Many teachers will be familiar with the experience of reading a story written by a pupil, except perhaps for the frustrated novelist in the English department, it may be some time since they have written one of their own.
Now’s their chance. Teachers have been invited to dream up a tale imagining a perfect day in Kent and the author of the best will receive a grand prize of, fittingly, a day out in the county itself.
It’s all part of a marketing ploy designed to convince Birmingham teachers to abandon their classrooms and head south to the self-proclaimed garden of England, to fill teaching vacancies there.
In particular, Kent apparently lacks headteachers, and needs some of Birmingham’s high-flyers to take over its schools.
Birmingham city council, the education authority, has chosen to take the whole thing as a compliment.
But it’s hard to imagine how the search for Brummie heads goes down with ambitious teachers in Kent itself. Aren’t they good enough for the top job?
