Headteachers’ leader John Dunford asks why, with a looming shortage of heads, the Government pursues policies that mean school leaders are losing their jobs in record numbers.
Being a head is the best job in the world, but…” was how Jacques Szemalikowski, head of Hampstead School, started his question to the secretary of state at the 2009 annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).
In his speech to the conference, Ed Balls had responded to my request that, with so many initiatives hitting schools, he should tell school leaders what his top two priorities are. “Raising standards and closing the achievement gap between rich and poor,” was his unequivocal answer.
His speech was well received by the 600 leaders attending the conference, who made clear that they shared his priorities and approved of the moral purpose behind them. However, the questions after the speech left the secretary of state in no doubt that, while we share his central mission, we are deeply concerned at the way in which the Government is carrying out its policies.
Fresh in the minds of those at the conference were the ASCL figures of the number of school leaders who have lost their jobs in the last year – 150, according to data provided by the ASCL field force, five times as many as four years ago.