ABSTRACT
The core task of all schools is teaching and learning; staff aim to ensure that students leave with the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to forge a meaningful and fulfilling work life. In tandem, the school supports the emotional and psychological growth of its students so that they develop into healthy, considerate and responsible young people who can form and maintain honest and open relationships with others and, internally, with their own self. Schools strive to achieve these aims within a climate of scrutiny and seemingly ever-shifting policy changes. Office for Standards in Education reports are published online, and examination results are often felt to be the only indicator used to judge whether a school is successful or failing. Education can be a ‘vote winner’; all political parties will have views on what – and how – it is delivered, how grading systems are structured and what the school’s priorities should be. Radical changes to the curriculum, changes to marking criteria, alterations in grading boundaries and re-shaping of schools’ strategic aims in general are frequent features in contemporary society especially when there is a change in government or an election is looming. These external demands make the task of attending to the internal and emotional developmental needs of young people very challenging.
