Does Brian Sherratt do exercises in front of the mirror to reassure himself that he is the very model of a thrusting macho grant-mainained head? (“Dangerous dependency,” TES, October 13).
Apparently just about everyone else is a victim of the “dependency culture”. Any head wanting to stay with the local education authority is either self-seeking, or too afraid of rough and tumble of GM life. Only GM heads are “the kind who put the school first”. Some of those are castigated for wanting the help of outside services - even treacherously consorting with the LEA.
By Mr Sherratt’s law, it is all right to rip off the LEA (for advice) or other schools (by dumping on them all the parents and children you don’t want, while pocketing an unfair share of resources). You can then smugly despise the sink schools you have helped to create.
Keep writing, Brian. Every time you kick more sand in the faces of us seven-stone weaklings, you help the 96 per cent of schools who have rejected opting out on moral and educational principles to realise just how right we are.
ALAN PAUL Governorteacher 6 Fulwood Close Taunton, Somerset
