022, which was based entirely on a sub-judgement on safeguarding. With this being a “limiting” judgement, the result was that the school failed overall, with Caversham then facing compulsory academisation as a result.

The letter to Ofsted said that Reading did not support single-word judgements on schools, even though it said the inspectorate’s “Big Listen” consultation exercise had not asked people about this aspect of its reports.

It added: “Alongside the problematic nature of one-word judgements, limiting judgements are a blunt instrument and should be abolished. The experience at Caversham Primary illustrates that a school can be a high-quality school, a joy to attend for its pupils, and be subject to a disproportionate final Ofsted judgement based on a specific, discrete, fixable set of issues. Limiting judgements are even more punitive, being attached as they are to one-word final unfavourable Ofsted inspection judgements and critical decisions regarding the long-term future of schools and school leaders through the forced academisation process.