Former Bury St Edmunds headteacher Geoff Barton on leading Association of School and College leaders and his proudest legacy
Well-known former headteacher Geoff Barton tells me he used to get 30 emails an hour, but now he doesn’t get that many a day.
Mr Barton, who was head of King Edward VI School, in Bury St Edmunds, for 15 years, spoke to me about the ‘extraordinary transition’ after stepping down last month as general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).
Already an outspoken advocate for education when he was a Suffolk head, his role at ASCL, a trade union representing thousands of education leaders across the UK, propelled him into the national spotlight.
Over his seven-year tenure Mr Barton, from Pakenham, near Bury, championed the voice of school and college leaders over issues including funding, pay, recruitment and retention, the curriculum and Ofsted – and of course led the organisation through the coronavirus pandemic.
During lockdown he started a daily video message to support members, which were shared more broadly and got lots of notice, to humanise ‘the most difficult of circumstances’ – and ASCL then saw membership rise significantly.
“When I started our membership was about 18,000 and it’s 25,000 now and part of the reason I think is we gave a face to school and college leaders,” he said.
He said when the media started to turn on schools and teachers saying ‘children shouldn’t be at home, teachers should be at work’, he was wheeled out a lot for radio and television in order to make the case ‘what would it mean for all young people to be in school? What would it mean with face coverings?’
“The main phase probably of my ASCL years was the most extraordinarily different from any of my predecessors because it was trying to lead through adversity really,” he said.
And Mr Barton believes the consequences of Covid are being seen much longer term in education than in most other sectors.
“Schools are not the same places that they were pre-Covid,” he said. “Something has happened in terms of young people’s behaviour to some extent.
“Certainly their attendance - we have one in five youngsters persistently absent at the moment – and the recruitment and retention crisis has got more difficult because if you are a graduate and you want to work from home two days a week teaching won’t be able to do that for you.”
Mr Barton also spoke with me about the education watchdog Ofsted, which has been undergoing reform following the death of Reading headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life while waiting for an Ofsted report to be published.
He said: “I knew from my own experience, the Hardwick [middle school] experience for example, how punitive it could feel to have something as complex as a school reduced to a single-word phrase and therefore one of things we have been arguing, now pretty much everyone is arguing, is we need a more proportionate inspection system.”
Another issue in education that has been making national news has been the state of school buildings, with particular concern over RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete), a lightweight form of concrete.
At ASCL Mr Barton said he had been able to help fast track some of those school leaders who had come to him ‘in despair’ over RAAC, including the head of a school in Suffolk who contacted him on Boxing Day.
Speaking generally, he said there was evidence that showed it would take maybe 500 years to update the school estate.
“I think what that shows us and what’s been the biggest frustration for me is I think the politicians who I’ve worked with – all of whom have got good intentions – they see education as a cost rather than an investment.
“And when they have invested it’s tended to be for pet projects in certain places rather than saying ‘let’s routinely keep investing in the school estate because investing in young people is investing in our future’.”
He added that the trouble for any incoming Government was there was no money left to do it, so we wouldn’t suddenly see the rebuilding of all the schools.
Amongst his work as ASCL general secretary, Mr Barton was also involved in the pay talks last year, which he said were a ‘fascinating insight’ as to where power lies in Government.
But what has he been most proud of as general secretary?
Mr Barton tells me it is something most people wouldn’t see – the behind-the-scenes work of making the organisation more diverse. “If you were to see what our council looks like now you have got people of different backgrounds, whether ethnic backgrounds, gender backgrounds. That is starting to represent the kind of workforce that we would want.”
He described it as a work in progress, but ‘quite exciting’, and added: “We want that to send out a message to young people that actually whatever one of your personal characteristics is you can be in leadership as well.”
Looking back, Mr Barton tells me he had wanted to follow in the footsteps of Noel Edmonds to become a DJ. He ‘drifted’ into sixth form with ‘some terrible O-Level results’ and his English teacher Roy Samson inspired him to become a teacher.
“Roy Samson taught me Henry V and I had never read any Shakespeare at all and I remember they gave us the book before the summer holidays saying ‘read the play’ and I just found it unfathomable and I thought ‘I have got no idea’ and suddenly in the presence of this teacher he made it accessible and just inspired me.”
Mr Barton was last month appointed to the board of the Royal Shakespeare Company, which does ‘quite extraordinary work in schools’. On Shakespeare’s birthday, he joined the company on a visit to a school in Skegness for a performance of Romeo and Juliet.
“There’s a kind of coming home for me. Watching those Year 4s in Skegness having their first experience of Shakespeare was extraordinary and it’s a pleasure to be involved however I can in helping youngsters to do that,” he said.
Mr Barton has also recently been appointed as chair of the independent Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England, which will make recommendations for the implementation of a national entitlement to oracy education for all children.
Since standing down from his role at ASCL, Mr Barton, who is married to Philippa and has two sons, has reclaimed some of his time, but he says he hasn’t retired. “What I say is I have retired from things I don’t want to do any more.”
He will now have more time to spend with his family and for reading and music (he even gave me a ‘Geoffy B’ mix CD at the end of our interview).
He tells me that the King Edward’s years were ‘the bit I’m probably proudest of’.
“I think we took a school which was good and I think we did some pretty extraordinary things both with the international work and giving a profile to the arts and encouraging youngsters who were unsung heroes and getting them noticed.”
He added: “Those King Edward’s kids are out there peopleing the world doing good stuff.”
