Do you know what your school will look like next week? The answer is probably yes - you know what you need to do, which events are taking place, what issues need discussing and the concerns to be addressed.

What about the following week? Maybe, but perhaps it is a little less clear. How about next month? Now things are getting hazy. Next term? Next year?

Now more than ever before, it may seem futile to plan far ahead, but the truth is quite the opposite. Having a long-term strategy that sets out clear aims and objectives is vital for you to deliver on your leadership responsibilities, as well as for the good of your school and its community: it gives focus, direction, ownership and accountability to all.

What makes a good school strategy? To me, a strategy is a series of long-term objectives that drive your organisation forward with a view to ultimately enhancing pupil outcomes and giving children the best life chances you can. That means knowing your strengths and areas for development, which improvement strategies you want to implement or develop, and the resources that will help you.

Without a long-term strategy, you run the risk of treading water and being at the mercy of events rather than having agency over your own destiny. Of course, the strategy cannot be at the expense of day-to-day realities, which, during a pandemic, can seem all consuming: staying on top of ever-changing guidance, implementing contact tracing, organising cover for staff absence and managing the health and safety of the school community can make it feel harder than ever to deliver on your strategic aims. Despite this, we must make time for strategy. So, how can we do that while dealing with all the other pressures of leadership?

Give yourself protected time

It can be difficult in the current climate to find time for yourself to think strategically, there’s no denying that. But whether it be closing your door, working somewhere unexpected or putting up a “Do not disturb” sign, strategic-thinking time is not a luxury - it is essential for the running of the school.

Use this “protected time” to focus on strategy and, if you can, plan ahead for what you will do during this period.

I also recommend turning off all email notifications and letting others know that you are uncontactable unless it is an emergency. Doing this before lunchtime is often a good idea, as the morning rush passes and there is still time to deal with any child-protection issues should they arise.

Get everyone involved

As leaders, we sometimes feel solely responsible for driving strategy and making improvements when, in reality, this is not the case. A collective responsibility among all staff is developed by linking everything they do to the overarching strategy.

Ask yourself this: how often do you mention strategy to your team? Do you regularly discuss your strategic aims and your progress towards meeting them with all staff? Do you specifically link decisions and actions to your strategy and communicate this? It is more difficult in a virtual world, but continual discussion of strategy not only creates collective responsibility, but also keeps it front and centre in your own mind - and the minds of your staff.

Review, review, review

It is easy to have a strategic plan and then for it to be all but ignored until it comes to a formal milestone review. To avoid this happening, make strategy a standing item at leadership team meetings. By doing so, you are regularly having discussions about what strategic work leaders have engaged in each week and what progress has been made. By verbalising and discussing your progress towards a goal, the achievement of the goal is more likely.

Be adaptable

The current context in which we live has caused us to operate very differently in schools, with new ways of working quickly becoming normalised. This means sometimes you have to adapt and embrace “unintentional strategy”, which is, in essence, about finding ways of working that reflect what is happening now, but that support your strategic aim and help you to achieve it, too. For example, this could be using Oak National Academy resources from the previous year’s programme of study to support home learning or to make an individual intervention in school.

Just because these systems were not part of the original plan does not mean they are not as - if not more - effective. It’s not about changing your overall strategy, but evolving the way that you deliver it.

Use technology strategically

Remote working may seem to be a barrier to long-term strategy. For example, how can you strategically develop the quality of teaching and learning while in bubbles? However, there are many solutions to be found with the savvy use of technology: engaging staff in asynchronous CPD, observing lessons over Microsoft Teams, delivering small-group interventions remotely - the uses are wide and varied.

By embracing what technology has to offer, teaching and learning can be developed in a sustainable way and linked to your long-term strategic goals to benefit staff and students alike.

Ultimately, while no one would deny that there are barriers to maintaining a strategic mindset in the current context, we owe it to ourselves, our staff and our pupils to overcome them. After all, if we continue to focus solely on the operational aspects of school leadership, we run the risk of stagnating when, in fact, this is our moment to be thinking more strategically than ever before.

David Ellison is the executive principal of three primary schools in East London

This article originally appeared in the 22 January 2021 issue under the headline “Can your school strategy survive the firefight?”