A former Ofsted inspector has become the public face for a group of school leaders who have raised more than £40,000 to mount a High Court challenge to force Ofsted to reveal the evidence it uses to downgrade schools.
John Bald, a former language teacher who is vice-president of the Conservative Education Society, and who worked for Ofsted until 2006, is fronting a crowdfunding page called Fair Judgment to challenge the inspection regime.
The challenge is a response to the death of the Berkshire primary headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life in January while awaiting an inspection report that downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
Mr Bald told Tes the campaign is raising funds to gather evidence of Ofsted’s “unfair practices and their devastating impact on schools”.
At the time of writing, the fund had received a total of £41,385 towards its £45,000 goal, from nearly 5,000 donors.
Ofsted reports ‘unbalanced and unfair’
The campaign is working with law firm Irwin Mitchell to investigate the possibility of bringing about a judicial review of the current Ofsted inspection framework, which Mr Bald says generates “unbalanced, unfair and seriously misleading reports” and “is, therefore, not fit for purpose”.
He said inspectors spend too little time in a school to corroborate whether an incident was an isolated event or part of a pattern.
Mr Bald stressed that he did not feel Ofsted or individual inspectors were behaving maliciously. “There are some very good people in Ofsted and HMCI [His Majesty’s chief inspector] but the framework is systemically flawed. And I don’t think Ofsted and HMCI understand the impact of what they are doing,” he said.
Mr Bald is also meeting with legal experts from the NAHT school leaders’ union, he said. The union called on members, at its annual conference on Saturday, to withdraw from Ofsted inspection work until the current teacher pay dispute is resolved.
Tomorrow Mr Bald is set to lead a delegation to visit the Queen Emma Primary School in Cambridge, which is taking legal action against Ofsted over an inspection report.
There have been longstanding concerns over Ofsted’s complaints process, and the inspectorate has committed to reviewing its policies - although heads say this will not go far enough.
Yogi Amin, national head of education law at Irwin Mitchell, said: “Unfortunately, at present many school leaders feel that complaining to Ofsted about an inspection they deem to be unfair will not result in any positive outcome.
“They also to have consider the squeeze on school budgets. If a school thinks their Ofsted rating is unfair, what school governing body, under budget constraints, is going to justify a legal challenge against such a decision?”
Mr Amin added: “The serious concerns raised about Ofsted prompt a question over whether Ofsted’s policy and guidance on the inspection of schools is legally flawed.”
The law firm is now advising the group on possible next steps. If legal action is found to be unreasonable, impractical or unnecessary, Mr Bald said all crowndfunding contributions will be donated to Caversham Primary School to contribute to a memorial for Ruth Perry.
Fair Judgement is asking for information and evidence that may help its investigation to be emailed to Johnbald50@gmail.com
Ofsted has been contacted for comment.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan said: “My heart goes out to Ruth’s family, friends and school community.
“Just as with schools, we expect Ofsted to make improvements where they can. I know they’re currently undergoing a review, including on how safeguarding is considered proportionally in overall school judgements.
“I fully support our approach of providing a clear rating that parents can trust to inform their decisions. Ofsted has been central to our success in driving up school standards, with 88 per cent of our schools now rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ - up from 68 per cent when this government came into office.”
