David Craig, on April 1st, 2021(Friday/weekend blog)
I thought readers might be interested/amused/disgusted (delete as appropriate) by a job ad that somehow appeared in my email inbox. The job was for a Marketing and Public Relations Officer for St Edwards School. This is a state school run by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP Council).
If St Edwards was a private school needing to attract fee-paying students, I could understand that the school would need to market itself. But this is a state school. If it’s any good, parents will want to send their brats there. If it’s a� disaster, parents will want to avoid it. There is plenty of information on schools’ performance and ratings available free on the Internet. So WTF does St Edwards School need a Marketing and Public Relations Officer?
I realise the role is only part time. But it’s paying up to �27,000 a year. I guess I must be old-fashioned as I believe that is money that could be better spent on the children’s education.
I’ve just looked at Education Vacancies on the Grauniad website and I suspect that our state schools are wasting tens of millions a year on useless, bureaucratic non-jobs like Environment Officers, and Equality Officers, and Diversity Advisors, and�Marketing Managers, and Student Services and Attendance Managers, and Account Relationship Managers, and Public Relations Officers and School Business Managers�and loads of other such non-jobs in bureaucratic Britain.
Maybe that’s why there’s not much money left to employ people who will actually teach something or to buy books?
Marketing and Public Relations Officer – St Edward�s School
Category: 
An April Fool joke maybe?
No. I got the job ad about a week ago. Sadly it’s not an April Fools’ joke. I wish it was.
Since schools stopped teaching pupils how to think they don�t need teachers, so they have to employ somebody to convince parents that their children are receiving a good education.
Someone’s chum needs a job. Simples.
The other side of this is that McVomit’s et al are fully ‘staffed’, so the great unwashed need to be kept busy – all these pointless jobs provide a safe haven for them.
Good schools do not need PR.Their pupils,teachers and results (in all interpretations o f the word) speak for themselves.PR exists to persuade people that the product is “brilliant”,”excellent” whatever the actual quality might be.It is a means of avoiding reality,ducking awkward questions and has no place in education.I speak as a former teacher of nearly 40 years.People these days are so easily manipulated by glib propaganda,look what is happening around us as we speak.Glossy prospectus,corporate style entrances,grandiose job titles,butter no parsnips.Good education could operate in a Nissen hut,given the right individuals.Now it is all top show but mediocrity beneath the veneer.