Phase one - complete.

Phase one is complete. We're securely good. I've been confident of this for some time now, but last week confirmed this to me. Regardless of experience or time served at CMCS, we were controlled, consistent and confident. We moved in step, like a phalanx of (insert own simile here - there are many options, mostly militaristic and largely offensive). I felt we were in charge of the agenda, agents of our own outcomes.

Which was nice.

But is in the past. Already.

We're well placed to be 'officially' outstanding this academic year. It's down to us to grab that particular bull by the horns. To do it, we need to look at what we do and how we do it. We need to remember why we are doing it, and who for (hint - it's not our bosses or the death eaters of O*&^"d).

We need to think about what is outstanding about what we do now. We need to think about what is outstanding about each lesson, each piece of marking, each plan and each innovation. There should be something outstanding about all we do. To be outstanding, we don't need to perform like seals and jump through hoops every lesson; we need to be well placed to do that when necessary, but there should be elements of outstanding practice running through all we do.

Our focus switches up now. Next time we are scrutinised externally, we juggle tings proper.

Orthodoxy.

Firstly, I will accept that there are times when received wisdom and orthodoxy are worth listening to. When they're backed by real experience and moral authority, for example.

I'm now going to contradict that statement.

Challenge orthodoxy. Destroy received wisdom. Question everything. Fight the power. If you don't do this, you'll be culpable, one day, when that wisdom turns out to have been wrong - or worse, evil.

Two examples spring to mind this week. One is the case of the new Shadow Education Muppet, former TV historian Tristram Hunt, and his take on Free Schools. Semantics. There's no difference here. There's no challenge to the orthodoxy that privatisation and not being owned by the state is a good thing. It's Blairite, Thatcherite and not alright.

Even worse is this second story; it is, however, less surprising, perhaps, in its origin. From the office of our beloved Gove, through his pernicious advisers, comes news that the people in charge of education believe that intelligence and potential is all based on genetics. Page fifty of this report (which I haven't read) is mildly frightening. This has the whiff of a few things, notably Brave New World and, er, the Third Reich, which surprises me not one bit. Just relax as we slip into fascism, as Lowkey once said.

I won't be. You shouldn't be. Consent is manufactured, we are led to believe that only certain ideas or positions are tenable. This is false.

Fight that falsehood. Fight for that which you believe to be right - that all deserve an education, that justice and fairness are prerequisites for a decent world. If you believe that. If you don't, then you probably haven't read this far.

Ultimately, this is a mission, which you've chosen, and the enemies of promise are our foe. Challenge the orthodoxy they're creating, by doing your job well.

An Imposition

We've all discussed, over the last week, the implications of Mr Gove's latest changes to the GCSE system. I'll be honest. Beyond the annoyance of being forced to change plans again and make decisions which will impact on children's futures, I don't care. When I say I don't care, I mean I don't care about the impact it has on us as teachers, on you as teachers of English, and myself as Team Leader.

This may sound odd - uncaring and thoughtless, you might say. I disagree. Here is why. Once more, just like the move to IGCSE after the 'Great GCSE debacle of 2012' it is actually an opportunity to do what we do best. It's an opportunity to teach more, to use the space provided to improve as professionals, to do what we love to do. And, frankly, that isn't preparing kids for contrived assessments or exams; it's teaching English.

A wiser man than me, one T. S. Eliot, once said 'If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you'. It is similar in sentiment to the Blake quote I've got on my picture on the corridor. Create your own system, or be enslav'd by another man's.

I refuse to be enslaved or controlled by any decision made by right-wing ideologues who hate everything I value.

Here is what we are going to do. We're going to focus on our long-held, long-term goal: being the best we can be. We will focus on high quality teaching. We will deal with behaviour restoratively, authoritatively, and fairly - we own what we do and how we do it. We will be pro-active in dealing with any problems we face. We will be in charge of our collective destiny. Nobody else. Our standards will get even higher. We will be even more honest in our reflection, even more generous in our sharing, even more thoughtful in our conversations.

In short, we're getting even better. I'm accepting nothing less. We will triumph.*

*Yes, that was just an excuse to link to some Wu Tang. Analyse them lyrics. Deep.