Trust. Such a small word, but it has massive implications. Without trust, nothing is possible. You cannot build a teams. You cannot move forwards. You cannot have a shared vision or aims. Working in a school there are a number of relationships that need to be built on trust, and if the trust is missing in any of these relationships then schools can begin to struggle.
The relationships I can see are:
School adults and children
School and parents
School and external agencies
Staff within the school
School and the Department for Education
School and Ofsted
If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is the strength of trust between schools and our communities. On the whole, our communities have trusted us to do the right thing for the children in our care. They have trusted our judgement, they have been grateful for our support and know that we only want the best for the communities we serve. Of course there have been occasions where the communities have questioned what we are doing, and sometimes disagree with us completely. This has been constructive, but also has been destructive in some of our relationships. However, I firmly believe that this has been done from a position of fear and worry and not because of the schools we work in.
Being a school leader, building a level of trust with my team has been so important. I have attempted to create a culture where the team know I will listen to them and try to make accommodations for them, or explain why I can't make changes, but they also know that my decision making always places the children at the heart of what I do. Throughout the pandemic, the number of decisions I have had to make has been unprecedented and sometimes this process has been bloody tough. However, I feel that the team have been behind me, have supported my decisions and worked with me to do what is right for our school. Again, there will always be disagreements or decisions that do not go down well, but because they trust me and I trust them, these have been overcome quickly and professionally.
Unfortunately, there is a key relationship that, to me, has completely broken down and I believe it is almost impossible to recover. I do not trust the Department for Education at all. Not one bit. I have been led to believe that there are good people working in the Department, but as of yet I have not seen it. Throughout the pandemic, they have been slow to react, made terrible decisions and seem to have been working hard to put schools against parents.
The Department seem to be full of soundbites and newspaper headlines and making flashy videos for Twitter, but are very lacking in substance. They seem to be run by a PR machine to make the government sound good, rather than making the correct decisions for children. The make bold claims like "an additional 7,000 air purification systems available" but the reality is this is nothing. However, the general public do not know this and think this is great news. They say that mitigations have been put in place for schools, but they ignore key facts like in reality all they have asked primary schools to do is open windows.
The biggest façade on display at the moment is the Department's insistence on schools staying open no matter what. Such a great bloody soundbite which the red-tops lap up and parents believe. However, this does a massive injustice to the reality of schools. These are questions we are asking nd the answers that have been given to us:
How can we stay open without staff? Mix class bubbles. Be flexible with your non-teaching staff. Use the army of volunteers who are coming back in their droves.
How can we afford this? We have given schools record funding (which is only the same 2010 levels) to cover these exceptional costs. We have give schools additional funding for catch up (but these is so tightly ringfenced it is almost impossible to access it all) We have given schools access to a workforce pot of money, but schools can't access it unless they have no financial reserves, have over 10% of teaching staff off and it is only to cover any percentage over this percentage.
What mitigations have you put in place? We have given schools CO2 monitors (not mine by the way!), which don't work and only enough for a small proportion of classrooms. We have provided an additional 7,000 air purification systems to schools and our guidance has been clear - including asking schools to open windows.
What support have you put in place for school leaders? We have a well-being charter which isn't worth the paper it is written on, but it says something about issuing great guidance.
When my mate Gavlar was in charge, I just believed the Department were inept because they had such poor leadership. I felt he was somebody promoted too far above his station and just did not have a clue, which meant the first part of the pandemic response was laughable. However, now we have Mr Zahawi in charge this has changed. He is a much more intelligent, career politician who only has eyes for his own career (and bank balance). He makes decisions intentionally - so when the PR machine is rolling, it is because he has authorised it. He wants schools to fall quietly into line and follow his agenda. He wants us to meekly agree with dogma and vision. If we don't, he clearly has backbone to stand up to the unions and to the schools. He will will force through his agenda and this worries me.
Despite the pandemic, we are seeing more and more work on academisation. We are seeing more and more work to push the arbitrary accountability measures, including the ridiculous insistence of Ofsted inspections. We are seeing schools being pushed into becoming business like and into the private sector. We are seeing gas lighting of the profession to an extent that dissenting voices seem like the outsiders. We are seeing good school leaders being forced out of the profession because of these decisions.
When I woke up this morning to see the newspapers had been briefed before schools yet again, I knew that I could never trust the Department whilst the current incumbents are in charge. I am not going out of my way to be difficult and anti-DfE (although it may come across as this way), I am just fed up of being gaslighted, undermined and unsupported. Surely the sole purpose of the Department should be support schools and make our lives easier to best help our children and communities. This cannot happen whilst they are actively fighting against us.
My New Year's Resolution was to not moan about the DfE, and I know I have broken that after two days. In reality that was never going to happen. What I cannot do is blindly accept their gaslighting of an entire profession which I hold dear and only works to improve life chances of children. What we need is a Department who will listen to us, who will enable us to do our jobs and provide the resources we need to do this effectively. Once this happens, maybe, just maybe, we can begin to build this trust again.