It has never ceased to amaze me how easily this and previous governments have managed to manipulate the teaching profession without us having a clue as to what is going.

We have all heard the old adage “Together we stand, divided we fall”. As a profession we need to take heed of that. Very few heads will really benefit from the so-called pay rise. Immediately I realised my 9.5 per cent increase actually only translated to pound;84, I let my staff know about it (not that they would have begrudged me a pay rise anyway).

The staff are committed to one another as well as to the school. I count it my responsibility to ensure that staff are aware of the political nature of our job and its impact on what we do and what we are trying to achieve.

In our staffroom, the pay award was a two-day wonder and now everything is back to normal. We will keep on slugging away at what we do best the way we have always done. The moral of the story is; next time, don’t vote Labour. But then, if you don’t, who on earth would you vote for?

Florence Olajide

Crawford primary school

Camberwell, London SE5