David Bell’s sanctimonious and ill-thought through case for justifiying the rationale behind Special Measures does even less than his self-supporting letter to ‘rest his case’.nbsp;
What is always overlooked by those who ring the bells for this negative and deeply-wounding label is the confirmatory damage done between the application of the label and its eventual removal.
What of those pupils and teachers and others who work in such schools during this period? It is the self-esteem that if most harmed, as the head of Gay Elms Primary, Bristol, in the same issue, acknowledges.
A pity, then, that Mr Bell doesn’t concoct another, more educationally supportive scheme whereby his own measure of personal worthiness is somehow spread amongst those suffering as result of this pernicious and negative labelling.
Tim Peskett
Northampton
