AS I wrote this the countdown was on to the big bang return to school on Monday March 8. Only time will tell what this will do to the R rate; though once again we see history repeating itself with education workers, unions and scientists warning against an un-phased return.

The papers, other than this esteemed organ, are of course preparing the way for the return by once again filling their pages with attacks on teachers, including a hit piece on yours truly in the Mail on Sunday. Though their description of me as a Lenin-spouting NEU activist actually is fairly accurate — which must be a first for that paper.

With all the talk of catch-up it was good to see that Rishi Sunak’s Budget this week, focused on Covid recovery, gave such prominence to education. Except, of course, it didn’t. There has been no additional funding for schools announced beyond what was promised last year.

There is some money for catch-up resources to the tune of almost £4 million. This apparently will be in the form of downloadable, printable materials (teachers up and down the land are now shivering at the effect this will have on their photocopying budgets).

This of course is being put out to tender so the money will probably go to the Education Secretary’s dog walker or a Tory Party donor.

Catch-up it seems is about attacking the terms and conditions of teachers and other education workers with talk of changing the term dates, summer schools and longer school days. The elephant in the room of course is the fact that working-class pupils were at a disadvantage before the pandemic.

If we really want to be talking about catch-up then we should really be talking about the obscene role of private schools in society with their grip over not only top university places but also most of the top jobs in society.