Sir Christopher Anthony Woodhead (20 October 1946 – 23 June 2015) was a British educationalist. He was Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England from 1994 to 2000, and was one of the most controversial figures in debates on the direction of English education policy. He was Chairman of Cognita, a company dedicated to fostering private education, from 2004 to 2013.

Early life

Christopher Anthony Woodhead was born in Southgate, Middlesex, on 20 October 1946. His father was an accountant, and his mother a school secretary; he was an only child. He went to Selsdon Primary School on Addington Road in South Croydon, then Wallington County Grammar School in Surrey. Later, he graduated in English at the University of Bristol, where he obtained a PGCE. in 1974. His final teaching position was at Gordano School in Portishead as Head of English. During this period, he was noted for his espousal of "progressive" educational ideology, which he later recanted.

In 1976, he left teaching, and subsequently moved into teacher education. He worked as a tutor on the Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) teacher training course at the University of Oxford and held a number of posts in education development, including Deputy Chief Education Officer in Devon (1988–90), as well as posts in Shropshire and Cornwall (1990–1). using the Freedom of Information Act, which confirmed that in 1997 Woodhead had over-ruled a unanimous decision by his own inspectors, and a subsequent inspection visit by HMI inspectors, to declare that Islington Green School was failing and required special measures. According to the head of the school at the time, "the consequences for staff and pupils were catastrophic".

Later career

He was employed as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph In 2002 Class War: The State of British Education, a damning verdict on the systemic failures of British education, was published. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed a Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham. Woodhead and Cognita were reported in the press as having expelled pupils, and were accused of "milking profits", and dismissing a whistleblower who accused the company of allowing ineligible teachers to participate in the state run Teachers' Pension Scheme.

In May 2009 his second book, A Desolation of Learning: Is this the education our children deserve?, a critical examination of the almost two decades of education policy and reforming initiative, was published.

He was on the Advisory Council of think tank Reform.

Personal life and controversy

Woodhead met his wife, Cathy (née Greenaway), at Bristol, married in 1969 and had a daughter in 1975, his only child.

Later, Woodhead lived with Amanda Johnston, a former pupil of Gordano School, for nine years. They insisted that their relationship had begun after they had left the school but his former wife disputed this version of events and stated that she had been asked to consider a ménage à trois with Johnson when the latter was just 17, a claim in which she was supported by a number of Woodhead's colleagues at Gordano

In 1999, he was heavily criticised for saying pupil–teacher relationships could be 'experiential and educative on both sides';

Cognita became embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal when it emerged that one of its teachers, William Vahey, at its Southbank International School had systematically sexually abused at least 60 pupils at the school over a period of years. Vahey taught at the school from 2009 to 2013. Woodhead was the chairman of the school board. Hugh Davies QC, who was appointed to look into the scandal stated that at the school, "The structures of governance did not deliver effective supervision of those with operational responsibility for child protection," and that child protection policies were not "fully understood and/or implemented" and there was a lack of training among the school's child protection officers.

He married again in 2006, to Christine Kensett, and lived in Herefordshire.

Woodhead enjoyed running and rock climbing until he was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative condition motor neurone disease in 2006. In an interview with The Sunday Times published on 3 May 2009, he stated publicly that he would prefer to end his own life than suffer the indignities of the final stages of the disease; in an interview he stated, "The truth is that I would be more likely to drive myself in a wheel-chair off a cliff in Cornwall than go to Dignitas and speak to a bearded social worker about my future."

Woodhead was a patron of Dignity in Dying and campaigned for an assisted dying law: "The problem with MND is that it just gets worse, which means everything becomes a matter of timing. If I knew that the choice of an assisted death at home was a reality it would bring me great comfort and happiness." Woodhead died in London on 23 June 2015, at the age of 68.

See also

  • Assisted suicide
  • Right to die
  • Euthanasia

References

  • His departure as seen by The Guardian in November 2000
  • The public view on his departure in 2000
  • Telegraph 2001 article

Video clips

  • Teachers TV