I will have been one of many millions this week who chose to watch and listen carefully to the Chancellor’s Spring Statement on Wednesday, to glean as best I could what the near and medium term economic future for the country looks like. The pundits reporting on the success or failure of her speech span from “She didn’t spook the markets” through to “If you want to look at a recipe for disaster, that is it.”  Clearly we all wish that Rachel Reeves has got it right, though I know I have to do much more than just keep my fingers crossed!

My headline this week highlights that, even when in power, politicians make the point about the value of political journalism and the need for some objective review by their parties of what Government says it is currently doing.

Rather handily, and it does help me make my point quite nicely, on Wednesday our work at Claires Court featured significantly in the Daily Mail in an article written by the distinguished veteran journalist, Robert Hardman. You can read that article here, and with the online version, I also feature with Harry and Amaya, Junior Head Boy and Head Girl, on the lawn at Ridgeway. The interview was two weeks ago which seems a very long time now, given the ongoing pressures emerging as 2,500 independent schools continue to fathom as best they can the morass of consequences from the changes in taxation law, business rates and national insurance contributions streaming in, without a great deal of sense emanating from central and local government. As example of that, read here this week’s letter sent by ISBA and ISC to James Murray, Exchequer Secretary to HM Treasury, MP for Ealing and on BBC Question time last night, https://schl.cc:443/gO.

Harman’s article is very well written, though the number of schools set to close nationally is now 22 and rising. As a journalist he meets all the criteria that Streeting lists in the quote that leads this blog. The article’s publication arrives just in time as the High Court at the Royal Palace of Justice is to hear the case against the imposition of VAT on education – and the Government’s defence of it – between 1 and 3 April in London.  The action has been lodged by the Independent Schools Council, a parent group, “Education Not Discrimination” and a third group representing faith schools.  The Government is gearing up for a fight, spending tens of thousands of pounds a day to employ four senior barristers (King’s Counsel) to defend their tax, ironically all four privately educated themselves. You can read more about the case here, written up by Tony Perry, the parent who started the battle last spring.

I copy below some of the passage that relates to Claires Court from the news article, published in the Daily Mail on Wednesday, 26 March.  

Britain’s longest-serving school head, James Wilding, is a mine of experience whose advice was frequently sought by previous governments of various administrations. A teacher for 50 years and head for 44, he shows me his thoughtful emails to Ms Philipson’s office both before and since the election, asking for an opportunity to explain how the private sector can work more productively with the State. He eventually received a stock ‘thank you for your correspondence’ reply but nothing more.¹

Despite the clear voice I have had on the matters of working with the incoming government for well over 18 months now, it’s not actually diverted my attention from the day job, working in school, engaging with my colleagues and students to maximise the opportunities available to them. At every level over the last 5 days, amazing achievements have occurred, not just #CCMakingHistory for the individuals but collectively and collaboratively engaging with academics, rugby sevens, football tournaments, tennis championships and perhaps above all performing Bugsy Malone at Juniors, the Senior Girl’s dance show and the music making at the Seniors’ concert too. The school’s website and app covers all these successes as the stories break, and Hardman might have actually added more than just Sailing and Tennis to the list of the best things we do! Fast on the heels of the Junior Astro Turf opening, we are seeing the rapid completion of the Sixth Form study pavilion at College in time for the start of the summer term.

I’ve spoken before, and indeed Hardman refers to this in his article, about the importance of partnerships and collaboration. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working in depth with the leading performing Arts school out of London, Redroofs School² here in Maidenhead, to establish a direct link between what we offer in terms of education, and what they offer in terms of Performing Arts. We are both really excited about the possibilities we are creating for the future, and we are introducing such opportunities to start with next term, with Miss Ellie Mayling joining our staff to extend the range of LAMDA opportunities for Juniors and to support our drama and music work. Our longer term plans are to consider the establishment of both BTEC Performing Arts at Sixth Form, and if possible, a Foundation Arts programme beyond Sixth Form to help students prepare for audition for the most competitive assessments of them all – to ArtsEd, GSA, Guildhall,  Mountview and RADA.

To be in government is clearly the greatest responsibility of them all, and beyond my aspirations certainly. What is important though, if I can misquote Wes Streeting a little, is that “In an era of ‘difficult news’ the role of trained and professional politicians has never been more important.”

And where their training or experience might fall a little short, they need to consider taking the opportunity now, as David Blunkett, David Milliband, Estelle Morris, Charles Clarke and Ruth Kelly did during their time at the Department of Education to work with our sector. Blunkett and Millband were incredibly talented and committed politicians to the cause of Education. Many of Blunkett’s reforms are still with us, the Literacy and Numeracy hours, his focus on SureStart to raise standards for EYFS and his expansion of Higher Education recognisably attracting many of the most talented students from across the world to the UK. Now Baron Blunkett, he does admit that perhaps the Labour Party’s mistake in office in 1997 was to abolish the Assisted Places scheme, through which children whose families could not afford private school fees could nevertheless be supported by government subsidy to access the opportunities available in such schools. 

Next week sees the Spring term close, with all the excitement that comes with the forthcoming Easter holidays beyond. The Royal Courts of Justice may spend a very busy three days hearing the arguments for and against the discrimination case brought against the government. As Parliament is sovereign, if the government loses the argument, the Court will send the matter back to Parliament to resolve, and the actions required to align two centuries and more of education legislation setting it apart from government influence (and thus exempt from taxation) will take some sorting out. In the meantime, this seasoned, trained and professional school Principal will do his best to ensure that Claires Court children and young people continue to flourish, making the most of all the opportunities they can.

¹ During the Blair-Brown years, both DfE and the Labour government genuinely lived out the ‘Education, Education, Education’ mantra. Over this 12 year period, I was regularly invited to work with the government of the day, representing ISA in my capacity from time to time as the National Chair of our Association, the Chair of Inspections and the Chair of Professional Development. We were asked to contribute in every way we could to partnerships and cross-sector collaboration, and yet despite this ‘cost’ we were given complete respect by Labour politicians then in power.

² Claires Court Alumni whose skills in Performing Arts were honed at Redroofs include Gary Russell (70s), Adam Stafford (80s), Lee Martin (stage name Mathieson – 90s), Allie Bastien (00s) to name but 4.