Dear Mr Zahawi,
Firstly, let me welcome you to the post of Secretary of State for Education. You are picking up a post that has endless possibilities to make this country a better place for our children, if you handle it correctly. Your predecessor has left the department in a bit of a mess I am afraid. You are inheriting a sector low on morale, with trust in our government at the lowest it has ever been and fed up of the bashing we receive. You will find that the people you lead are the most committed people in the country, all we need from you is the tools and support to do our jobs properly. We don't mind being challenged, but we don't like being told what to do by people who do not do our jobs.
My advice to you is to speak to real people in the education community. Don't surround yourself with yes people and people who will tell you that their ideology is the only way to do things. Speak to everybody in the sector - head teachers, teachers, TAs, support staff, nursery workers, further education workers. You will hear some hard truths about your department, but you will also hear real suggestions about how to improve the education for the children in this country.
I am sure that you have thousands of items sat in your inbox. However, I would like to distil these into 10 key points for you and I hope you find them useful.
The Department's response to COVID over the past 2 years has been nothing short of shambolic. You need to sort this out as a matter of priority. Schools need mechanical ventilation, we need proper plans and we need the staff and adults in school to feel protected.
Sort out the secondary school exams process. I work in the primary sector, but seeing the pressure my secondary colleagues were under last summer was awful. Tell them how exams will run and what your contingencies are in case they cannot go ahead.
School funding needs looking at. I know the government have invested more money in the past couple of years. Unfortunately, this is not enough. Inflation is rising rapidly, resulting in costs going up. We have had to spend massive amounts on our COVID response, and this has not been given back to us.
Sort out pay for the hard working support staff in schools. It devastates me every time I see payroll to sign off on the small pay they are given. Increase this, with funding, to really value and reward the glue that holds schools together.
Reform Ofsted. It is not fit for purpose.
Improve the provision for children with SEND. More money is needed. More expertise is needed. More support services are needed.
Improve school buildings. The buildings are crumbling and such a bad state of disrepair in a massive number of schools. Please get these fixed. Children cannot learn in such poor buildings.
Create a roundtable group of serving headteachers that are truly representative of the school community. Do not just cherry pick your friends, or people who agree with you. You need to hear different voices to actually make reasonable decisions.
Sort out DfE communications to schools. Finding information out through press releases is not good enough. Give us advance notice of decisions to schools. We need to be prepared to answer the questions from our communities.
Support small, rural schools. They are so important for their communities and need to be protected.
I know this is a lot, and will take a massive investment into our system, which is out of your hands, but you have to try to achieve these points.
I am more than happy to talk to you about my views on education, so please do get in touch.
Yours sincerely,
Censored Head.