If I had to nominate one sentence in my book that expressed what I am about and what the book is about, it would be Joan Errington, the English teacher, saying in the last scene of the second act “I really do wish someone would expose the lousy, stinking, hypocritical charade of those who put it about that they care.”

I allow the words of Death of a Nightingale to illustrate this without further explanation from me.

The Prologue

Then there are all those working in the public service who feel obliged to do some things they know they shouldn’t be doing, or not do things that they should. There are school governors, and people like them, who are doing valuable voluntary work within the community, but who are deliberately denied the tools to do it properly by those who prefer to do it themselves, but want to make it look otherwise.

It is the System that needs looking at, the con in consultation, the charade of partnership, the make-believe, and as a result, the mess of much of it.

Act One, Scene 2

James Harrington, the mandarin from the DfES, David Harding, the Director of Education for Wexborough and Gerry Thompson an SEN controller meet in the regional office. James wants more progress on Inclusion.

JAMES HARRINGTON ….. You have got to win over the parents. I think you need something a bit more subtle. Look at it this way. They have a bird in their hands, and they like it. We are offering them, as they see it, two in the bush. Where’s their next dinner coming from? Not from the bush unless we make their bird look a bit less appetising.

DAVID HARDING I hope you are not going to get me into trouble with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

JAMES HARRINGTON And I hope you are not a covert animal rights activist.

DAVID HARDING Well what are you actually proposing.

JAMES HARRINGTON I am not proposing anything.

DAVID HARDING Suggesting, then.

JAMES HARRINGTON I’m not suggesting anything either. This is a journey of exploration.

DAVID HARDING Or a safari where the wild beasts roam.

JAMES HARRINGTON And vultures fly overhead ready to scavenge their next meal. Come on, it’s up to you how you manage this. Basically if a lot of the kids in this school go to mainstream schools this school is just not going to be viable. You know that. It can’t be making best use of your financial resources. You are just going to have to push things along a bit faster in that direction. It’ll be unpleasant, but really run the School down. When you finally deliver the message that the School has to close there’ll be no great argument.

DAVID HARDING It’ll actually run itself down, as we admit fewer kids to it. Some redundancies will be unavoidable and they won’t be able to deliver the national curriculum.

GERRY THOMPSON The bird’s already beginning to look a bit sick. Their roll came down last year by nine pupils

JAMES HARRINGTON The key is to get the Head teacher on side. You really must try to do that.

DAVID HARDING To get the egg to accept the frying pan. You’re right. The parents have got a lot of time for her. They trust her. If she argues the case for closure it will be much, much better than if we do. And the staff will go along with it too. There should be no problem getting the School Organisation Committee to go along with the closure after that.

Act One, Scene 5

David Harding and Gerry Thompson turn the screw on Margaret Williamson, the head teacher.

DAVID HARDING Will you help us? If you do, you’ll end up with a much better chance of a headship elsewhere. There’s one coming up in the next couple of years in Grovewood Comprehensive School. And there may be a job for your English teacher too. We do have a little influence in these things, you know.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON I really don’t know whether I’m hearing you right. Are you seriously saying that you want me to betray my kids?

DAVID HARDING Not betray them. Look to their best long term interests.

GERRY THOMPSON We don’t want another public confrontation between the school and the LEA. That’s no good for anyone, is it? And it can’t be good for you or your colleagues. It just sours everything when we are trying to pull together and get things right for your kids.

DAVID HARDING Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON You admit that you’re being cruel.

DAVID HARDING But I am trying to be kind. Look, you have said that half your School roll would fit into mainstream.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON Yes, if you can get it right for them.

DAVID HARDING That’s what we have to do.

GERRY THOMPSON That’s our job now.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON But you haven’t really started it.

DAVID It’s what we have to do. OFSTED will be on our backs if we don’t.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON I thought OFSTED was interested in standards and wouldn’t like what you are suggesting.

DAVID HARDING You misread it. They’ll turn a blind eye to it. They won’t put a black mark against you or your school while this is going on. And when they inspect us they’re only interested in whether we are delivering government policy and meeting government targets. That’s the way that things get done.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON And people get done.

GERRY THOMPSON Margaret, just look two years ahead. Fewer kids. Less money. Fewer staff. Do you think you personally, never mind the School, can face an OFSTED inspection.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON I’ll have to if that’s what the parents want.

DAVID HARDING Look, we’re all in the same boat. Can’t you see that? If you lose half your school, do you really think that you can deliver the national curriculum to the rest?

MARGARET WILLIAMSON It wouldn’t be easy.

DAVID HARDING It wouldn’t be possible. And meanwhile you’ll have a battle royal on your hands. The parents will be on your back and on ours, and don’t think you can escape the backwash. You’ll still need another job sometime. You must see that you will have queered your own pitch. People will be looking for reasons not to appoint you. You must see the danger of that.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON I haven’t much alternative then?

DAVID HARDING None.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON Tell me, am I a mouse in a trap or a rat leaving a sinking ship?

DAVID HARDING Neither, you’re just doing the job you’re paid to do, like everyone else. When you are employed by the State you’re not paid to ask questions. In particular, you’re not paid to ask yourself any questions. That’s not part of your job description, and it’s incompatible with Health and Safety Regulations.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON When you’re employed by the State, you don’t have to be brain
dead but it helps. Of course this is how the Germans and the Russians learnt how to survive their little dictatorships.

Act One Scene 6

Margaret Williamson shares her plight with her friend Joan Errington, the English teacher.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON That’s so true. They gave me no choice. They really didn’t. The Government wants schools like ours closed. They think it’ll save money which it won’t. They pass the buck to the local authorities to do their dirty work for them and the local authority passes the buck to me. God, what a lousy world.

JOAN ERRINGTON I can see what’s going on. They don’t want another losing confrontation with parents at all costs.

MARGARET WILLIAMSON You know what I feel like? I feel like a lump of plasticine, a little lump of plasticine that they have twisted in to a shape of their own choosing.

Act Two Scene 8

Eileen Winterton, the chair of Governors, sums it all up with Margaret Williamson

MARGARET WILLIAMSON Sacrificial pawns, Judith. And for everyone else it’s “Snakes and Ladders”, with more snakes than ladders.

EILEEN WINTERTON In Enron there was another name for it. They called it “rank or yank”. You were “ranked” if you played ball with them, “yanked”, sacked, if you didn’t. Well, no-one blew the whistle, and people lost billions of dollars and their jobs.

And I sum it all up here:

The Prologue

The recent Power Report pointed to “the weakening of effective dialogue between governed and governors” and “the rise of quiet authoritarianism within government.”

If I can remove the wrapping paper, it is saying that our democracy is often just a sham, and that the problem is not so much spin as twist. It is a serious criticism of those who wield power – the subtle and not so subtle pressures they exercise – the patronage they use to get their way. It should be no surprise that lawyers, accountants, academics and others, from time to time compromise strict standards of professional behaviour and play word games instead. I have seen it happen.

If the System does look itself in the mirror, it needs to recognise that the mirror itself is a distorting one. Will it do even that? Sad to say, the report has already been allowed to gather dust.

Care and take care. MPs’ expenses are important, but they are just a side show.

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