How do you unite a school community that’s spread across home and school learning environments, while also trying to navigate the many other challenges of phased school re-openings? This is yet another riddle that school staff have been faced with this week, but one that they’ve been solving with the same steely determination that’s gotten them through the pandemic so far. 

With that in mind, here are some top tips and examples of how you can bring together a divided school community, at a time where togetherness has never been more needed:

There’s been a lot of speculation over the last few weeks about whether or not schools should reopen in June, and what a return to ‘normal’ might look like. While we now know that some schools will take a phased approach to reopening, leaders still remain in the dark on a number of important specifics, making it impossible to plan one week to the next. 

Despite the challenges, school staff have gone above and beyond and education leaders have done a remarkable job of keeping things running - remaining one of the few constants holding communities across the country together. 

You only have to go as far as your social media pages to see how much momentum #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek is getting at the minute, and it’s not really surprising. 

The lockdown is forcing us all to live and work in unconventional, confined, and in some cases life-changing, circumstances right now.  

And with increased recognition of these challenges - particularly within the education sector, school leaders are being directed to free guidance on how best to support staff wellbeing in places that they didn’t even know to look. In that vein, I wanted to share some of the best tools and practical tips that I’ve seen from across the sector...

Imagine if someone said to you at the beginning of the year: “In a couple of months you need to be ready to deliver remote learning to the majority of your pupils because the country will be on lockdown due to a global pandemic.” I’m guessing you would either laugh, cry or head to the nearest bar. (Remember those?)