Five More Victims of OFSTED

 Five days ago, I included in my swipe at Gillian Keegan, our esteemed Education Secretary and at OFSTED, a list of five names. They were, and are, five important names - names of teachers who took their own lives because of stress brought on by OFSTED inspections. It took me a long time to compile that list, and I was sure that there were more such unfortunates, whose names were to be added. I decided that it might be a good idea to pass on what I knew to Professor Julia Waters, sister of the late Ruth Perry. As is known, Ruth Perry was the Head of Caversham Primary School, in Reading, who committed suicide in January last year, ahead of the publication of an adverse OFSTED report. As Professor Waters, seen above addressing the National Education Union (NEU) conference, is campaigning for OFSTED to become more human in its treatment of schools, I thought my information might be of value.

I emailed details of the five names to Professor Waters and, to my surprise and immense gratitude, she replied. After thanking me for my condolences, she said that she was already aware of all the names on my list and that she knew of five more names besides that five I already knew. After my initial shock, I began looking at these five new cases, and I give some details here.

The first case, and the second on the overall list, is the tragic case of Pamela Relf, who committed suicide by drowning in 2000. 57-years of age, she had taught for 36 years and was  the longest-serving teacher at Middlefield Primary School, in Eynesbury, St Neot’s, Cambridgeshire. The OFSTED team who inspected her school said that her lessons "lacked pace", and she was deeply distressed by this. The TES reported:

"Headteacher Brian Rayner said: “I have never before seen Pamela in such a state. It concerned me that the school’s most senior teacher had been reduced to such a state.”

Miss Relf’s body was found in a river at a nature reserve near her home. She had disappeared on her way to work on January 4, the day the new term began. Dr Colin Latimore, the coroner, recorded a verdict of suicide while suffering from depression. Still, the then Chief Inspector, Chris Woodhead, uttered these beautiful words by way of an elegy:

 “Miss Relf’s death is obviously very sad and everybody at OFSTED is deeply upset that she was unable to accept what the inspectors said to her. We will continue to do all we can to ensure that inspection is rigorous, that it tells the truth about a teacher, but at the same time that we reduce the pressure that’s inevitable in any inspection to a minimum.”

It will be noted that these sentiments, uttered 23 years before the passing of Ruth Perry, are very similar, if not identical, to what Amanda Spielman said about Ruth. This surely makes a mockery of OFSTED's supposed reduction of pressure "to a minimum", following the death of Pamela Relf - if it happened at all.

It certainly did not happen for James Patton, a 29-year old primary school teacher who also took his own life in 2000. As the Free Library says: 

"Mr James Patton, aged 29, who worked up to 60 hours a week, felt that he was failing the class of 10-year-olds he taught at Corpus Christi Roman Catholic primary school in Stechford, an inquest heard yesterday. After having time off work and being treated for anxiety and depression by his GP, he wrote a goodbye letter to his wife, Melanie, which said: 'My best was not good enough.' Then he hanged himself from a tree on a public right of way close to their home in Green Acres Road, Kings Norton."

Mr Patton's wife, Melanie, said that her husband was "extremely anxious" about a pending OFSTED inspection. His Headteacher paid tribute to Mr Patton's work, saying:  'James was very dedicated and very hard-working. He was adored not only by the pupils but respected by the staff". 

In 2008, a Scottish Headteacher, Irene Hogg, took her own life following an adverse OFSTED inspection. As The Scotsman says: 

"The head teacher at Glendinning Primary School in Galashiels for 18 years was said to have been "disappointed and visibly distressed after receiving critical feedback from the visit".

Following this feedback, Ms Hogg drove to a remote spot, took an overdose of paracetamol and suffered a fatal heart attack after falling into a stream. Sherriff James Farrell, at the Fatal Accident Inquiry into Ms Hogg's death, said: "There can be no doubt that Irene Hogg's death is inextricably linked to the outcome of the Glendinning School inspection on March 2008."

OFSTED clearly had not learned much about reducing pressure since the previous suicides.  The human story behind this death and the others is deeply distressing and affecting. As Sherriff Farrell went on to say: "The headteacher, Irene Hogg, was respected and held in high esteem by her staff and by parents, and loved by the many children who over the years were fortunate to have been in her care."

In 2010, Sarah Giddy, a 44-year old teacher at St Helen's Primary School in Abbotsham, North Devon, hanged herself at home, three months before she was due to be married. As the Daily Mail says: 

"The teacher was worried about an inspection by local education authority officials planned for the following week when she killed herself on a Saturday morning." An unnamed friend said: "She was a lovely woman who had everything to live for. She was very healthy and fit and loved horses. She had been a teacher for five years after previously working as a nursery nurse.'

Last in this melancholy list is Headteacher Helen Mann, 43, who was found hanged at Sytchampton Endowed First School, near Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, in November 2012. Mrs Mann had been in her post less than six months at the time of her death. Having started the job with great enthusiasm, it seems that Mrs Mann was concerned that the school would not retain its previous "Outstanding" OFSTED grade. At the inquest for Mrs Mann, the school's chair of governors, Dr Stephanie Galt, said: 

"The school had been classified as 'outstanding' in its previous inspection and she was concerned that it wouldn't be classified as 'outstanding' if they were to come in soon. That had been mentioned in at least one governors' meeting and we all said that we understood this would be the case but not through any fault of her."

In conclusion, we now have a full list of teachers who have taken their own lives through OFSTED pressure: Janet Watson (1999), Pamela Relf (2000), James Patton (2000), Keith Waller (2007), Jed Holmes (2007), Irene Hogg (2008), Sarah Giddy (2010), Helen Mann (2012), Carol Woodward (2015) and Ruth Perry (2023). So much for Chris Woodhead's words of 2000! I have to thank Professor Julia Waters for providing me with a full list of these deaths, even though it is probably (and sadly) incomplete. We can only send condolences to the families of all these teachers and, as Professor Waters said in her email to me:

 "It’s a terrible tragedy that the suffering of all these individuals, their families, schools and communities has gone largely unheard and unheeded."