My fellow teachers need to get a grip

At last, the government is doing something sensible. Amid the anxiety surrounding a putative ‘second wave’ of Covid-19, the Department for Education is standing firm in its commitment to re-open schools for all year groups come September. Reassuringly, the schools minister Nick Gibb is making this a non-negotiable priority.

‘Thank you Nick Gibb’ is not something I thought I would ever say. As a member of the maligned teaching profession, I have had my fill of Tory education initiatives over the past decade: accountability, performance-related pay and exam reforms. Such distractions are now a distant memory in the dystopian world of Covid.

Teaching is a stressful job, with a poor work-life balance – but it is a vocation. On a good day, with an engaged class, teaching is a rewarding social experience. Covid-19, or rather the government’s fatal decision to lock everyone down and – almost – lock the school gates too, put paid to the enriching aspects of teaching and learning, much of which has gone ‘remote’.