Schools should offer "uncompromising leadership"

28 February 2005

Children, parents and the public look to schools to provide "uncompromising leadership" in a period of doubt and conflict which conspires against the best in education, a top independent school head said today (28 February).

Joe Peake, chairman of the Society of Headmasters and Headmistresses of Independent Schools (SHMIS), told members at the opening of their annual conference in York today that schools were entitled to look for the same ethical leadership from politicians charged with responsibility for education.

Mr Peake, headmaster of St George's College, Weybridge, said that independent schools had been "buffered" compared with the state sector but had not been immune to the "doubts and conflicts which conspire against delivering the best education."

"No more do we discipline children without a critical view of our behaviour management policy. We are told to insist upon total disclosures from our feeder schools. Our staff must keep both eyes on the complaints procedures. Thankfully our colleagues have taken no notice of their union's advice on taking trips. We tread very carefully before putting the blame on parents when we believe we can see it is their actions which are responsible for their child's difficulties," he said.

This had resulted in compromise and a poorer service from schools, he added.

"Yet even in today's climate, our children, parents and the wider public rightly look to us for an uncompromising leadership and they rightly expect to see that example in what we do in our schools," said Mr Peake.

"In turn we expect this of those who run our education system. Although we may disagree with the politicisation of education, we accept that education secretaries will come and go and they may bring little educational experience to the post. What we should expect is that they do not compromise their own values, as we should not, for whatever expediency."

Mr Peake, himself a Catholic, added: "Mrs Kelly and I have much in common. Where we differ is that is that I believe she is prepared to compromise her own beliefs for collective cabinet responsibility on matters of education. If we did this in our schools we would lose the confidence of our children and our parents and fail to set the example expected of us."

The full text of Mr Peake's speech is available from the ISC Press Office (tel: 020 7766 7060).

Notes: SHMIS is one of the five heads' associations in the Independent Schools Council. It has nearly 100 members, all of them senior schools. Heads in membership run a wide cross-section of schools of different sizes. Some are relatively small in size and there is a strong boarding tradition. They include schools which specialise in music and dance and also some of the country's most distinguished providers of special needs education.