My daily commute from January 2020 - March 2021 was consumed by listening to news channels. On returning home I was reading about how other educational settings were getting ready for schooling in the pandemic. I also read constantly numerous times government documents landed. My own pressure came from knowing that my school community needed to believe that I had answers. If answers weren’t readily available from my own government or union I could at least fall back on what educators had shared from abroad. That was in wave 1.
Since January 2020 the inner drive leaders have needed has taken a huge level of resilience. The lyrics from Stars in the musical les mis sum it up for me.
Stars
In your multitudes
Scarce to be counted
Filling the darkness
With order and light!
You are the sentinels
Silent and sure
Keeping watch
School leaders across the globe in every sector have had to be a beacon of order and light. Even when terrified for their own health and wellbeing they have been calm, as well as reassuring to their school communities. The phrase “clopen” was a particularly interesting time as a school leader. Maintaining a presence in your virtual school, being available to maintain order in school and keeping watch for everyone’s wellbeing - without truly understanding the science behind keeping everyone safe. Leaders became experts at managing the heightened expectations that we knew how to keep everyone safe from a new risk. A year on and anyone leading a school can add that to their CVs as risk assessments have had countless iterations.
People keep talking about life returning to normal. I have to disagree. We have all been changed, our collective experience and living with this new risk means that normal has also changed. Our expectations have changed and our collective trauma from these recent events mean that we are in the process of co-constructing what our normal will be for the next part of this Century. After the last pandemic in the 1920s society embraced additional opportunities for leisure activities. As a leader now is the time for me to reflect on what educational provision is needed for the normal we are about to embrace as a society.
The les mis lyrics from Stars continue ...
You know your place in the sky
You hold your course and your aim
And each in your season
Returns and returns
Leaders know their place in their school communities. They will plot a course and navigate as required for their school. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that leaders return and return. They simply don’t give up.
As we lead into the 2020s school leaders should be celebrated for the massive task they undertook for our nation and the next generation by keeping education going. Children kept learning, teachers have worked throughout this pandemic. I personally owe a debt of gratitude to my own daughter’s school and I know that society understand what schools have done. As educators we are often humble about our work but now is the time to be proud of what we achieved. Look back and reflect on what we thought we couldn’t achieve. We did it.
The future is bright. Leaders will continue to be stars and sentinels to guide generations through their education. Collectively we can fill any darkness with light. We simply have to decide on our why and how.
I am excited about the normal we can create. Yes it is our next challenge but we can achieve it as we work together for our children and society.
I’m off to celebrate the end of GCSEs 2021 with my teen by embracing the marvellous world of musical theatre. Life continues and we all need light.
A great post, Julie. Thank you.
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