Back Page: My Week - We may be relegated, but we aren't down

Apologies to the Bard, and more about Birmingham City's relegation later.

I had a working weekend but it was all pleasurable, especially an awards evening for our long-serving foster carers. Some of them have cared for more than 300 children over 40 years. Humbling and inspiring at once. Meanwhile, back at the office, we grind on with our Annual Performance Assessment work. You have to keep the faith.

Tuesday Launch of the government's National Challenge, which is supposed to be about offering support to a group of challenged schools, but predictably is presented in the media as about "failing schools". Thankfully, we have very few of the named schools, and as luck would have it, I am visiting one this afternoon. Undoubtedly, it's a school with a difficult hist-ory in a difficult area. But failing it is not. The new head teacher is supported by determined and dynamic teams and backed by positive school improvement from the local authority. They know where they are going and how to get there. I come away sharing their optimism and their sense that any national challenge should tread carefully.