This summer, secondary schools face a ‘perfect storm’ of unsustainable pressures, says Russell Hobby

At our annual conference over the weekend, NAHT members began predicting that a “perfect storm” of pressures is about to hit secondary schools in England.

For many, the edges of the storm are already creating problems that will have dire consequences for standards and for pupils. The combination of challenges has never been greater. School leaders are concerned about maintaining high standards in the face of upheaval on so many fronts. By loading more uncertainty onto the secondary system than ever before the government is taking a real risk that they will break it.

So what are the factors that make up this chain of events? And, most importantly, what can be done? School leaders say that the combination of challenges they face begins with recruitment and retention, is driven by the £3 billion of real-terms cuts to budgets and includes the wholesale changes to the subjects that secondary school students can study.

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