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School & trust leaders

The Gathering Storm - your leader needs you

Governing Matters
01/09/2022
Illustration of people in boat

The challenges school leaders have faced over the last few years are stark; these were explored in the second of NGA’s summer seminars – The Leadership Challenge.

1. Loyal leadership

The loyalty and tenacity of senior leaders has been widely praised by governors and trustees for the way they weathered the storm during COVID. Various sources indicate that the majority of leaders wished to stay at their school to lead the charge and steer their communities and schools through the turmoil. However, now the immediate impact of the virus has begun to dissipate, although of course not entirely, there is a growing speculation that more leaders are looking to leave the profession.

''Although problems are not exclusively down to the pandemic, it had clearly added pressure: pre-pandemic, 14% of senior leaders – around 3,000 – had already identified that they were working with undue stress and anxiety beyond their ability to cope, but during the pandemic this spiked to 48%.

James Pope, Heads Up for Headteachers

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