Liz Lightfoot on efforts to help the most able pupils in state schools.

The news that more and more schools are having to offer golden hellos and enhanced salaries to recruit head teachers is a symptom of the growing leadership crisis that the state sector is facing. Figures show nearly half the country’s head teachers will be approaching retirement age by the end of the decade and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to persuade enough senior teachers to volunteer for the top job.

M Forster wrote a short story in which the protagonist’s life was dominated by computers. He lived and breathed them, stuck as he was in a cell where the only form of communication with the outside world was via a computer screen. Forster’s point, as the character eventually broke free, was that there was more to life than can be found in technology. While we are, today, far from repeating Forster’s world, there is a danger that we might make schools, and the examination system in particular, too dependent on the latest available software.

“Up and back and swing and turn,” chants Rhian Robbins, dancing across the community hall in Hammersmith. “Ready and up and turn and down.”

Hilary’s advice