As the outcry over the chaos surrounding primary assessment reached its crescendo a few weeks ago, it became clear that the then education secretary, Nicky Morgan, who had lost the faith of teachers a long time ago, was also starting to lose the faith of parents. Now, not before time, she has been judged to “require improvement” by the new prime minister and placed in special measures on the back benches. This is no time for teachers to start dancing in the street but it may, at last, be a moment for a little cautious optimism.

Last November, I was part of the BBC Question Time audience in Tottenham. With two minutes left, I had the opportunity to ask my question, which I was just about able to utter following the quite unreal experience of hearing David Dimbleby say my name: “Is the government turning our schools into joyless exam factories?”

The Conservative on the panel was Justine Greening, then the international development secretary and now our new education secretary. Looking straight at me, she argued the case for the government’s policy of relentless high-stakes testing in primary schools clearly and unapologetically. Of course, she was obliged to do just this as the government’s representative on the show, and I am quite willing to give her an opportunity to prove that she can do a better job than her predecessor. But I am inclined to be wary.

After 11 years in the classroom, I think I have cultivated a suitably intimidating “teacher look”, and I was giving Ms Greening a healthy dose of it as she answered my question. But she was unperturbed; the firmness and conviction with which she spoke up for the direction of travel Gove and Morgan had hitherto laid out, left me with few illusions that she is likely to seek any radical change in policy.

‘A moment of catharsis’

Theresa May’s reshuffle has been somewhat ingenious. Many of the “pantomime villains” of this generation of Tories have been removed from their roles, the honourable exception being Jeremy Hunt. For teachers letting out a sigh of relief that both Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan have been banished to the back benches, this will be a moment of catharsis - just as Gove’s departure from the DfE was almost exactly two years ago. And while we must beware another false dawn, there may be an opportunity here.

The fallout from the EU referendum is going to dominate the government’s agenda for some time and its impact will not just be economic. There is a need to reunite the country and it seems unlikely that Ms May or Ms Greening will feel they can afford such high-profile, visceral disputes with public servants as those in which Mr Cameron’s ministers tended to engage. This is a real chance, if the new secretary of state is willing to seize it, to heal some of the wounds inflicted over the last six years.

Many of the flagship policies which have so outraged the majority of teachers, from forced academisation to the primary assessment reforms, could surely now be modified or even abandoned without any loss of face for what is effectively a completely new government. Everyone wants an education system that works better than the one we have, and if Justine Greening is willing to listen and learn as well as lecture the teaching profession, then maybe, just maybe, this could be a real turning point.

Tim Paramour is an education consultant, speechwriter and copywriter with 12 years’ experience working in primary education in the UK. He blogs at timparamour.com