We could just sit and take this, or we can speak up… a simple choice, but a difficult thing to do.

I often come across head teachers who believe they are heroes fighting the good fight against inequity and ignorance. Standing firm in their community doing what is right. Sounds good doesn’t it? Yet, the system, in a cold hard twist is making far too many school leaders feel inadequate and somewhat to blame for the terrible state education finds its-self in. Most school leaders just feel at a loss right now. Many just carry on in silence, feeling the stress but keeping their mouths shut. So, why are we scared to speak out… this isn’t Russia, is it?

To be a school leader you need to accept you are part of the solution and aware you can also be part of the problem. Therefore, right now… it feels shit, because education is in crisis… Nothing in education is working as it should. Funding… Bang! ! SEND support… Biff! Ofsted… Bash! The divide between state rhetoric and daily experience is so far removed it’s almost cosmic. I try, as a school leader to be calm, to be in charge… take the blows firmly on the chin but every day I feel I am inadequate, despite years of experience… I am not alone… after 20 years of successful headship I am being slowly torn to pieces by a system that is so broken it seems like a waste of time trying to fix. It is making headship become a job that only the stupid would take on. A job often referred to as, ‘ the best job in the world…’ now seems a certain ticket to a heart attack, or a stroke. It is just relentless, daily stress… a battle ground that seems never ending. Why is this…

So far this term there is a relentless number of challenges that never used to be there. It’s not just schools fighting again in adequate education system… a system broken from the top down… other agencies are fighting it as well… health, social services, SEND services and parents… what this does is pit us against each other. Rather than fight together we are fighting over the few scraps left behind. It has made being a headteacher worse than ever. I have taken out complaints against my LA this term. A huge and frustrating time vacuum… it’s not their fault… but what other choice do I have to get my concerns heard? Concerns Ofsted will raise when they come. Schools are so unprotected by the system, it’s embarrassing. I could destroy my sons school, with the knowledge I have but why would I? Because I can? Because I feel I need to… if I was determined enough I could find many reasons to complain and make the life of my sons school hell. It’s pretty easy really, this, of course will do one thing. Make an overstretched school have to spend time dealing with my concerns, many of which do not start with them.

Why would I do that? Personally I have no idea (even when I am not happy) and yet, I come across people who have lots of ideas as to why they can find a reason to try to destroy teachers and schools reputations for the smallest reasons… the system is broken, reflecting many of the people who want it to work, and no one has any idea how they can make this better. Therefore, we have our rage and our voices.

Why would you become a teacher in 2023? Who would want to be a head teacher! I don’t see a long line, waiting. Teaching is an amazing job; right school, right job and WOW! Life is good. The same goes for school leadership. But, why would any one want to lead a school through these current times? I have NO idea any more and I still LOVE my job.. I wrote, in depth, in my book, Lessons from the Heads Office about ‘longevity’. I was writing in 2020… I look at what has happened since then and feel that this government has done quite the job in making headship such a poisoned chalice. I have done 20 years… how many new heads see that as a target? I know heads hanging on after 4 years… heads burnt out after 7 and battle scarred heads looking for the exit after 10. It is a national disgrace that this is the reality for too many school leaders. I try to keep politics away from my posts but only one government has been in charge since 2010. The change in that time is their responsibility.

Education, once a national thing of pride is becoming a national shame. I hate myself for saying this and so often I have felt that school leaders and teachers can make this better. Broken ones can’t though. When we are well, when we see hope we can make incredible changes to the system. When you break the most important thing, the people… then the real problems begin. I see far too many people, good people, leaving or planning to leave. This current government might not be around to fully face the blame… but which ever government wants power in this country they need to understand that Education is slowly being taken apart with little idea how to build it up again.