Anyone who knows me will tell you I possess zero leadership aspirations.
I’ve always been happiest as a classroom teacher, safely on the sidelines as key decisions over the bigger picture of school life under a pandemic fall to senior leaders.
Because the bigger picture is a terrifying sight. It’s basically Munch’s The Scream. In all honesty, I can’t think of a worse time to lead a school.
Endless decisions
There are so many decisions to make: all of them without precedent, without a reference book, without advice from on high (and by “advice” I mean helpful, logical and non-contradictory guidelines that stay in place for longer than 24 hours).
How many hours of discussion and planning have been rendered obsolete with one new announcement?
Of course, heads are not alone. No school is an island but, to its local community, it might as well be.
Other people help sign off on the big decisions but it’s the head’s name above the door and there’s only one person getting angry emails from parents.
Not that there’s time to dwell on the criticism. Heads are too busy solving problems they never dreamed they’d have to solve.
How do you move children around narrow corridors while keeping two metres apart? How can children use the toilets and keep everything virus-free? How can staff simultaneously teach full time in school and provide quality online home learning?
Why are plans for extra cleaning, free school meals vouchers and getting technology to disadvantaged pupils - so loudly trumpeted in the media - such a headache to achieve in reality?
The buck stops there
Because all through the pandemic it’s been made very clear that a lot of the big decisions are ultimately up to the heads - the buck stops with them.
Which leaves them wide open for criticism. The adage that you’ll never please all the people all the time has never been so true.
If the school down the road offers Zoom classes and you don’t or other local schools admit more children than you, you are judged and found wanting.
Sniping from the wings
In the absence of any definitive guidance, many voices have been filling the void with their own advice.
From keeping teachers working through the summer to allowing children to repeat school years, barely a day goes by when someone who doesn’t work in a school puts their oar in.
On a national radio phone-in the other day I heard the presenter suggest the problem of live lessons could be circumnavigated by letting children take it in turns to plan and teach each other via Zoom.
Quietly brilliant
What doesn’t get reported is all the fantastic things headteachers are quietly achieving.
The unending support for children and families who most need it right now; the doorstep deliveries, phone calls home, keeping their buildings and services open during and beyond normal term times.
Heads are desperate to have all their children back.
They are working flat out in school (in some cases ignoring their own shielding advice) sorting rotas, moving furniture, motivating children and teachers, doing everything they can to keep learning going and generally achieving the impossible.
Let’s show our thanks
Are they having any time off? I doubt it. I know my own head hasn’t had a single work-free day since March. Her plan to enjoy the May bank holiday with her family was aborted when a couple of children who were struggling at home begged her to open up for them.
She instantly agreed and spent the day baking cakes with them for their picnic.
How are they not cracking up? They don’t even have the lure of a normal summer holiday to unwind in.
So if you know a headteacher who is doing a good job, please drop them an email and tell them so.
They’re probably running on fumes.
Jo Brighouse is a primary teacher in the West Midlands. She tweets @jo_brighouse
