In Praise Of Schools And Those Who Work In Them

I subscribe to a number of online services that provide me with regular updates on education news both local and national. Such digests are very useful. They help busy headteachers and other education professionals to stay informed and abreast of new developments.

They also provide an interesting overview of the representation of education and teaching in the media. It is true that, as with many sectors, these are challenging times in education. Funding, accountability and teacher recruitment are real issues and as such frequently dominate headlines.

As with other areas of the media, it is doom and gloom that is assumed to attract readers and viewers. The more hard-hitting, dramatic and polarised the news; the better, it often seems.

Working in education remains for me vibrant, energising and fulfilling. I was heartened to read recent, fleeting coverage of research undertaken by the Institute of Education that found that teachers and teaching assistants are more content in their work than workers in other professions. The research also found that school staff expressed higher levels of ‘organisational commitment’ compared to employees working elsewhere. The report concluded that a school’s performance depends on the level of its employees’ commitment. This was a refreshing affirmation of my own experience and the success that my own school enjoys.

I have worked in schools for nearly 25 years; as a teacher, a Deputy Head and latterly as a Head. That’s all very well, you may say, but you are privileged. You work in the independent sector. I don’t deny that the independent sector affords particular benefits: a measured inspectorate, parents who are highly engaged in their children’s education and a greater degree of autonomy for schools and teachers to prioritise what’s really important in education: outcomes for children.

But schools in the independent sector face their own challenges, particularly in the current political and economic climate. The majority of independent schools are not the bastions of privilege and excessive resource as stereotyped in the media and peddled by politicians.

Education and its commentators – as well as governments – need to be careful not to do our profession a disservice. As well as supporting them, we need to celebrate schools and those who work in them. They deliver the future.