In case there’s any doubt across our schools and colleges, this is most definitely not a period of business as usual.

As one headteacher wrote to me this week: “I’ve been in education for 23 years and I can honestly say I have enjoyed almost every day of my career. Until recently, that is. I’m now so despondent about how we have been treated by this government, the press and, more recently, parents, that I am seriously considering HGV training. There is a limit for everyone.”

I suspect they are only partially joking.

Another trust leader put their concerns even more starkly: “The pandemic is ripping through our schools in an unmitigated way.”

So, let’s take stock of where we are.

Covid wreaking havoc across schools 

A survey by ASCL, published today, shows the havoc Covid is continuing to cause across educational institutions - along with frustrating delays in the rollout of vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-olds, plus the unedifying and unwelcome antics of some anti-vaccination campaigners.

All of this is in stark contrast to the wider public mood about the pandemic, which seems to regard it as largely over, and a government whose attention has drifted off in other directions.

It’s understandable that the public wants to forget the pandemic after 18 months of disruption.

And most people do not, of course, see the daily grind of having to deal with pupil and staff absence, of trying to sort out remote education for those out of school while endeavouring to hire scarce supply staff to cover for absences - all while dealing with the aftermath of the last year-and-a-half and its impact on so many children.

What is less excusable, however, is the inattention of the government, which seems to be largely content to leave schools and colleges to cope with these pressures pretty much on their own while the vaccination programme rolls out at a laboriously half-hearted pace.

Indeed, our survey shows that over 40 per cent of headteachers say that vaccinations are not scheduled to take place in their school before the October half-term break.

We don’t blame health teams for this situation, as we are sure they are working flat out.

Poor preparations for student vaccinations 

But what seems incredible is that after all those high-profile fanfares about approving vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-olds, with the chief medical officers being wheeled out to assess the case on educational grounds, the government appears not to have ensured that the resources are in place to deliver the programme at the scale and speed required.

And then there’s the subject of money. Nobody needs reminding of the relentless, sapping pressure on budgets that has been part of school and college life for many years.

Now, once again, this is exacerbated by the additional cost of hiring supply staff to cover for absences. The government must be aware that this is happening, but one suspects it will take an almighty effort to persuade it to part with any additional funding.

In the meantime, and this is remarked upon by many respondents to our survey, pretty much the full panoply of accountability measures is back.

There’s been a bit of a concession at key stage 2 with the decision not to publish performance tables this academic year, but at key stage 4 - crazily - it is full steam ahead.

GCSE performance tables cannot possibly provide fair and meaningful comparisons between schools that have been affected to vastly differing extents by the pandemic - and with variable disruption still taking place - but the government appears intent on pressing ahead.

Full-throttle inspections

And Ofsted, of course, is back, too. Inspections are in full flow with inspectors following a handbook that sets out the additional considerations they need to take into account to reflect the Covid context and the disruption it has caused.

That may all sound well and good, but we are receiving reports from schools that do not think the pandemic is sufficiently being taken into account in inspections and feel that there is an assumption that schools are more or less back to normal. Many emphatically are not.

There’s an argument - and an increasingly strong one, given the level of disruption that is continuing to take place - that routine inspections shouldn’t be happening at all at the moment and not until the situation is more stable.

You can tell from the way that I have phrased this that we aren’t calling for them to be suspended - yet - but we are talking to Ofsted about our concerns and we are monitoring the situation closely.

The danger of all this is that leaders and their staff will increasingly feel not only that they are not being adequately supported by the government through what is very clearly still a pandemic, but they are also being punished by an accountability system that feels punitive enough in normal times let alone in the current situation schools face.

Our message to the government is not to take the goodwill of leaders and teachers for granted.

At the very least, demonstrate an understanding of the current reality by boosting the vaccination programme and scrapping the publication of all performance tables this year. Put in place the financial support that is necessary for all of this.

And, in doing so, translate the endless rhetoric about the importance of children and young people into some long-awaited and tangible action on their behalf.

Geoff Barton is general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.