Coming Back Stronger.

There is a fascinating Think Piece written by Christine Gilbert, titled ‘Coming Back Stronger: Leadership Matters’. In the article she considers what research shows us about the impact of the pandemic, sounding a hopeful and ambitious note about the potential of schools to drive a better future for young people.

Gilbert begins with a direct assertion that children do not have the luxury of waiting for solutions to the impact of the pandemic. It seems to me that this truism underlines why good research has to be a collaboration between academics and practitioners, working in real time to both explore issues and develop the capacity to improve them. She asserts that there are five leadership opportunities for creating a better future for children and schools: rooting schools at the heart of their communities, tackling growing inequalities, harnessing the power of technology, preparing children better for life and learning, and strengthening capacity through collaboration.? Clearly this kind of ambitious agenda is beyond the capacity of any one school or even MAT.

It is an interesting choice that rooting schools at the heart of their communities is the first leadership opportunity that Gilbert explores.? Perhaps in this respect the school becomes a potential antidote to the impact of the uncertainties created by Covid disruption, as well as the existential anxieties provoked by the climate crisis and the adverse consequences of social media. One aspect of the Think Piece that I would contest comes when, as an illustration of the proposal that families have greater autonomy in the targeting of resources, the article suggests this would enable them to, for example, buy additional tutor time through the National Tutoring Programme.? This is one of the few direct proposals in a lofty section of the article. I feel that the NTP can hardly be held up as an effective or cost efficient intervention at approximately ￡1387 per child registered in 2020/21 with very little for the DfE to show for impact. The issues here are deep rooted economic inequalities and one may question whether schools can be more than a sticking plaster.

The fourth leadership opportunity is defined as ‘Preparing children better for life and learning’. It makes a plea for an end to ‘an unproductive culture of high stakes accountability’.? This would appear to necessitate considerably more than a reform of testing and examinations? given that the data generated by that accountability process also drives Ofsted grading and performance management.

Throughout the Think Piece there is a theme of the necessity of professional engagement in research and collaboration to build capacity.? As such the article would be a thought provoking topic for professional dialogue at every level from ECT to executive principal.