Dr Keven Bartle, Director of Education, SSAT

As we hit the home straight of this odd general election campaign, I wanted to outline one of the greatest fears I have for the education sector which no manifesto pledges seem to fully address.

I have begun tracking Ofsted reports: ‘What does the school need to do to improve?’ I’ve identified 3,858 specific areas from inspections since January 2024.

We are delighted to offer a new programme for serving and experienced headteachers, SSAT’s Rethinking Headship. In preparation for this programme, we have summarised and synthesised recent research focused on headteacher retention. Our aim, in this phase of our work is to stimulate discussion about how individual headteachers rethink their approach to headship. At the same time, we want to draw on your insights gained through the wisdom of your experience to provoke a rethinking of headship at a systemic level.

As school leaders you know that attention from the media and politicians about the ‘attendance crisis’ is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is good to know that you are not alone in meeting these challenges. On the other hand, such attention on school issues often generates more heat than light.

Having recently moved from being a headteacher to Senior Education Lead with SSAT, I have been reflecting a great deal on the nature of school improvement.

School leaders have long known that the attendance and punctuality of pupils is of the utmost importance. As a former headteacher, I began each termly Celebration Assembly with awards for the best and most improved attendance awards. The students would know beforehand that I was going to tell them that great attendance was the most important factor in the academic and social successes that are what schools are all about. Attendance matters. It always has.