INTRODUCTION

In line with other policies of the Conservative government of the 1980s, education was now to enter the market place. A new discourse of education appeared, reflecting changes in structures.1 The curriculum was now to be ‘delivered’, ‘targets’ were to be set by ‘senior and middle management teams’; during the 1990s, university departments of education were to become ‘providers’ and student teachers referred to as trainees (Ofsted 1998). Funding was devolved to school level and the budget placed in the hands of the school governing body where parents were to be strongly represented. This body was also expected to take responsibility for the enforcement of the curriculum, the monitoring of standards and the hiring and, hypothetically,2 the firing of the

head and the teachers. In theory, then, each governing body took charge of its school.