Leading a school during lockdown

Leading in difficult, challenging and unprecedented times – where there is no predictability, no certainty and potentially no end in sight - requires a different type of leadership, a different form of leadership practice. In this global lockdown, education has been rebooted as a home-based, technology-enabled, remote activity with zero physical contact. What we know about good teaching has suddenly been redefined and repositioned into lessons online. Some schools have morphed into places where children and young people, of varying ages, now play, learn and work together side by side during long days. School leadership has also been radically re-modelled through lockdown. What does the research say? While the evidence base on school leadership practices within a pandemic is non-existent, drawing upon the general leadership literature and the evidence about effective online collaboration offers some pointers, some ideas, some reflections for those currently leading in schools and