The election now feels like a distant memory and the holiday season is coming to an abrupt halt.

All too soon we will see whether the rhetoric of electoral promises becomes reality with respect to the minimal commitments found in the Conservative manifesto.

Of one thing I am sure, teachers’ voices will need to be heard loud and clear if we are to receive ministers’ promised funding increases rather than be pushed to the peripheral of political thinking once again at the expense of Brexit.

Not that these commitments really amount to a hike in spending. The increase of £7.1 billion by 2022-23 sounds great but only really amounts (according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies) to bringing per pupil cash back to the levels we had in 2010.

There is also a promise of an “extra” £780 million for SEND funding, although this will hardly touch the cracks that have been created in this area over the past 10 years.

Reasons to be angry

Next, there is a commitment to back teachers on discipline but what this actually means is anyone’s guess. If it means that exclusions are going to be easier to achieve, then the question we need to shout is what is going to happen to the increased number of excluded pupils? Certainly most PRUs cannot cope with more numbers.

I have no doubt that teachers’ voices will need to be heard in this exclusions debate if it plays out as I expect.

And then there’s the beefing up of Ofsted announced by Boris Johnson mid-election campaign. If this doesn’t get teachers shouting, what will? We’re staring down the barrel of so-called “no notice” visits and inspections ramping up from two to three days for most.

The manifesto also said a Conservative government would “ensure that parents can choose the schools that best suit their children”. Well that sounds to me (and to the Education Policy Institute too) as though we are going to have more grammar schools, more inequality and, yes, more to shout about.

Speaking with one voice

All in all the teaching profession has a lot to make it angry. The last 10 years of austerity in education will continue unless we speak with one voice - as will the endless political meddling.

I am pretty much exercising my vocal cords as I type. More shouting in 2020: that’s one manifesto commitment I plan to keep in the decade ahead.

Colin Harris led a school in a deprived area of Portsmouth for more than two decades. His last two Ofsted reports were “outstanding” across all categories