One day, when historians write about 2020, I hope they will marvel at the ingenuity of the teaching profession.

I’m sure they will attempt to convey the combination of panic and resolve, despair and determination, team spirit and isolation felt by all of us the past few months.

The strain has not been good for our nation. For one thing, our political leaders have often been found wanting. In stark contrast, from day one I have seen just how purposefully and willingly schools have grasped the baton handed over by the government. 

In fact, it would be more accurate to say that they have picked up the baton that the government fumbled with and then dropped. Just think about how schools stepped in earlier in the year when the school-meal voucher system fell apart.

Right now, schools are filling the vacuum left by the government as it deliberates over how to conduct GCSEs and A levels next year. While ministers make up their minds, schools are making up for the absence of a clear plan and providing reassurance for students.

Accountability only cuts one way

Confusion reigns in Westminster, Stormont and Cardiff. None of these administrations has got things completely right. All of them have made big errors.

Not only are we all living in the shadow of coronavirus, but we are also all suffering from our governments’ ineffective and incompetent approach to education policy during the pandemic.

I share the frustration of NAHT’s 33,000 members at the lack of leadership from our politicians. In school, that kind of performance would see you out of a job. But accountability only seems to cut one way.

In recent days we have seen Ofsted’s decision to double down on its role as an enforcer, pressing on with its plan to use its statutory powers of inspection to come into schools this term. Steadfastly, Ofsted insists that it’ll be back to regular inspection in January.

We have also seen the government enact a temporary continuity directive to make legal the expectations around remote education. This is the same government, let’s not forget, that massively overpromised and underdelivered on its offer to help young people without access to laptops and the internet at home.

By reaching for legal powers, the government risks sending an unequivocal message to the profession and parents that they do not trust school leaders to act in the interests of young people in this country. There is absolutely no reason to believe that emergency powers are required to compel schools to act. But the government believes they are.

This same government - let’s not forget again - had to be compelled to provide school meals for disadvantaged pupils during the summer holidays. By a footballer.

Saving the government’s bacon

If there’s any part of our education system that requires more scrutiny or more legal mechanisms to make it do the right thing, it isn’t the people at the chalkface. 

Right now, schools and colleges are full of people who have been trying to be more like the people they aspired to be when they were called into public service in the first place. They are suppressing inner fears, while projecting outward calm. And though they might be losing sleep over it, no one is shirking these duties.

For a long time, we have believed that the profession needed to take back ownership of education. Politics has ensured that this has never really happened, certainly not system wide, but 2020 has shown us why it is so necessary.

School leaders and their teams are great at making do and mending, and they have saved the government’s bacon on many occasions. But ministers have relied on this to an almost unthinkable degree.

This is no way to run a strategic response to Covid on behalf of young people. Frankly, the politicians cannot be trusted with it. They have made too many errors.

NAHT are willing to engage, giving freely of our time and expertise to help shape ministers’ decisions. We are also prepared to act if our advice is ignored.

As we gather for our annual conference this year - online, as is the way these days - NAHT’s message to the authorities is simple: enough with the heavy-handed approach. School leaders and their teams have proven beyond doubt that they are capable of managing the impact of the pandemic.

Provide support, but let the professionals get on with it.

Paul Whiteman is the general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union