I’ve never known a half term that…

Before I begin, every year I hear colleagues including myself make comments like: “that was such a busy half-term” “this September’s Year R seem less prepared for school than ever before”. I am aware of ‘rose tinted glasses’ that reflect back to more ideal times (that almost certainly never existed in the way they are remembered).

But, taking that into account, I have never known a half-term that:

• Had so many children struggling with anxiety and their wellbeing
• Had so many family members openly struggling with their mental health
• Had such an increase of learning needs from the children
• Had so many children struggling so regularly to stay in and engage with lessons
• Had so few staff available to cover all these needs
• Had such stretch and feelings of being overwhelmed across the whole staff team when just a couple of staff were absent
• Had so many other school leaders and staff that I have spoken to talk about the relentless pressures and feelings of hopelessness
• Had so little funding, and confidence in future funding, that realistically the only way to attempt to meet the increasing needs is to go into deficit
• Had so many weeks when I worked 70+ hours, felt so exhausted I could not think rationally, and finished the week with more to do than I started the week with
• Had so many occasions when I have seriously considered handing my notice in

I have felt for a number of years that the system has been too stretched, that external expectations have increased with less and less capacity to manage it. I expected, like many aspects of the public sector – for the education sector to break.
I think it is now broken.

Despite many years of meetings, campaigning, and resorting to strike action (which nobody wants) the education sector has continued for many years to be underfunded and undervalued.

Issues with recruitment, retention, workload, high stakes accountability and underfunding have not and are not being adequately addressed.

The narrative in the media that a few school days lost to strike action (which is regrettable) is harming children’s learning and wellbeing, seems like a convenient smokescreen to the far more significant and disruptive long term issues of underfunding and undervaluing.

Yet despite all of this, I have survived this half-term and will return after the week’s ‘holiday’ (or catch-up as it is in reality): and this due almost entirely to the dedicated, professional, caring and inspiring team of colleagues I am blessed to work with.

Like staff in the NHS, social care, children’s services…it is only because these amazing professionals go above and beyond that the broken systems seem to external people to be working.

I do wonder (and sadly dread) what the next half-term and year will bring…