Teaching used to be a vocation, it’s sadly being reduced to just a job - Sarah Todd

Children need to be in school five days a week and they need to have continuity with their teachers. Now this must be restrictive, but haven’t those long school holidays, job security, pension provision and so-on always been the recognised trade-off for this?

Heaven knows what it is like nowadays, but back when our now grown-up offspring were at secondary school there was always teachers missing at parents’ evening and others very jobsworth in sticking to the allocated five minutes, not even trying to pretend that they knew who your child was; just reading out test results and offering no funny anecdotes and insights that the generations before would have happily reeled off. None ever seemed to dress smartly for the occasion either.

Children’s education deserves better. Long gone are the days when there was recognition and rapport between parents and teachers. Thinking aloud, there really are so many parallels with doctors. What happened to these professions being a vocation?

There are some roles, such as our health and looking after our children, which should be more than just jobs.

To be fair to teachers it will take more than rose-tinted spectacles to rewind to halcyon days. Too much crossing out has happened at the chalk face including massive class sizes and children’s general behaviour and respect for authority. After all, one in four infants start school not toilet trained these days. Maybe many of today’s teachers haven’t had that special Sir or Miss who inspired them. Whatever the reasons, it would be so sad if teaching has been reduced to just a job.

Talking about vocations, regular readers would be surprised if the opportunity wasn’t taken to bang the drum for farmers.

A huge cross-section of workers, from Birmingham’s bin men (sorry, waste operatives) through to rail workers, bus drivers, civil servants, teachers and university lecturers, NHS staff, posties and so many more have all taken strike action over recent years.

Farmers are a notable exception and watching the teachers’ union leaders talking on the television news it was hard not to wonder whether the campaign against the family farm tax needs tougher tactics.

A Google search of ‘Are UK farmers planning any more protests?’ came up with diddly squat (a Jeremy Clarkson reference). As an aside, what has happened to all the celebrities who marched with the farmers originally, basking in the spin-off publicity?

The National Farmers’ Union website this month urges farmers to invite their MPs for a farm visit and, in a similar vein, to open to the public for the annual Open Farm Sunday event, which this year takes place on June 8.

Other than this there doesn’t seem to be much going on, with the majority of stories listed on the Back British Farming campaign pages dating back to 2024.

Now that doesn’t mean that farmers themselves are sitting with their feet up. No flexible working for them, with ewes lambing and cows calving right now, along with potatoes to plant, drilling and so-on to do.

But it is hard not to wonder whether their campaign needs a proverbial kick up the backside and whether they should have gone in stronger, like the teachers?

Just the other day our Prime Minster was spouting on about how the NHS couldn’t miss out on funding because of a tax break for farmers. Such stupid statements need jumping on immediately. What about all the billions being spent chasing net zero or on illegal immigrants?

Nobody seems to be getting across that farmers already pay their taxes; on every penny of money they earn. This inheritance tax is an additional burden and it’s vital for the future of farming - because of issues such as its generational nature, national food security and the disproportionate value of land - that it is considered in a unique way.

No doubt the farming campaign groups will have something up their sleeve, but they need to crack on with it. Now, what about a national shortage of burgers and sausages come barbecue season?