Here is the News.

I mean.... that's a terrible analogy, and a perfect example of my point. It's a terrible analogy because he does a physically dangerous job (not to disregard the actual and horrible physical risks faced by teachers, but rugby players are taking huge damage to their bodies every week as an essential part of the job) that is examined and judged in public by thousands of people and the global media, often unfairly, and it's not at all surprising or unreasonable that all that would take its toll on his mental health, and it's a perfect example of my point because he said "yeah, I don't need this, I'm stepping away for a bit" which is the behaviour of a well balanced individual suited to the role.

Let me try it this way. If we accept that Ofsted are terrible people doing wicked awful things, and I have no reason to disbelieve that although I do suspect that it's somewhat overblown and there may be some element of the public sector being unable and/or unwilling to accept the kind of judgement that is routinely meted out in the private sector, why aren't more headteachers looking for the nearest bridge or bottle of pills? Either Ofsted specifically singled her out for worse treatment than others get, or she was less capable of handling the regular pressures of the role than her peers. Either which way, she could at any point have taken the route that Farrell did and said "fuck you, I'll go do something else".

I'm not meaning to come off as heartless here although I realise that it may seem that way, but the fact is that she clearly wasn't suited to the pressures of her role. That's a recruitment, management and support issue.

You're point seemed to be the headteacher should have known the likely pressure and cricism that comes with the job in advance and not gone into that line of work if she couldn't handle it.

My Farrell analogy may not be the best but, but was suggesting iike her, he cannot take the pressure and this shouldn't have gone into that line of work in the first place.

But you don't always know what the pressure is and how you will cope in advance.

And whilst Farrel has the luxury of stepping back but still getting paid, tougher for a head to do the same.

Being in charge of a school that goes from excellent to failing likely totally screws the rest of her career too.

There's definitely an element of awareness and self preservation required, both prior to taking such a role and once you're in it. At the same time, it's hard to blame someone for taking a job that's on offer regardless of whether they're fit for it - I've done that a couple of times, both times been found out, and both times ended up seeking alternative career options (one involuntary, one of my own accord). But as I've already said, it's important that the people making the hires and who best understand what pressures a role brings and what kind of individual traits are required to handle it are honest with themselves and with candidates, and don't just hire because it's that person's turn to have a go - a common practice in the public sector.

Does it? Because she could no longer be a teacher, or because she couldn't get another headteaching gig? I don't see how the former would be the be the case, and the latter seems like it would have been a positive outcome given her tragically proven inability to handle its pressures. Is staying on to fight the report and/or correct its findings as to the school's failures not an option? And anyway, if the mercurial nature of Ofsted reports is such an open secret in the educational community, surely "I was doing an excellent job and got shafted by an Ofsted examiner who hadn't had his cup of coffee and gave me a B on this particular highly subjective test" would be an entirely reasonable position to take with other potential employers?

The problem with Russ's argument is mainly that nobody wants to be a Headteacher anymore, so increasingly there are going to be people stepping up to the position who are not able to do a good job. Ofsted need to change the way they do things.

I worked overseas in two schools accredited by EDT, previously CfBT, an organisation closely linked to Ofsted. They came to the school once a year, looked at what you were doing and gave guidance on how to improve. Each visit they came back and looked at how you had responded to their recommendations and discussed how things were going. All very supportive.

I got back to the UK, first half term my new school was put in special measures. The pressure we are under as staff is immense, but I think they've pushed it too far. Many teachers I work with, myself included, have stopped listening a year later. We are all happy to walk if the inspectors tell us we're crap, but we'll keep doing what we think is best for the kids in the meantime. Teachers who left last year haven't been replaced because nobody is applying for the jobs. Leadership has totally changed, then changed again. Students in my form had a supply teacher for each of their lessons on Monday because they don't have a teacher for some subjects and 16 staff were off sick.

Tricky is correct, the inspectors aren't there to maintain standards. In this case I'm pretty sure they are just looking for a legal way to shut the school after a failed attempt a decade ago when the courts ordered it to stay open. Seems the inspectors are going to win this time.

The inspection ‘contributed to’ the suicide. We don’t know how much weight that ‘contributed to’ is carrying, but anyone who knows people who’ve taken their own life or deal with suicidal thoughts and ideation will likely tell you that it is probably carrying an awful lot.

A discussion of Ofsted and the pressures on the teaching profession is legitimate without it having contributed to a personal tragedy, of course. So have that.

What I see here is an attempt to leverage that personal tragedy to make a political point, which I do not like at all. I also think it is potentially dangerously counterproductive because ‘TUP’ is going to be as common a response to it as ‘Burn Ofsted’.

I don’t know what led that lady to take her own life.. but it is probably a lot of things. A lifetime of things. Issues with her mental health that go back decades and, almost certainly, failures of society and support systems that were infinitely more damaging than Ofsted.

I am close with someone who is a suicide risk. If it ever happens it could just be the accumulated weight of their life and situation leading them to make a calm and measured decision to be done with it… or it could be an innocuous-seeming thing causing a trigger that sends them into a spiral. It could be something akin to a shitty week at work and the fear of that getting worse. The cause will be abuse in childhood and long-running failures in support, the things a newspaper might cite as ‘contributed to’ will just be the final triggers that the shitty roulette wheel of life threw out.

Weaponizing suicide for a single-issue point like that boils my piss and is one of the worst things that ‘my side’ of the political spectrum seems especially prone to doing.

Important point of order. A large proportion these days are free schools, academies or run by large MATs (multi-academy trusts). In Nottingham, for example, fewer than a third of the city's 90-odd schools are run by the local authority - and zero secondaries.

You make some interesting wider points about this headteacher, but to suggest Ofsted is ostensibly a public-sector regulatory body is outdated and incorrect.

Yes, I am indeed very familiar with the problems afflicting public sector education. But Ofsted is a publicly funded organisation that reports to parliament, not the government of the day. It's not an arm of Tory education policy. I would agree that the current Ofsted inspection process is deeply flawed and needs urgent reform, but it is not responsible for defunding anything. Nor is it terrorizing or dismantling anything.

My Mrs was a teacher and in my somewhat biased opinion, a very good one. Tended to work in the naughty schools. Gave up after getting downgraded on an OFSTED where they assess one lesson. In that school, they worked hard just to get the kids into school and fed. Some of the kids clearly werent washed and so on. And so some lessons could be very tough. If the kids aren't looked after at home, you can't expect social skills at school.

Which leads to a point made above, a lot of good teachers have left and they aren't being replaced so there is increasingly shit teaching. Which OFSTED weighs in on leading to teachers leaving etc etc.

Yes, schools do need to be assessed but surely there is a better way? But it doesn't mean that I disagree with Russ' point. If you are in a senior leadership position, part of the job is dealing with some tough shit. It is absolutely part of the job. At the risk of going a bit Gammon, we're getting over sensitive to hurty stuff you bunch of fucking snowflakes. Being triggered doesn't mean you aren't a self absorbed cunt.

Anyway, the Mrs is an inclusion coordinator in a local school where she more or less helps teachers understand the odd kids and keep them in school. And frequently gets hit by the kids but can do fuck all about it as parents are cunts. Gentle parenting usually means that little Noah hasn't heard "no" before and behaves like an absolute twat. And that gets in the way of supporting the kids who have ADHD/Autism etc who are usually fine once you understand how they work.

Similar story from my wife. Used to teach in Feltham, was good.

Got assessed on one lesson and was deemed satisfactory. Always been assessed as good before in other schools.

Asked inspector what she could have done to be assessed good. Was told absolutely nothing, even getting that group of no hopes to a satisfactory level was a miracle.

But she looks like a worse teacher than the newly qualified who had the cherry picked top set of smart, well behaved, motivated kids (there were a few in the school) and was assessed outstanding.

She packed it in soon after (not just because of that) and has never been back to teaching. Which is a shame for teaching I think as she was good at it.

The whole ofsted grading also drives parents into frantically trying to get their children in to the ‘outstanding’ schools and avoiding ‘required improvement’ ones yet in many cases the required improvement school will be far better for their child. They just might have missed some form filling when the inspectors came.

My wife is yet to quit, like all yours she’s perfect for it and regularly graded outstanding in her secondary school.

She used to have a zest for it but now finds the whole thing pretty demoralising with huge class sizes, tiny budgets etc. she will move onto something else which is a real shame.

It’s just another thing the Tories have broken.

I agree with that