Dear Sir Michael,
I understand that you have vast experience in the education sector and you believe that your experience allows you to comment on anything and everything to do with education. Unfortunately, that is not the case. You are, like many experienced people, living on your perceived past glories. Your opinion may have held weight some time ago, but I hate to break it to you, your opinion is now an irrelevance. You come across as somebody so desperate for the limelight that you will just say something controversial to get your name into the papers. You, without probably realising yourself, have become a media hound. You only feel satisfaction and feel important when you are being spoken about.
I need to call you out on your most recent "words of wisdom" (also known as, your most recent inflammatory opinion). For you to state, and I quote, that the teaching profession need to "show similar commitment" like that of our medical profession is quite frankly horrific. For you to go on to proclaim that there needs to be a "pulling together" and for us to "go the extra mile" shows me how little you know and how out of touch you are with the education sector. Therefore, I feel it is my job to inform you of what we have done and hopefully, you can retract your statement - or at least clarify them.
The education professionals in this country are nothing short of heroes. We have gone the extra mile for the children in our care.
Who, when the government were lacking, provided meals to the most disadvantaged children in the country? The schools.
Who, when the government were lacking, provided digital devices to the most disadvantaged children in this country? The schools.
Who, when the safety measures were not in place, continued to go into work every single day to educate and care for the children. The schools.
Who, despite the fears, worries and anxieties in the communities, continued to go over and above to support the mental health of the children (and sometimes the parents) in our care? The schools.
Who, despite the lack of governmental funding and support, managed to bring all of the children back to school in September, settle them into new routines, and actually support them to make very good progress in the first term? The schools.
Who, despite only having 8 hours notice, managed to set up and provide effective remote learning for all children in this second (or is it the third) lockdown? The schools.
Who, despite not having the vaccine or any extra safety measures, are delighted to have the children come back on Monday 8th March and will make school the most magical place it can be? You guessed it, the schools.
Your rhetoric was designed to be inflammatory and to again put pressure on schools to meet your political aims. You may claim you are not a Conservative, but you clearly are. You are supporting their flawed ideology. You have attempted to stoke the flames of hatred about schools when we do not offer extended school days or summer holiday clubs. For some reason, there is this constant drip feeding into the public domain of lazy, leftie teachers who do not care and do not want to support the children. Well I have news for you Sir Michael. We are the professionals. We know what our children need - and I hate to break this to you - better than you do. You would do well to listen to us.
If it was a simple job of giving the children a few extra hours in school and holiday clubs, this would have been brought in years ago. I know, that by providing top quality first teaching, targeted interventions and some additional small group work, the staff in my school, and every other school, will support the children to make outstanding progress.
My advice to you Sir Michael, would be to go back to the press, say thank you to the hard working, dedicated and caring people who work in schools and say that you have every confidence in the young people of this country. I know I do, and it would be lovely to hear positive news for our children. They will live up to the narrative about them. If we tell them they will be Ok, they will be. If we keep telling them they need to catch up, are falling behind and will lose life opportunities, we are setting them up for a fall.
In conclusion, Sir Michael, please only comment on things you have knowledge of. You have not led a school through a pandemic, so your opinion does not matter to me. You once said that "if staff morale is at an all time low, you know you are doing something right". After that comment, I knew you were somebody I never needed to listen to or pay attention to your opinion. But, your opinion is published as gospel truth in the press, so be careful of the narrative you push. The only people you are damaging are the young people we all want the best for.
Please, Sir Michael, hear these words and reframe the narrative and apologise for your crass, poorly thought out and uninformed comments.
Yours sincerely,
Censored Head