We really should say thank you

19th June 2026

Thank you!

I would usually write that most weeks but this week, more than any other, it is very much appropriate; Wednesday was ‘National Thank a Teacher Day’.

I think it’s right and proper to make the point that ‘thank a teacher day’ is shorthand for saying thank you to every single one who works with and for children and young people. Across our trust everybody, whatever their role will in some way work directly with children and young people; be that through duties, managing services, meeting and greeting, offering support when out and about, working in classrooms, working in our resource areas, cleaning the school or the college,  the list could go on.

One of my earliest actions, as a headteacher, many years ago now, was to ask that every member of staff, whatever their role, do a duty at Oakwood Technology College (as it was called then). In some ways that was to make sure we had better coverage on the ground, at break time and lunchtime, but more importantly for me, it was about sending the message out clearly to all of our children that every single adult who works in the institution is important, has a status and is someone who is dedicated towards improving their lot. Creating the opportunities for a development of mutual understanding and respect. And yes, it does go both ways. We would rightly expect our children and young people to be behaving in a respectful manner towards our adults. And even though people claim the world is changing, almost every child or young person that I know does, as a matter of course, exhibit profoundly respectful behaviours towards, not only older people, but specifically towards those people who work with and for them. That has never changed.

And so, in that shorthand, thank a teacher, as a society, as a country is a way of sending a message out to everyone within our institutions and beyond, to all of our adults who work with children young people, that what they do is incredible, exceptional, important and absolutely necessary, for the functioning of a decent and progressive society. Every single one makes that contribution.

Unless you work in a school or college, you don’t really understand the attritional nature of the work. Every single day staff will engage in thousands of interactions. Those interactions will jump around from supporting children and young people to those who need one to one support  to working with groups, to dealing with adults, to managing parents and other professionals, again, the list could go on. That effort, which is emotional and physical, is needed to engage in that work, whilst remaining patient and professional should not be underestimated. Which is why we regularly talk about resting up at weekends and then making the most of the time that we have away from the school and the college.

Every person experiences schooling and so everyone has an opinion. There are many people in the wider society who have a perception of what working in school or college can be like today. Unfortunately, that perception can be negative. However, I’m absolutely certain that the overwhelming majority of our community do understand how important our work is and how necessary it is to celebrate that work, whether they can articulate it regularly or not.

As I regularly say, we are in the people business. I know the world is changing and against the backdrop of social media or AI we could convince ourselves that human beings are increasingly less important. In respect of the work that goes on in schools, in college, that could not be further from the truth. We will need people to be working with children, face-to-face, in the flesh forever. And each single person with each interaction is making a significant difference to the life of that child. Their future will be determined by what those interactions might be.

I hope you have had many thank yous this week. I hope you get many thank yous each and every week. I know that isn’t always the case, but we can hope that the days like ‘thank a teacher day’ do focus the attention of the nation on the importance of our work.

Whoever we are, wherever we come from, however old we are, every single one of us can remember those teachers who have made an impact upon us. We can remember everything about them and why they have had such an impact upon who we are and what we did. To a degree, there’s a sense of immortality. Whilst the children and young people who we work with live on, however old they are at any time, they will remember you. And they will remember you for all the right reasons. In that I’m absolutely certain.

‘A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.’ Henry Adams

‘If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society’s heroes.’ Guy Kawasaki