Blog posts by SSAT

The most widely spoken phrase during the launch of the Children’s Charter – a pledge for children was “It is time for change”.

Katharine Carruthers OBE is Director of the Mandarin Excellence Programme at the IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. Katharine is an international expert on the teaching of Chinese and a driving force behind the teaching of Chinese in schools in England.

Failure has been an essential element of my journey into early leadership. In my early 20s, I found myself as a newly qualified teacher working across a cluster of schools where the environment was toxic. I felt disillusioned and uninspired by the work ethic and at the age of 24, I left the education profession in pursuit of a career which would make me feel motivated and capable.

Prior to the pandemic, mainstream schools were saying they were unable to get timely support for students who needed more than they themselves could provide – particularly in respect of learners who needed CAMHS support and special schools were telling us that they were operating with over-commissioned places.

Everyone in education’s thoughts this week are with the family, friends and colleagues of Ruth Perry, the Reading headteacher who took her own life in January. No one at this stage can know the thoughts that were in Ruth’s head at the time and it would be completely wrong to speculate.

We would like to offer our deepest sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Ruth Perry.

The latest tranche of messages between Matt Hancock and Gavin Williamson shows a shocking disregard for teachers and children. School leaders suffered from a lack of clear direction from the DfE during the pandemic. School leaders, teachers and all staff worked incredibly hard to educate children and young people, and to keep them safe. Today, teachers and young people are still suffering from the effects of the pandemic. Our teachers deserve respect for the incredible work they do.

After more than 24 years, Marva Rollins OBE retired from her role as headteacher in 2019. Marva now uses her wealth of experience of leading schools to support school leaders in schools in challenging circumstances.

Bethan Morgan is an Assistant Headteacher at Pate’s Grammar School who leads on Co-curricular and Inclusivity. A geography specialist, Bethan is in her fifth year of teaching.

School attendance has obviously had a strange few years. For many months attendance became about being present online – a face in a sea of boxes on screen. Teachers reacted creatively and skilfully, high quality learning was delivered against the odds. New approaches were developed, many of which have continued rightly to shape practice now that we can be together again in real life.