Pricewaterhouse has coopered the way for reformists to nail a system said by critics to have outlived its usefulness. It is labelled a legacy of the 1970s, when secondaries and structures were rather different. Advocates say it has never been more necessary when families are breaking down and schools are under greater pressure than ever to deliver targets in more areas than the average dartboard. Everyone can’t be right.

Guidance fans who claim the national job-sizing exercise has been fixed appear to have substance to their anger. The trouble is that no one knows and if they do, they are bound by a code of silence. Weightings and processes behind the exercise remain in the province of darkness. No one knows how rankings were reached and that is stirring the anger of thousands that could erupt when schools return in a month’s time.