by Christalla Jamil @ChristallaJ

Are you sometimes a headteacher out of work too? I certainly am. Sometimes my husband says, “You’re not at work now darling.” Or my children, who are both adults, chuckle and add, “Oh there she goes again, Mum thinks she is our headteacher!” Yet both these examples are paired with an element of humour. Today, I was hurt, emotional, angry, disappointed, frustrated, powerless and instantly went into headteacher mode. What would I do if this happened at work mode?

by Dr Valerie Daniel @Valerie_JKD

As a black professional woman I am in this intersectional space of being somewhat respected by my peers whilst still being marginalised within the wider society. I say ‘somewhat’ respected because my entire journey here in England from 1989 until now has been fraught with ‘you are too passionate’; ‘you are very sensitive’; ‘I don’t mean to be offensive or anything but.......’ and my personal favourite ‘You have a chip on your shoulder’.

by Megan Brown @mbhistory

Anyone entering the teaching profession will have been asked the question ‘Why do you want to be a teacher?’.  You are almost guaranteed to get asked it at an interview for a place on a teacher training course, and it should be the easiest to answer. Yet, when I sat down to plan for my interview I found myself struggling to articulate one. This shouldn’t have been the case: I have wanted to be a teacher my whole life. I just couldn’t find the right words to express why.

by Sarah Creed @mrscreedmaths

As a relatively new user to twitter I found myself getting lost in all the useful information for teachers, with fantastic tips for teaching and leadership, I was starting to become overwhelmed by all the possibilities and then I stumbled across #WomenEd and their book club- @WomenEdBookClub. I knew this was something that was manageable with my time and set myself a June goal to read for half hour everyday allowing ample time to read the books being shared. The first book for me was Stop Talking About Wellbeing by Kat Howard - @SaysMiss.

by Tracy Goodyear @Miss_Goodyear

It’s 5pm on Friday 5th June and I’ve decided to stop and to just do some thinking. It’s all too easy at a time like this to just carry on, to take action, to plough on through until the bitter end. It’s far too easy to forget to take stock of where we’ve been, what we’ve achieved in these extraordinary times and to plan some next steps, knowing that the future seems so uncertain.

by Hannah Dalton, @Doddsyinit, and Kiran Mahil, Senior Leaders of schools in London.

With the phased return of pupils already underway in many primary schools, and with secondaries bringing Year 10 and 12 students back shortly, it seems timely to consider what the ‘new normal’ will be in schools. As you are only too aware, there are many matters to consider when planning and preparing the return to school for students and the wider school community.

by Cheryl Campbell  @CherylSBM    #SBLConnect #SBLTwitter

Lockdown being imposed on us back in March 2020 was the start of a new way of working. In my previous blog I talked about how I found that my view of lockdown went through a number of phases as I adjusted to the new challenges and ways of working. I’m in phase 4 now and have restructured my working processes to allow for the new norm. Things I thought I didn’t have time for before I now realise I can achieve with the help of virtual meetings.

By Claire Price   @claireprice1

These last few days have felt insurmountable.

Last Monday, on the 25th May 2020, the world witnessed the death of a black man at the hands of the police. Videos of the death of George Floyd circulated and we felt diminished and we felt angry.

On Tuesday, the government finally published their report into the impact of Covid-19 on health outcomes on BAME people in the UK. The report described the problem but failed to address why this may be the case. Given the huge disparity in deaths of health care professionals from a BAME background compared with their white colleagues, this seemed to be a staggering oversight.