Tales from the Head's Room: Life in a London Primary School - Tapa blanda

'I have lost count of the number of times I have laughed out loud or sent photocopies of your column around the school, sometimes with my scrawl saying, "I love this man!"' Ann Ellison, Nearly retired Head 'Please put your columns in a book. It would be a lasting legacy. And don't stop writing. Friday nights would never be the same!' John Wootton, Deputy Headteacher 'The only thing keeping me sane, and still fighting for the bureaucratic machinery to recognise common sense, is your column.' Joe Brown, Languages Adviser, The National Centre for Languages 'Dear Prime Minister, Please employ Mike Kent as your chief advisor. Yours sincerely, Julian Morgan (concerned teacher)' a selection of some of [Mike Kent's] best TES columns. They tell of school life as seen from the head's room and are a study in school management, leadership and teaching and learning. All of human life is seen though the eyes of a teacher who happens to be a headteacher... It is an ideal present for anybody who has been, is or wants to be, a head. 9/10--Sanford Lakoff

This is a selection of the most humorous and outspoken articles from Mike Kent's popular feature column in the "TES". When Mike Kent started teaching over half a century ago there was no national curriculum, no testing and schools were inspected, briefly, once in a blue moon. Mike has watched primary education spiral through enormous changes over the decades. Some changes have been worthwhile. Many have not. But if he is unhappy with a new initiative, or irritated by an incomprehensible directive from the men in suits, he'll do what he does best...pick up his pen and share it with his readers in a witty, whimsical way. This collection of articles from Mike Kent's popular weekly column in the "TES" covers a whole range of amusing incidents about daily life in a busy London primary school. From the fire officer who called the children's display work 'hazardous wall substances', to the class that caused the alarm to go off at Hampton Court and the burglar who stayed to play with a train set, Mike's anecdotes chronicle the trials and tribulations of modern primary headship.