BBC Headteacher Tells Of Outpouring Of Sympathy After He Resigned On TV

James Pope, the star of BBC2’s documentary series, School, has admitted that he has not actually been watching it. He was worried about how he would come across and was concerned that people would view him negatively despite the four years of mostly positive feedback received from his superiors and the local community. Pope is the focus of the show, which takes a year-long look at several secondary schools participating in a multi-academy trust. Pope is seen grappling with problems at Marlwood; a school in rural Gloucestershire, which has been placed into special measures by Ofsted. He’s confronted with the challenge of boosting the school’s standards while simultaneously being asked to cut down almost £1m from his annual budget. Morale plummets as staff numbers are reduced and class sizes increased, leading to the staff and pupils struggling to overcome the unfair labelling of "inadequate".

After being presented with an unsatisfactory Ofsted report, the fourth episode of the show sees Pope resign from his position, albeit with the outpouring of support from other headteachers. “I started my headship with a vision of what I wanted to achieve and I came to realise that increasingly, I was making compromises,” he admits. “And the more you have to compromise, the more you sit there thinking: this isn’t what I wanted to do. This isn’t what I thought my headship would be about.”

When Pope was hired four years ago, he knew the school was in some trouble, but he didn’t expect to be confronted with huge cuts. Within the first six months, he was already facing a shortfall of £500,000. The following year, he was told to save £800,000, which meant that large numbers of support staff, many of whom were involved in pastoral support, needed to be let go. One year later, his budget was cut by another £800,000. The year the show commenced filming, he was told that he had to cut an additional £970,000, which amounted to 40% of the school’s income. “Balancing the books simply became the overriding factor in nearly everything we did,” he revealed.

Initially, the cuts reflected the shrinking number of students in Marlwood’s catchment area. However, Pope, who has 21 years’ experience as a teacher, reveals that the financial pressure was also compounded by the "unfair" cuts levelled at all schools by the government. “On top of the savings we were having to make uniquely at Marlwood, you pile the cuts in real terms that all schools are having to deal with …” he adds. Poor Ofsted reports led to parents and teachers turning their backs on the school, which led to even fewer students, staff anxiety, and even more cuts. “I had to explain to parents: you don’t get anything special if you’re put in special measures. There is no more money. You don’t get any additional support or resources. In my experience, all you get is additional scrutiny and additional pressure.”

As he worked 14 hours a day, getting up at 5am and returning home at 9pm, even to continue working, he quickly became all consumed. He struggles with not being able to provide enough for himself and his children. “It’s not so much the financial pressure that got to me. It’s that it stopped me doing the educational stuff I wanted to do. You have these conversations: Can we do that? No, we can’t afford it. Can we put that in place? No, we can’t afford it. So you just end up compromising all of the time to try and get the best out of what you have got.”

He was most troubled by knowing what his students were missing out on due to the cuts. He is appalled at the poor support received from the Department for Education and believes that there should be more understanding of the context and difficulties faced by schools like his. In the same way as he felt like he had to fight Mike Tyson with one arm tied behind his back while preparing for the Ofsted report. When inspectors failed to take into account the cultural and financial difficulties experienced by the school, he felt he was being unduly stressed against his will.

He opened the school doors to cameras to give his community a glimpse of the school’s issues while making it difficult for the DfE to deny what viewers saw for themselves. These intimate details of Marlwood’s challenges offer tangible evidence of the difficulties they encounter. Several individuals communicated that their institutions were similar to Marlwood’s, proving that they are not a unique case. He has taken to social media, starting a blog about his experiences to take advantage of the unique opportunity presented by the TV series. He wants to investigate what special measures mean, how it affects schools, and what changes should be implemented. He believes that repeatedly restricting schools merely punishes them, and instead, the government should reevaluate the systems. From his experiences as a consultant in Inspire Educate, he now trains school leaders to succeed in their respective roles. Nowadays, he appears younger and more relaxed, but what prompted him to resign? He had made several compromises earlier, but he regrets not helping students in the financial crisis. He poses one important question- will society invest in its future generation of citizens? The coverage on the BBC2 network on Tuesdays covers the operation of public schools.