As teachers, the idea of fairness stands at the very centre of everything we do. 

Pupils soon work out if you’re not being fair. My classroom was ruled by the need for impartial and just treatment or behaviour, without favouritism or discrimination, as was that of most other teachers. 

And yet we work in a totally unfair education system.

This was highlighted to me last week, while I was visiting a secondary school in a very deprived area. The issues within the catchment area are huge - and are replicated in many similar areas across the country.

This means so much extra needs to happen before a level playing field with other pupils is created.

Postcode lottery

In many cases, this doesn’t happen. But is what these schools do to help these pupils recognised positively? Sadly not. 

Budgets for schools with high levels of deprivation vary enormously across the country, depending on the geographical area you are in. And the victims are schools, like this one, which are in an area of deprivation, surrounded by areas that are not designated deprived. 

These schools suffer twice over. On the one hand, they suffer from a lack of budget. And, on the other, they are the victims of parental perception: parents assume that all the surrounding schools are better than theirs. 

This perception is such a difficult one to break. And yet this school tackles these issues head-on. Food is provided for pupils throughout the year, including holidays, and any support needed is given without question. 

It provides all the curriculum subjects one would expect, but also has a farm and two industrial units dedicated to offering options for those children who are less academically minded. 

A system of haves and have nots

Ofsted, of course, ignores these facilities, instead focusing on its own narrow set of inspection parameters. It hides behind GCSE scores and value-added indices while forgetting where schools have to come from.

We have an education system of haves and have nots, and seem quite happy to continue in such a vein. Far too little recognition is given to those schools who do so much to support a ruptured society.

All children are different and all are important. But it would seem some are more important than others, and the area you are born in often dictates this importance.

Now that is certainly wrong. And it shows only too clearly the unfairness in our education system.

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