Special measures, inquiry reports, redundancy fears – there's not a lot to smile about I wouldn't imagine.

Criticism seems to be coming from all angles and, of course, when it is as fierce as this, it makes headlines in the papers and on TV.

The only thing you can do is put your head down, get on with things and keep telling yourself "it will get better in the end". It might get worse before it gets better but eventually the only way is up.

Commendably, one lonely voice spoke up for the school – a pupil who claimed to be "sick to death of the bad publicity Headlands School keeps receiving".

It's nice to hear some people are proud of the school but the argument that it should not be the word Headlands splashed on the front page of the Free Press – and that it should be the few disobedient children – is flawed.

The fact is Headlands School has been described as "inadequate" and put in special measures, not its pupils.

Schools don't go into special measures because a handful of kids don't know the difference between right and wrong.

That's not to say there aren't bad apples in the classrooms causing a nuisance but the problem is clearly more deep-rooted than that.

Ofsted inspectors presumably have years of experience and have visited hundreds of schools. They know when a school is fundamentally good and when one is bad.

Their report says Headlands is bad.

Most people accept Headlands School has problems. Big problems. But not insurmountable.

You only have to look across town to see how Bridlington School appears to be thriving, having come out on the other side of special measures.

No-one takes pleasure in seeing a local school struggling, least of all the Free Press. But the facts speak for themselves.

Last year, when Bridlington School came out of special measures, it was the biggest picture used on the front page of the Free Press for years.

I think everyone is looking forward to the day we can do the same for Headlands.

Paper Clip

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