When I was training for ordination one of the ‘hot potatoes’ that soon to be vicarage families often discussed was how far they were prepared to sacrifice their children for the sake of their ministry. What if there were no ‘good’ schools where God was sending them? Was it fair or even right to put their children through substandard education for the sake of their ‘own’ ministry? My response at the time was that if the local school wasn’t good enough for my children it wasn’t good enough for anyone’s and as the local vicar I would do everything I could to make sure that it became ‘good enough’. I was careful to keep my thoughts to myself, after all, it’s easy to make such philanthropic decisions when you don’t actually have any children.
By the time I did have a child who was old enough for school, I held on to those beliefs. I didn’t scout around for the ‘best’ school, I applied to the local school and was happy to get a place for her and later her sister. However, the local school was one that had been granted a ‘Good’ by Ofsted and had received a ‘golden letter’ to encourage them to keep up the good work. Holding to my principles so far was fairly easy.
But then things started to go wrong. Teachers kept leaving, and in one particular my daughter seemed to have a different teacher every day, sometimes two, and one afternoon no teacher at all. Behaviour in the classroom became, to be honest, dangerous at times. And then the head went on long term sick leave. How would my principles hold out now? I had vowed that if the local school wasn’t good enough I would get involved, and against my better wishes, became a school governor.
Oh boy! The information I discovered upon taking up my position confirmed my feelings that things were not right. The head resigned and after a few more ‘incidents’ the school received its visit from the Ofsted and unsurprisingly lost its ‘Good’ status. Sticking to my principles now meant that my children were attending a school in special measures, and numbers on roll were going down.
However, my children are still there, and these are the reasons why:
1. The village school is part of the community. It is part of the place that they call home and they belong there.
2. I have faith. Naturally I have faith, I’m a vicar! I have faith that God will bring new life out of this broken community. I have faith in my fellow Governors who give so much of their time without any reward to serve the school with such dynamism and determination and experience. I have faith in the new Headteacher who within weeks of being in place knows where every child is academically and has put in place procedures to ensure that every child is safe and every child fulfils their potential.
3. There are lessons that can be learned from endurance. To be honest my eldest daughter has had a rough ride through school. She has not had the stability of a class teacher who sticks through to end of the year since Year 1. She has found herself at a complete loss as to which side of the paper she is expected to write her name, she has lost friends as they have moved on with postings (a large percentage of the school are army children) or as parents have removed their children to a ‘better’ school. She has grieved so many ‘losses’ and at times lost her own sense of identity; and yet, she has come through all that and now goes t school with a smile on her face. My daughter has learned that sometimes life is tough. Sometimes you just have to stick with it and keep hope that things will change and do your best to be part of the positive. This is a lesson that isn’t included in the National Curriculum, but it is one that will see her through employment when she doesn’t get the contract she has worked so hard for, it will see her through relationships, through marriage when things get tough, it will see her through sleepless nights and tantrums if she becomes a mum.
By keeping my daughter at her ‘failed’ school she has learned loyalty and commitment and not to give up without a fight, she has learned to carry hope with her in her everyday life. If we had removed her to the Outstanding School in a neighbouring village would she have learned instead that you give up and move on when things don’t go your own way? I don’t know, and I don’t want to judge any parent who has made the decision to remove their child from the school – parenting is a tough enough job without us condemning each other. I am glad, however, that I had the opportunity to think through my approach to my children’s education before we had to face the turbulence of the last few educational years, and I am glad that I have had the courage to stick to my convictions.
nothinglikeadane 