I know teachers who do not submit claim forms for mileage in order save their schools money. I know school nurses who top up educational budgets from their own pockets. I know volunteer school helpers who provide rewards for hardworking pupils but refuse reimbursement for them.

So when I learn about the sheer greed and (legally) corrupt behaviour of many MPs, I feel sickened to the core.

As a head, I am inundated with government directives advising me how to ensure that my school is managed to the most highly ethical and moral standards possible. Two words come to mind: practice and preach! The very people who dictate that we teach pupils to become “good and trusted” citizens are those who often seem to be the opposite.

So where can the children in my charge find role models to emulate? Certainly not from the high powers of Westminster, but from the honest, hardworking people in our communities who have a genuine interest in people - not an insatiable appetite for feathering their own nests.

Kevin Bullock, Headteacher, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.