Headteacher writes letter to parents about why she 'no longer wants to continue in profession' after 30 years

A headteacher has written a letter saying she is leaving the profession after 30 years because of the latest “crushing wave of Government reforms”.

Maria Townsend, the headteacher of Raynville Primary School in Leeds wrote a letter to parents - which was posted on Twitter - explaining her decision to step down at the end of the summer term after running the school for 12 years.

She said all of the Government’s reforms and initiatives, particularly during the last year, had brought her “to the point where I no longer want to continue in the profession I have felt so passionate about for the last 30 years”.

Ms Townsend said she felt the curriculum primary school age children are expected to know was “full of unnecessary, ridiculous things that quite frankly, they don’t need to know at their age.

“Does an 11-year-old really need to have mastered the past progressive, the present perfect, or know how to use subjunctives. The National Curriculum says they do.

“The new tests and assessments in Year 2 & 6 are unbelievably tough. As a result many children who would have been achieving age expected levels last summer, will now be labelled as “working towards” or below: the Government having set the bar to such an extent that many simply can’t get there by May 2016”.

She said she had always believed that as headteacher she should do everything possible to protect staff and pupils from unnecessary stress, but the “current educational climate” was preventing her from doing this part of her job properly.

“This isn’t just a Raynville problem, it’s national”, she said “And it’s appalling that a system is causing so much stress - not only for children, but for the teachers who are expected to teach it to them”.

“Children are only children for a tiny part of their lives”, she added.

It comes as parents across England took their children out on an unofficial “kid’s strike” to protest against the increased focus on testing six and seven-year-olds.

A petition started by the Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign - which has now been signed by nearly 50,000 people - has called on Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, to scrap SATs for Year 2 pupils.

Campaigners say the focus on testing has left their children “over-tested, over-worked and in a school system that places more importance on test results and league tables than children’s happiness and joy of learning”.

Responding to the criticism in a speech on Saturday, Ms Morgan said: "To those who say we should let our children be creative, imaginative, and happy - of course I agree, both as a parent and as the Education Secretary.

"But I would ask them this: how creative can a child be if they struggle to understand the words on the page in front of them? They certainly can't enjoy them”.