Dear Mrs Keegan…

Dear Mrs Keegan,

I wrote to one of your predecessors on several occasion, but this is the first time I have felt moved to write to you since you took over as Secretary of State. For teachers, support staff, admin staff and for everyone else who works in a school, education is a passion. It is a vocation and a way of life and the outcomes of the children that we teach can be all consuming. We all work tirelessly to support the students in school hours, out of school hours and when it’s not direct work the thought of how to improve things in our lessons, classes and schools is never far from our thoughts.

Is education in this country what you set out for it to be? Is it what the Conservatives wanted when they took power over a decade ago? The successes in education are all to do with the efforts and skill of the people who work within it. To be blunt – success is despite government interventions and not because of them. While headlines and league tables and soundbites can always be moulded to show a positive spin the reality of working in education in this country is a very different one to that portrayed.

So what is it like? I am sure you have a plethora of advisors and staff who will tell you, but this is my reality. Let’s start with some scenarios:

• Can you imagine sitting across the table from a parent in tears about the self harm their child is committing and telling them they can access CAHMS, but the waiting list is currently nearly two years?
• Can you imagine sitting across the table from a parent and having to tell them they have to go private for an assessment if they want to find anything out in less than two years? Can you imagine telling them that when you know they cannot afford it?
• Can you imagine sitting across from a child who tells you that their social worker never listens to them, and doesn’t really know them as they change every few weeks?
• Can you imagine sitting with a teaching assistant who is in tears as she doesn’t want to leave the job she loves, but she can’t afford food for her family without working another job after she finishes school?

These are all things I have experienced in just the last term and I can guarantee my experience is replicated all over the country. What would you do in my position? How would you respond? Shall I tell them that it is all OK because funding is at a record level? Shall I tell them it is all OK because the UK has moved up the league tables for reading and maths? I am not sure it will be the comfort you think it is. 

But what is the other reality of school life?

Funding 

Increased funding has made a difference. The extra money in budgets is welcome, but the cost of everything else is still so high that it has not alleviated the prices rises we have seen over the last two years. My budget is still incredibly stretched despite putting money aside at every opportunity and also reducing spending to the very minimum it can be. There are so many things I wish I could do as a headteacher, but my hands are tied by the financial situation the school is in. My position is not unique. SEN need is growing – I have to make difficult decisions about who can be supported and who can’t, when to be honest they all need support and need more of it than I can give. There just isn’t enough money to go around, despite ‘record levels’ of funding.

Services

Everywhere is broken. Mental health, paediatrics, social care, mental health support, SEN, school improvement. I can’t reliably access any of these services to a level that is sufficient enough to support all of the pupils within my school. The lack of access and time it takes to access anything adds more strain on a school system that is already stretched as far as it can go. If I could access the help I need for my pupils in timely way, I could improve their academic outcomes in a much more successful way. Instead, I am focussing on fixing the other issues they face with the resources I have in school. It is right that I do this – we owe this to the children, but it will take resource away from other areas of the school. I wish I could pick up the phone and get the support I need.

Retention 

I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about this already, but I have three teachers moving on from my school for promotion. Replacing them was very difficult indeed. There were a lack of applicants. Support staff have been leaving for better paid jobs or moving to the private sector for different working conditions and these are even harder to replace. The pay levels of support staff are not sustainable and they certainly do not recognise the value they give to schools. I am sure you will respond with the fact that I am free to pay them more if I wish – but I take you back to my point on funding. There may be record levels of teachers, but there is record levels of need. There are record levels of people leaving the profession. They are not leaving because they are lazy or because they can’t hack it, they are leaving because the job has become unsustainable for them either financially or because they conditions they are working in have become so much they cannot sustain working in the environment they are.

Each of these people that leave are passionate about education. Each one of them is a loss to the profession that, at this time, the profession can scarcely afford. If education is where you want it to be why is life in school like it is? It is not to do with the mismanagement of schools on behalf of every headteacher in the land. If this is what you wanted education to be, can I respectfully suggest you reassess your vision? You claim a world class system. I would love nothing more than to extol the virtues of a world class system within our country and would love to shout from the rooftops how it is a wonderful system to work in. Unfortunately, this is getting harder and harder to do. I still love my job. I love the difference I make, despite the difficult circumstances I work in. However, I have the constant nagging feeling that I could do more. That things could be better. I want them to be better and I want to say that everything is getting better all of the time.

Is my reality want you want for schools? Is it what you want for the children that move for our education system? Is it what you would want for your own children? Education needs to change. Education needs saving and you, Mrs Keegan, are in a position to do it. It will take bravery, a long term commitment, time, energy, effort, funding and a lot of listening and learning before anything can come to fruit. I can guarantee you the profession will come along with you if they see things moving in the right direction.

Help us make the difference we all want to.