This weekend, around the country there will be school staff and school leaders who are burying themselves away from the world and especially the online universe. Their school will have hit the press for an incident, or a policy, or something that fuels clicks now these are the metrics that measure journalistic success. Hopefully the leader will receive support from their Trust, governors, colleagues, peers and friends. Someone will undoubtedly tell them that it’s not personal, it’s not them under attack and that today’s headlines are tomorrow’s internet archive.
Yet there is a loyalty, a love, that leaders intrinsically have for their schools. Negative attention can inspire anxiety about your job, your career but over that lonely weekend the hardest emotion to combat is that you’ve let down those you are dedicated to. Young people will make mistakes and occasionally behave in shocking ways. We cannot be accountable for all their actions – especially outside of school. But we carry the weight of their errors like a parent, reflecting on how we could have made things better or different and this worry solidifies in your soul as guilt. We think of our colleagues who support us every day, inspire us and stand by us and we want to deflect any negativity from them as they don’t deserve it and we know that in their own families and friendships they will be asked about the headlines and WhatsApp whispers that make clear everyone’s picked up on the tale.
