Next February I will be 50, and nearly all of those 50 years I have been spent in education: as a pupil in school, a student in university, a teacher at the ‘chalk face’, and, for the last 17 years, a leader across the sector. There have been many changes in that time – some good, some bad – including 27 education secretaries.
Narrowly missing Mrs Thatcher ‘snatching milk’, I was front and centre when Michael Gove ‘battled the blob’, at the sharp end as Gavin grappled with COVID, and watched open mouthed as Nadhim Zahawi was replaced by Michelle Donelan, who was replaced by James Cleverly – all within three days!
With each new education secretary came new policies. The most notable include the introduction of GCSEs and the National Curriculum in 1988, no more grammar schools after 1998, Academies in 2000, and Free schools in 2010. In 1989, the first Children’s Act was introduced; in 2003, ‘Every Child Matters’ was launched; and just when we thought it was safe to come out of the woods, over the hills in 1992 came Ofsted.
But not only have education secretaries come and gone and policies changed in the last 50 years, the educational landscape has shifted. To understand the society in which our children and young people are growing up, we need to recognise these shifts and know how to respond to them. I believe there have been eleven shifts and three ways we should respond.
