It might not feel like it, but 2016 was the year that schools ceased to be of central importance to the government.

The most obvious sign was that the main education policy associated with Theresa May’s administration is one that struggles for support from just about any teacher, school leader, educationist or researcher. Even at his most loathed, there were always heads and teachers prepared to throw their weight behind Michael Gove’s ideas - not least of all because he clearly cared about kids. The government’s grammar school policy is not part of this tradition: it is nakedly political, not educational.

In the years to come, there is every chance we will come to look back with fondness on the policy era that started with David Blunkett’s early academies in 2000 and ended abruptly with Nicky Morgan being unceremoniously dumped in the summer of 2016.

Whether or not you agreed with Blunkett, Estelle Morris, Charles Clarke, Ruth Kelly, Alan Johnson, Ed Balls, Gove or Morgan, they and their respective prime ministers were driven by a desire to do what was best for schools and pupils.

Even their chancellors had a habit of wading in to education policy: by all accounts, George Osborne genuinely believed that university technical colleges would prove part of his legacy.

Now we find ourselves in a different place, with different priorities. The grammar schools policy is merely a smokescreen: with the complexities and negotiations of leaving the EU weighing heavily on politicians’ every move, prime minister Theresa May and chancellor Philip Hammond and their associated policy wonks are unlikely to see education as much more than a passing political distraction.

Theresa May is unlikely to see education as much more than a passing distraction

This is, perhaps, best illustrated by the recent hollowing-out of top Department for Education civil service talent, at least in part as a result of the braindrain to the Department for Exiting the EU.

Add to this the retirement of Ofsted’s Sir Michael Wilshaw, a truly national figure prepared to challenge, cajole and criticise ministers and schools whenever he perceived them to have stepped out of line, and you’ve got a recipe for a lack of dynamism and drive in schools policy.

Many heads and teachers out there will say: “Good! We want to be left alone to do our thing. Less political interference is what we want.” But be careful what you wish for: less political interference equals less money. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, there’s only one thing worse than politicians meddling in schools: politicians not meddling in schools.

So far, so bleak.

But, I am not sure: there might be a silver lining hidden within this ominous dark cloud. As a country, we are going to have to make as good a fist of Brexit as we can. And, whether or not they’ve truly noticed it yet, when politicians look up from some arcane trade agreement they will be forced to realise that this means education: in the round, of course, but specifically skills and FE.

We might not like to admit it, but untapped immigration from the EU has allowed this country to disinvest in vocational education. It has allowed the powers that be to point their gaze away from the skills agenda. It has allowed politicians to ignore generation after generation of children who could have benefited from access to top-class technical training.

This can go on no longer. Brexit and the economic wellbeing of the generations you are teaching now and in the future will require an end to this disgraceful spiral of neglect.

If not, we could all be in big, big trouble: the kind of trouble that will make 2016 look like a walk in the park.

@Ed_Dorrell