AS a governor, I have always found The TES essential reading. Indeed long before I became a governor, I read it for years as the wife of a teacher and mother of school-aged children, although my husband latterly boycotted it along with books, films, television programmes or conversations about teaching. Bad enough to have to do it all day.
I read my copy cover-to-cover as soon as it arrives, but having been away on holiday I found myself with no less than three editions to read at a sitting.
The cumulative effect was rather disconcerting: let’s face it teachers are not happy bunnies are they?
You have been complainng for months about threshold payments, but have decided bravely to fill in the forms and reluctantly accept the money. Now you are complaining because you are going to get it late.
You complain when your national test results go up, and when you have to go on performance management training courses; and of course you complain about the Office for Standards in Education all the time, but that’s understandable.
I spotted one letter from a deputy headteacher praising a leadership course she had attended which shone out like a good deed in a wicked world.
Cheer up! It’ll soon be Christmas.
Joan Dalton
