The family of a head teacher who killed herself ahead of an Ofsted report are hoping her inquest will highlight missed opportunities to prevent her death.
Ruth Perry, 53, was head teacher at Caversham Primary School, in Reading, for 13 years.
Her death led to a debate about how Ofsted inspections in England worked.
The inquest, which begins on Tuesday, will fully consider the circumstances surrounding her death, on 8 January.
Mrs Perry’s sister Julia Waters told BBC News if there were “lessons that can be learned so that no head teacher has to go through what Ruth went through and no family has to go through what we are still going through”, then that would be a positive outcome.
We needed to “look after” teachers and head teachers “if they’re going to look after our children”, Ms Waters said, and “reintroduce humanity to the school inspection system”.
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Safeguarding concerns led to Caversham Primary School being downgraded from the highest rating, “outstanding”, to the lowest. It has since be regraded as “good”.
Following Mrs Perry’s death, MPs launched an inquiry into school inspections in England – but some changes have already been made.
From January, schools will be able to contact Ofsted the day after an inspection if they are unhappy.
But Ofsted has said its one-word ratings system, which is not being scrapped, provides clarity to parents and much of the anxiety about inspections comes from the government interventions that follow an “inadequate” rating.
On Saturday, Mrs Perry’s family launched an appeal for help with their legal costs for the inquest, after their request for legal aid had been refused. It exceeded its target after two days.
An Ofsted official said they were “deeply saddened by the death of Ruth Perry”.
“We have listened to the public debate around our inspections this year and we announced measures to improve aspects of our work with schools in the summer,” they said.
“We are continuing to support the coroner’s inquest and we will give evidence at the hearing this week.”
The inquest is due to last five days, with the coroner expecting to deliver her conclusions on 7 December.
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