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Feels like part of picking up the slack means schools have become first responder service for parent/carer wellbeing and welfare too - does anybody feel the same? I'm fine with it, but again, we need the resources
More than anything, I hope what has happened this past year leads to an absolute root and branch rethink about schools, children's services, CAMHS, social services - the current system was only ever efficient in theory, and even then in a world that just doesn't exist anymore
It was understandable but ultimately naive to think schools should focus primarily on (and be held accountable on) education, especially when all the other supoort services were also put through funding ringer.
We pick these thing up because we have to, because we cannot just ignore them, but it comes at a cost. And for those in the most deprived areas, the cost is higher than others. But the accountability doesn't understand or reflect this.
Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted some schools have the capacity and structure to be able to devote serious time to curriculum development. It's good for the system as a whole. But some just don't. And then end up needing to buy resources from (state-funded) schools who do.
Whilst being made to feel inferior for doing so. Because when Ofsted walk in, they're not bothered by the food you delivered, the appliances you provided, the supportive/listening ear you gave, the safeguarding that consumes all else - no, they want to see progress in Geography
But if the majority of your time must be spent on that first category of action, and this correlates with the deprivation profile of the area you are serving, then you're already starting at a disadvantage in the accountability stakes - and you're made to feel it too
Or put another way, its crazy that accountability should ignore the absolutely vital stuff a school spends most of its time on, and then attach such high stakes to the stuff they can barely get chance to look at, this often being a reality of the context in which they operate
Anyway let's file this under our education system shafts the most deprived areas, part 327
