SEVEN days to go at the General Teaching Council, which is today just one week away from its long-awaited launch. Don’t expect fireworks or balloons, but do expect a speech by Estelle Morris - a sign of just how exciting this new body is likely to become.
Too exciting for its press officer, Tim Miles, apparently. Even before the GTC formally comes into existence, he’s jacked it in to return to the more relaxed world of journalism. The task of keeping his enthusiastic chairman David Puttnam on a tight leash has apparently proved too much - or perhaps it was running the daily gauntle of drug addicts and prostitutes to get to the council’s Kings Cross offices.
Whichever, after less than four months in the job, the former Press Association education reporter is off to the Evening Standard (that’s a local paper in London for those of you living outside the capital).
More bad news comes from the Inland Revenue, which has been receiving queries from teachers who want to claim their compulsory subs (pound;20 or so from next year) against tax. The answer is no. The GTC “does not appear on our approved list of professional bodies”, the taxman says. Oh dear.