Mr. Gorzug has survived a magical siege, a hostile school improvement framework, and several parents' evenings.
Unfortunately, England has now discovered teaching standards.
Halcyon Comprehensive is stabilising at last. The corridors are calmer. The children are healing. Mr. Gorzug has become, against all reasonable expectation, an accepted part of the school itself.
Which is precisely when the system decides he requires qualifications.
Apparently saving children, holding corridors together during supernatural incidents, and successfully managing Year Nine are not considered sufficient evidence of professional competence.
Now Gorzug must endure training days, observation rubrics, reflective journals, mentor meetings, safeguarding modules, educational theory, and the growing suspicion that modern institutions fear unlicensed effectiveness on principle.
Worse still, the more formally he becomes part of the school, the less temporary his life in England begins to feel.
As Halcyon faces increasing outside attention, recovering students struggle with the lingering effects of the breach between worlds, and the trust attempts to turn lived care into measurable policy, Gorzug finds himself confronting a deeply uncomfortable possibility:
He may no longer simply be defending this place.
He may belong to it.
Mr. Gorzug And The Required Qualifications is the third book in the warmly funny fantasy series about schools, safeguarding, bureaucracy, belonging, and an orc war-chief slowly becoming exactly the sort of adult children trust without hesitation.
Perfect for readers who enjoy:
Discworld-style observational humourFound family and slow emotional arcsSchool and workplace fictionDry British comedyFantasy grounded in ordinary human kindnessStories where protecting people matters more than looking impressive