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Overworked heads admit they’re running on empty
• YOUR report about Jay Henderson, the sacked head of Canonbury Primary School, makes for uncomfortable reading (Sacked head: My regrets... and my anger, July 3). The details of his working week are not uncommon among headteachers in our schools and I can point you to a number of heads who have privately told me they are “running on empty” as a result of what they are being asked to do.
Under successive Labour and Tory governments, schools have become places which can severely affect the health of headteachers. Unnecessary, tedious bureaucracy and an insistence on targets which seem to be plucked out of the air have led to a toxic atmosphere in which, as Mr Henderson points out, heads are not allowed to make mistakes.
I am not surprised at Mr Henderson’s hostility towards Cambridge Education (CE), which oversees Islington’s schools for the council. After 25 years as a governor of Highbury Fields School (18 as its chair of governors), I resigned mainly in despair at what I considered was the negative attitude of CE and the council towards the school.
Down the years the school had frequently done well in examination results and value-added tables, but the conversations I had with CE officers and Islington councillors always made me feel the school was not up to scratch or “coasting”, as they like to put it. Thankfully, Ofsted school inspectors never agreed with the so-called local experts.
After 33 continuous years as an unpaid governor of Islington schools I am still, a year after my resignation, awaiting the usual letter of thanks for my services.
Like Mr Henderson, I no longer see CE and the council as consisting of the caring, appreciative people they make themselves out to be.
TONY MOONEY
Highbury Hill, N5
• MY sympathy for Jay Henderson is limited. If he really worked an 80-hour week, more fool him. Doing what? Pointless paperwork imposed by paranoid politicians, interspersed with ticking off kids for the “crime” of being improperly dressed?
I favour turning the clock back. When I was at primary school in the 60s, we had neither uniforms nor homework. Nor were there all these petty, obsessive regulations. I finished up a graduate so let’s make today’s kids as legally free and unregulated as we were. Let us do the same for their teachers. Keep SATs but reduce them to English and maths.
MARK TAHA
SE26
• IT’S widely known that the last year has been difficult and unsettling for everyone involved with Canonbury School – our troubles have made headlines in this and other newspapers.
What is less well known is that the school’s senior management, supported by a hugely dedicated teaching staff and parent body, have achieved a real feat – maintaining stability and morale and improving standards at the school. Canonbury has lost neither teachers nor children, and anyone who attended our summer concert on Tuesday would have instantly sensed the real mood of vibrancy, pride and confidence around the school.
As the new chair of governors and someone who has been associated with the school for only two months, what has impressed me is how strong the school community is, how deeply committed parents, pupils and teachers are and how involved they are with the school.
For example, 11 parents contested our recent election for four places as governors, and the newly constituted governing body boasts a strong, well-qualified mix of people who are clearly focused on their responsibilities.
Whether at last weekend’s hugely successful school fair or this week’s well-attended Parent-link meeting, the atmosphere around the school is consistently upbeat and forward looking. In large part, that is thanks to the brilliant Sue Seifert, one of Islington’s most experienced and respected headteachers, who stepped in as executive head and has promised to stay until we find the right permanent head.
Sue has also made real progress tackling the problems identified during the suspension of former headteacher Jay Henderson.
As we head for the summer break there is much to be cheerful about and even more to look forward to at Canonbury. We have a fantastic team in place and are looking forward to an exciting and productive term in September – and perhaps fewer headlines in the Tribune!
JULIE HORTON
Chair, Canonbury School governors
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