The affair that could bring down the schools inspector

Some say the meeting between Amanda and her former teacher was a happy coincidence. But there had certainly been rumours of an affair at their old Bristol comprehensive, where pupils sniggered about the amount of time Amanda spent with the head of English.

Now, 25 years later, the relationship between the two is far from being a laughing matter for either Mr Woodhead or Prime Minister Tony Blair.

For the affair is close to bringing down Mr Woodhead as the Government's Chief Inspector of Schools, in the process inflicting humiliation on Education Secretary David Blunkett, who has stood by him.

Ironically, after all the criticisms Mr Woodhead has survived over Ofsted reports and declining school standards, his future now appears to rest on just when he and Amanda first became lovers.

With the Government set on criminalising the relationship between teachers and pupils aged under 18, the last thing Mr Blunkett needed was the lurid details of his Chief Inspector's love life resurfacing. But Mr Woodhead's ex-wife Cathy has given the Oxford Mail her own detailed account of just what he had in mind when he came to Oxford, where he worked as an English tutor from 1976 to 1982.

She said the plan all along had been for the Woodheads and their daughter Tammy to set up home in Oxford - with his ex-pupil.

She said: "I went house-hunting in Oxford. The plan was that we should all live in Oxford together."

So she wretchedly trudged around the city collecting leaflets from estate agents and looking at potential new homes.

"Yes, I did know there was an affair but I was emotionally dependent on my husband and believed that was my only option."

She was reduced to insisting that their new home would have to be divided into two flats - "one for them, one for myself and Tammy".

Cathy claims this idea appealed to her husband, who even told her Amanda would be able to help with the baby.

But the bizarre arrangement never came into existence. Mr Woodhead and his former student embarked on a nine-year relationship and the Woodheads were divorced in 1979.

Cathy said a holiday with her husband and his mistress proved too much to stomach. "While on holiday in Cornwall, I decided not to go to Oxford. I came to my senses and decided that my daughter and I would stay in Bristol. They went to Oxford. In Bristol I went to see my solicitor who took detailed notes." "This is all part of the massive file that I have given to Mr Blair and Mr Blunkett. I don't know what they are doing with it."

For the ex-wife, who remained silent for 25 years, the turning point came in February, when the Chief Inspector of Schools announced that sexual relationships with teachers could be "educative for pupils".

While her husband was having an "educative experience", she had been looking after their baby, she was to insist. She was further angered by his subsequent claim that he had not had an affair with Amanda while she was a pupil.

Cathy, who now lives in north Wales, stands accused herself of being a bitter ex-wife, while supporters of the Chief Inspector are talking of a left-wing conspiracy to destroy him, orchestrated by people who believe he has humiliated the teaching profession.

Cathy certainly raised the stakes when she publicly wondered if Mr Blair knew her ex-husband was lying about when his relationship with Amanda began.

She told the BBC: "I am afraid anyone who allows lies to be carried on cannot be trusted themselves. It is an incredibly important issue." But the man responsible for the inspection of our schools can only expect the probing of his own colourful history to continue.

It hardly seems credible, but Mr Woodhead's future - and even the direction of the Government's schools policy - now seems to hang on whether he fell for an Oxford waitress or a Bristol schoolgirl.

Story date: Friday 16 April

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