Memorial service held for Reading headteacher Ruth Perry
More than four hundred family, friends and former colleagues gathered in Reading town centre
Last updated 22nd May 2023
A memorial service has been held for Ruth Perry the Reading headteacher who took her own life while waiting for a negative OFSTED inspection report to be published.
More than 400 friends, family and former colleagues and pupils gathered at the concert hall in Reading's old town hall to hear tributes to the popular Caversham Primary headteacher.
Her sister Julia Waters said:
"It's the first time since Ruth's death in January that we've been able to gather as a broader family but also with Ruth's friends and colleagues past and more recent and with a large number of her former pupils as well to share our memories of Ruth of what she mean't to us and how she influenced all our lives for the better and how we miss her."
Pupils from Caversham Primary sang the S Club 7 song 'Reach for the stars' during the memorial which included tributes from friends and former colleagues from throughout her life and career.
Along with the tributes were readings music was played from The Cure with 'Friday I'm in Love' and Van Morrison 'Brown Eyed Girl'.
Julia says her sister was so much more than a one-word Ofsted judgement:
"A one-word completely inaccurate and meaningless judgement that everyone here can vouch has to be corrected. Ruth was exceptional she was lovely she was unpretentious she was fun she was an amazing individual and I'm not just saying that because she was my sister and I loved her all the people who are here today and so many more are going to say that. The world was a better place with Ruth in it and a poorer place without her in it but yes that Ofsted judgement was a kick in the teeth and an insult to everybody here as well as my sister."
Julia is campaigning to get Ofsted to change the one-word judgement system. She added:
"Ruth wasn't the first teacher to take he own life because of an Ofsted inspection but she must be the last. The Ofsted and the Dept of Education refusal to countenance that they might have played any part in all of those deaths is just insulting, deeply hurtful and irresponsible they have a duty of care to those people who give their love and care to looking after the nation's children you can't do that if you yourself are terrorised, traumatised and worn down and to deny that Ofsted have anything to do with what quite frankly is a mental health crisis for the teaching profession is insensitive, irresponsible and deeply hurtful."
A meeting is due to take place in the coming week with the education secretary where Julia will share her concerns.
An inspection report published on Ofsted’s website in March found Ms Perry’s school to be “good” in every category apart from leadership and management, where it was judged to be “inadequate”.
An Ofsted spokesman has previously said: “Our inspections are first and foremost for children and their parents, looking in depth at the quality of education, behaviour, and how well and safely schools are run.
“We always want inspections to be constructive and collaborative and in the vast majority of cases school leaders agree that they are.”