‘Twas the day before Christmas
And all through the school,
The teachers reflected
On Michael Gove’s rule.
The changes had come
So
thick and so fast,
It felt like a decade,
Not one year had passed.
~
Content reforms
Caused such a furore,
Tales of the Brits,
White men and their glory,
Caused history teachers
All over to sob,
Then
tears turned to anger –
Watch out, it’s ‘
the Blob!’
~
The
papers were rallied,
The battle was waged,
“They
will learn the
Heptarchy!”
Mr Gove raged.
“Athelstan, Monarchs,
Plantagenet rule,
They must
know it all
By the time they leave school.”
~
“A self-serving
myth!”
the historians retorted,
Though one which
David
And
Niall supported.
On national TV
Came
Evans’ riposte,
But it all seemed too late,
The
battle was lost.
~
And then in a twinkling,
A few “
minor tweaks,”
A
U-turn!
The freedom to
choose what we teach!
Now it seems ‘Levels’
Are
on the way out,
Another rare thing
To be
happy about.
~
Historians respond
To
this news with
glee,
But
not all headteachers
Want to be free.
“What will we show
When Ofsted arrive?
We need some
hard data
If we want to survive!”
~
GCSE,
A Level,
The change is non-stop.
“End the
race to the bottom –
Get
Britain on top!”
No more CA,
Or
SHP capers.
It’s
spelling and facts
And three hour papers.
~
Say goodbye to
resits,
Cram well in advance.
You must get it right,
There’s no second chance.
Though according to Cummings
Ain’t much you can do,
Success in exams
Is
down to IQ.
~
The children sat silent,
In rows, in the hall,
The spectre of
failure
Hanging over them all.
‘A star’s at the front
And ‘U’s at the rear,
Or are they ‘
Grade 1’s now?
I’m really not clear.
~
Up in the staffroom,
The teachers all sighed.
“What will become of us?”
The historians cried.
“We must make it work,
We must get it right!
Use our new freedoms
And keep up the fight.”
~
The final bell sounded
The end of the day,
The flight to the car park
Began straight away.
But I heard them exclaim,
As they walked out of view,
“We’ll meet next year head on!"
How about you?