The CEO of a leading multi academy trust is the government’s controversial choice for the new chief inspector at Ofsted, Tes reports.
If confirmed, Sir Martyn Oliver, current chief executive of Outwood Grange Academies Trust, would replace Amanda Spielman as the new chief inspector from next year.
Outwood Grange has been praised for turning around struggling institutions but its zero-tolerance approach to discipline has been criticised: from its schools’ high exclusion rates to facing a legal challenge over its use of isolation booths.
The trust also hit the headlines over reports it had run “flattening the grass” assemblies where ex teachers said pupils were shouted at and humiliated.
The DfE said yesterday that “no final decisions have yet been made on the new chief inspector of Ofsted”.
An announcement is expected to be made in the coming week before the end of the academic year, Tes reported.
Sir Martyn has been the chief executive of Outwood Grange Academies Trust since 2016, overseeing the MAT as it has more than doubled in size.
Sir Martyn, who was knighted for services to education last year, was one of a number of high-profile critics of the way Ofsted implemented its current curriculum-focused Education Inspection Framework when it was introduced in 2019.
Ofsted is replacing its chief inspector at a chaotic time for the inspectorate, after there was uproar following the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
Ms Perry’s family have said she took her own life following an Ofsted inspection at her school, which was subsequently downgraded from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.