Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the ASCL school leaders’ union, is deeply frustrated.
Pay talks with the government remain in stalemate. His members’ jobs have “never felt more challenging”. And for the first time since 2006, the education secretary will snub his leaders’ union conference.
“Everyone’s cross,” the former headteacher tells Schools Week. “Added to which I think, particularly in the teaching profession, there’s a sense of being taken for granted.
“Probably that will intensify on Friday with the absence for the first time, certainly in my memory, of a secretary of state.”
