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| Sir Chris Woodhead obituary | Sir Chris Woodhead obituary |
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| Sir Chris Woodhead, the former head of the Ofsted schools inspectorate, who has died aged 68 after suffering motor from neurone disease and liver cancer, was one of the most controversial and colourful figures in English education. He dominated and fuelled debate about schools policy during both Conservative and Labour administrations. As an outspoken opponent of “trendy” teaching methods and supporter of grammar schools, Woodhead was a scourge of the mostly leftwing education establishment and an deeply unpopular figure among teachers for many years. | |
| He will be best remembered for his period as chief inspector of schools in England, and so the head of Ofsted, from 1994 to 2000, a tenure that was full of incident and drama. His claim, just months into the job, that 15,000 teachers were incompetent and should be sacked set the future tone of his relationship with the profession. But he also incurred the wrath of education academics and chief education officers. | He will be best remembered for his period as chief inspector of schools in England, and so the head of Ofsted, from 1994 to 2000, a tenure that was full of incident and drama. His claim, just months into the job, that 15,000 teachers were incompetent and should be sacked set the future tone of his relationship with the profession. But he also incurred the wrath of education academics and chief education officers. |
| In 1999 it was alleged that Woodhead, a former English teacher, had had a relationship with one of his pupils. He said the affair did not start until he had ceased to teach at the school, but he never fully explained the situarion. He kept his post but resigned the following year, much to the delight of the teaching unions. | |
| Woodhead was born in London. His father was an accountant and his mother a school secretary who also doubled up as the “lollipop lady”. The young Chris, an only child, attended primary school in Croydon and then Wallington County grammar school, Surrey. He went on to gain an English degree at Bristol University, followed by a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). | |
| His classroom teaching career started at the Priory school, Shrewsbury, in Shropshire (1969-72). He then became deputy head of English at Newent school, Gloucester (1972-74), and head of English at Gordano school, Bristol (1974-76), before switching to teacher training, as a lecturer at Oxford University (1976-82). Local education posts followed: as an adviser in Shropshire (1982-88), and as a deputy chief education officer in Devon (1988-90) and in Cornwall (1990-91). From there he went to the National Curriculum Council as deputy chief executive (1991) and chief executive (1991-93), and then in the same role to the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority (1993-94). | |
| In 1994 Woodhead was appointed head of Ofsted, which had been set up by John Major’s Conservative government to help drive up school standards. When Labour came to power in 1997 there was political pressure on Tony Blair to replace Woodhead, but the new prime minister ignored his advisers and kept Woodhead on – partly to persuade voters that New Labour was not “in hock” to the unions. The new education secretary, David Blunkett, put on a brave face to work with the man he had criticised and ridiculed in opposition. But there were public rows between the two. Meanwhile, the annual teaching union conferences became dominated by the new sport of Woodhead-bashing. | |
| In February 1999, Woodhead, addressing an audience of trainee teachers, was asked for his views on legislation to ban sexual relationships between pupils and teachers. His response was that such relationships, while regrettable, could be “experiential and educative on both sides”, a remark that was picked up by the national media and for which he later apologised. But the damage was done. His first wife, Cathy (they married in 1969 and divorced in 1977), sparked controversy by saying he had started a relationship with a pupil when he was a teacher. | |
| After he left Ofsted, Woodhead became a columnist with the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times newspapers, and wrote two books about education. In 2002, he was appointed a visiting professor at the University of Buckingham, Britain’s only private university, in a department he helped to set up with Anthony O’Hear, one of Margaret Thatcher’s education gurus. Working closely with Professor Alan Smithers, he wanted this to be an “antidote” to the mainstream educational research establishment. Smithers said of him: “As the head of Ofsted he did not hold back in saying things as his inspectors saw them and he got up some people’s noses – not least because he was so often right. As a friend and colleague he was warm and generous, not at all how he was sometimes caricatured.” | After he left Ofsted, Woodhead became a columnist with the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times newspapers, and wrote two books about education. In 2002, he was appointed a visiting professor at the University of Buckingham, Britain’s only private university, in a department he helped to set up with Anthony O’Hear, one of Margaret Thatcher’s education gurus. Working closely with Professor Alan Smithers, he wanted this to be an “antidote” to the mainstream educational research establishment. Smithers said of him: “As the head of Ofsted he did not hold back in saying things as his inspectors saw them and he got up some people’s noses – not least because he was so often right. As a friend and colleague he was warm and generous, not at all how he was sometimes caricatured.” |
| In 2005, he again became the focus of controversy when it emerged that while at Ofsted he had on one occasion overruled his own inspectors to fail Islington Green school, north London, despite the inspectors saying that they were “of the unanimous view that the school was not failing”. The revised report had devastating consequences. The school was put into “special measures” and its reputation suffered. Woodhead’s response to the revelation was simply that it was within his powers to act as he did. | |
| Colleagues and close colleagues said Woodhead had a talent for “cutting out the middle man” and heading straight for the top – hence his close friendship with Blair. He had other friends in high places, including the Prince of Wales, who referred to Woodhead as a “marvellous” man and often invited him to dinner at Highgrove. Since 2004 he had been chairman of Cognita, a chain of private schools, and he was a regular attender of private schools conferences. | |
| Early in 2009 he revealed the diagnosis of motor neurone disease that he had known about for three years. In an interview with the Guardian that June, he said: “I’ve come to terms with it in the sense that I’ve got it, it isn’t fair, but I’ve got it. But I’m not sure anyone could ever say they’ve come to terms with a disease like this. I think it would be pretending to have an acceptance and courage and stoicism that I haven’t got ... It is a bugger.” | Early in 2009 he revealed the diagnosis of motor neurone disease that he had known about for three years. In an interview with the Guardian that June, he said: “I’ve come to terms with it in the sense that I’ve got it, it isn’t fair, but I’ve got it. But I’m not sure anyone could ever say they’ve come to terms with a disease like this. I think it would be pretending to have an acceptance and courage and stoicism that I haven’t got ... It is a bugger.” |
| To the end he never changed his belief that Labour, in its quest for equality, had betrayed children by denying what he saw as a given: that children are destined for different things. And he never lost the ability to make news, through carefully timed interviews, even when his illness had taken a serious grip. In October 2011 at the opening of the Conservative party conference in Liverpool, he grabbed headlines with an assertion that the national school leaving age should be reduced to 14. | To the end he never changed his belief that Labour, in its quest for equality, had betrayed children by denying what he saw as a given: that children are destined for different things. And he never lost the ability to make news, through carefully timed interviews, even when his illness had taken a serious grip. In October 2011 at the opening of the Conservative party conference in Liverpool, he grabbed headlines with an assertion that the national school leaving age should be reduced to 14. |
| In 2011 Woodhead was given a knighthood. This appeared to greatly cheer him at a time when his disease was advancing. A patron of the Dignity in Dying campaign, he considered ending his life at Dignitas, the Swiss clinic, but changed his mind and was cared for latterly by his second wife, Christine (nee Kensett), whom he had met while working at Ofsted. They married in 2006. | In 2011 Woodhead was given a knighthood. This appeared to greatly cheer him at a time when his disease was advancing. A patron of the Dignity in Dying campaign, he considered ending his life at Dignitas, the Swiss clinic, but changed his mind and was cared for latterly by his second wife, Christine (nee Kensett), whom he had met while working at Ofsted. They married in 2006. |
| He is survived by Christine, his daughter, Tamsin, from his first marriage and three granddaughters. | |
| • Christopher Anthony Woodhead, educationist, born 20 October 1946; died 23 June 2015 | • Christopher Anthony Woodhead, educationist, born 20 October 1946; died 23 June 2015 |