Opinion

Funding: Government needs to understand the reality

School finance Government policy Whole-school issues
The incoming president of the National Association of Head Teachers, Andy Mellor, reflects on the values that have taken him so far in the profession and sets out some of his priorities for the year ahead

The NAHT was commended to me by my father when he was a head, although as a teenager I had absolutely no aspirations to be a teacher. And I told my parents so.

Both of them were involved in education. After dinner, I distinctly remember watching my mum fall asleep in front of the television with a pile of books on her knee and just thinking to myself: “There is no way I’m doing that for the rest of my life.”

However, here I am. I’ve been headteacher at St Nicholas CE Primary School in Blackpool for 15 years. In that time, my team has taken the school from requires improvement to outstanding in the eyes of Ofsted and we have grown the school from 245 pupils to 407. Following inspection I became an National Leader of Education and the school was awarded Teaching School status in 2017. I’ve been a member of NAHT’s National Executive Committee for five years.

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