My teaching career began in the late 1990s. It was the early years of the New Labour Government. I was on teaching practice when Tony Blair came to power. The day after the election, our headteacher was jubilant. She sent me and my trainee teacher friends home early. “Change is coming!” she told us in the corridor.
A New Hope
I don’t know if I’m remembering this through rose tinted glasses but my recollection is that, in the world of education, it was a time of optimism and investment.
Politically, there was a vision and a plan.
In school and across our LA, there was innovation, support, good quality CPD. There were strong networks for NQTs, subject leaders, middle leaders and heads.
Being a Teacher
I taught in an area of very high deprivation. In my classes, I always had a large number of children with special educational needs. Most of my pupils spoke English as an additional language.
There was no shortage of issues around attendance, behaviour and safeguarding. YET, these things were not all-consuming. The job was hard but manageable. More than that, it was enjoyable and highly rewarding.
There was no PPA time, yet there was time to plan, prepare, assess…and teach every lesson, every day. I took real pride in my displays and my classroom environment. I often stayed late, but it wasn’t because of expectation, culture or policy. It was because I chose to.
In my first few years of teaching, most documents were still hand-written: safeguarding incidents; risk assessments; SEND paperwork and end of year reports. Those things were important and took time. I found some of those things difficult (handwriting has never been my forte) yet the tasks were still achievable.
As a staff team, we had a great social life. There was connection and a sense of camaraderie. The staffroom was a place to relax, unwind and offload. There was plenty of laughter! We sometimes went out for lunch together and we had regular staff nights out.
When I was a young teacher, I had peers who had been teaching for thirty or forty years. We had people to turn to and learn from, with all levels of experience. My year group partner was an inspiration to me.
Recruitment
Competition for jobs of all types was fierce! In the North West, there were huge numbers of applicants for NQT “pools”. (I flunked my interview but things came good in the end.)
Investment and Infrastructure
Nationally, there was unprecedented financial investment – from Sure Start centres to the Building Schools for the Future programme. Locally, there were highly regarded services to support pupils with EAL. There was strong infrastructure around child protection, social care, SEND and health. The school nurse team was part of the fabric; the link between health and education was well understood.
Understanding the Cost of Poverty
In 2001, Tony Blair pledged to eradicate child poverty in the UK by 2020. It was incredibly ambitious but it was a statement of intent and a symbol (and policy) of hope for the future. The Child Poverty Act had cross party support and was eventually enshrined in law.
Every Child Matters!
The “Every Child Matters” initiative, emerged from human tragedy. It was vital and compelling. The initiative strengthened multi-agency work and provided a maxim which kept children at the front of our minds.
It was far from perfect in that era but I thought it was great to be a teacher.
Teaching was our mission. Children were our purpose. We were united. Yes, the job could be hard. Yes, there were tough days. Yes, we got plenty wrong. Yes, some of the policies and initiatives were flawed. But I loved my job and profession; I didn’t want to do anything else.
In many ways, the education system in 2024 feels almost like the opposite of those times.
The investment has been replaced with many years of underfunding. It’s led to deficit budgets, the demise of services and infrastructures, and schools operating on a shoestring.
The sense of optimism and hope has, in many parts, been replaced with a sense of frustration and despair.
The generous support has been replaced with suffocating pressure. Ofsted has existed for over 30 years now. The stakes got higher with every new framework. Inspection is the biggest cause of stress amongst school leaders. There are countless other stressors too.
A Mental Health Crisis
In 2024, there’s a mental health crisis affecting both education staff and pupils. A recent survey by the NASUWT found that 86% of the almost 12,000 respondents believed their job had adversely affected their mental health in the last year.
A survey by NAHT (“Crisis Point”), found that over a third of school leaders in England had accessed support for their own mental health in 2023.
Meanwhile, there are an average of 600 emergency CAMHS referrals for children every week, in addition to the thousands of “regular” referrals.
In school, there’s very little time for any members of staff to have replenishing breaks. Well-being policies adorn the walls of staff rooms where people used to rest. The policies aren’t a bad thing in themselves but their very existence speaks volumes. We have to remind ourselves to look after ourselves because much of what we do isn’t good for us.
The Workload
PPA time has now been in place for nearly twenty years. It felt like a real perk when it was new but the day to day job has expanded with every passing year. The benefits of that 10% non-contact time have long been out-weighed by the ever increasing tasks of the working week.
Recruitment and Retention
It’s impossible to fill vacancies in some settings and areas. Those long-serving teachers and leaders are becoming a rarity. In austere times, experience became too expensive. It’s a tragic loss of knowledge, skill and wisdom; everybody is paying the price.
Turbulence and Division
Politically, vision has been replaced with turbulence and division. There have been ten Education Secretaries since this date ten years ago. Most weren’t in the role for long enough to even begin to understand what’s happening in schools or across the profession. Imagine a school had ten heads in ten years…
The Cost of Poverty
As for that pledge to eradicate child poverty in the UK by 2020? The Child Poverty Act was abolished in 2016. By 2021/22, 4.2 million children were living in poverty. That’s an average of almost 9 children in a class of 30. Current levels of poverty are approximately 50% higher than they were in the 1970s.
Who’s Thriving?
A recent NAHT survey revealed that almost two thirds of serving deputy headteachers and assistant headteachers do not aspire to headship.
Half of the school leaders surveyed said they were thinking of leaving their posts in the next three years, for reasons other than retirement.
A social media community for educators called “Life after Teaching: Exit the Classroom and Thrive” has almost 160,000 members.
A social media community for parents and carers called “Not Fine in School” has 56,000 members.
These statistics and these communities are a reflection of where we’re at in 2024. A lot of people are struggling and longing for an alternative.
Too many things aren’t right for the workforce and they’re not right for children and young people either. It’s the result of an education system under immense strain. Too much stress. Too much pressure. Too much political meddling and misdirection. Too many shackles. Too little joy.
Too little investment.
Hope for the Future
Of course, this isn’t to say that everything everywhere is wrong. It isn’t. There are thousands of brilliant schools with hundreds of thousands of brilliant people doing brilliant things. There are skilled, passionate people giving their all, day in, day out. But often it’s against the odds. Everything is harder than it should be.
These are truly tough times we’re living in. Tough times for teachers and leaders and pupils and parents.
I write this all with a heavy heart. I love the education profession and I love schools. They’re incredible places! I just long to see a system in which thriving is the norm.
There’s so much we could do differently.
There’s so much we need to do differently.
We need to take stock.
We need a new vision.
We need investment.
We need hope.
School Tales of the Unexpected 
I started teaching in 1985 became a headteacher in 1998, just as the labour government’s changes began. They made such a powerful difference to my school, in a deprived area, with 80% EAL learners. I vividly remember being at governors meeting to set the budget on the very day extra funding for schools was announced and suddenly we do more than pay the staff and pay the bills!
LikeLike