1. Sir Christopher Anthony Woodhead was a British educationalist.
20 Facts About Chris Woodhead
1. 2.
Chris Woodhead 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.
3.
Chris Woodhead was Chairman of Cognita, a company dedicated to fostering private education, from 2004 to 2013.
4.
Christopher Anthony Woodhead was born in Southgate, Middlesex, on 20 October 1946.
5.
Chris Woodhead's father was an accountant, and his mother a school secretary; he was an only child.
6.
Chris Woodhead obtained a MA in English from Keele University in 1974.
7.
Chris Woodhead's final teaching position was at Gordano School in Portishead as Head of English.
8.
Chris Woodhead worked as a tutor on the Postgraduate Certificate of Education teacher training course at the University of Oxford and held a number of posts in education development, including Deputy Chief Education Officer in Devon, as well as posts in Shropshire and Cornwall.
9.
Chris Woodhead was appointed head of the Office for Standards in Education, the schools inspection service, in 1994.
10.
Supporters claimed that Chris Woodhead was a radical reformer willing to tackle the failings of the education system and only encountering the defensiveness of the educational establishment.
11.
In February 2005, The Guardian obtained information using the Freedom of Information Act, which confirmed that in 1997 Chris 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.
12.
Chris Woodhead was employed as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times newspapers.
13.
Chris Woodhead continued to speak out in public on many issues relating to education at both school and university level, often provoking great controversy.
14.
In 2004 Chris Woodhead became chairman of Cognita, a company that owns and runs independent schools.
15.
Chris Woodhead met his wife, Cathy, at Bristol, married in 1969 and had a daughter in 1975, his only child.
16.
Later, Chris Woodhead lived with Amanda Johnston, a former pupil of Gordano School, for nine years.
17.
Chris Woodhead was previously in a relationship with Ruth Miskin.
18.
Chris Woodhead married again in 2006, to Christine Kensett, and lived in Herefordshire.
19.
Chris Woodhead was knighted in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to education.
20.
Chris Woodhead enjoyed running and rock climbing until he was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative condition motor neurone disease in 2006.