Wellbeing of students and staff was the main focus of principals recently interviewed about their experiences of leading their secondary schools through the first COVID-19 lockdown.

Eighteen principals from a diverse range of secondary schools throughout New Zealand were interviewed about the challenges they faced, the ways they communicated, the innovations and opportunities resulting from online learning, and the leadership lessons learned.

The overall approach of many was summed up by one principal: “We were trying to get not too worried about lesson plans and the symbolism was let’s just get our kids positive and feeling good.

“Let’s look after our staff so they feel all right and are actually quite happy to get online. And more importantly, when the school opens, let’s make them want to come back. They were incredible success indicators. The other stuff will take care of itself.

“Twelve and a half percent loss of learning time for the seniors in the scheme of a lifetime of 80 years, is that really critical? Of course it’s not.”

This approach seems to have carried through to schools in Auckland experiencing a second lockdown.

Claire Amos, principal of Albany Senior High School, commented on Morning Report last week that “we’ve got to be realistic, you know, our young people have a lifetime of learning ahead of them. And actually it’s really important that our schools and school leaders learn how to operate in these remote environments”.

The interviews with the 18 principals suggest many schools have learned from their experience of the first lockdown and are well placed to balance the wellbeing and learning of their students going forward.

All expressed concern for student and staff wellbeing as they prepared for the first lockdown, and most had to work rapidly to distribute school devices to students to facilitate learning from home, as well as to support staff who may have had family responsibilities and/or little experience of online teaching and learning.

Overwhelmingly, the principals responded with empathy and focused on the wellbeing of both students and staff throughout the time schools were closed.

Consistent, clear, calm and supportive messaging was seen as important and principals used multiple media channels, including school websites, email, Facebook, Zoom, Google tools and Instagram to connect with their communities.

A number of principals realised students don’t respond well to multiple emails and prefer video messages and Instagram over Facebook.

Many involved student leaders in their communications, particularly in video messaging, resulting in a greater level of confidence around connecting with students.

Families and whānau were kept informed and responded positively to the efforts schools made to connect and inform, illustrating the important role schools play in many communities.

Feedback was gathered from staff, students and families in various ways and used to modify communication and online learning approaches.

A majority of schools had regular personal phone communication with students, particularly if there were concerns about internet access. For many, the lack of devices was more problematic than expected, as students had to some extent concealed their lack of connectivity. This raised equity issues not addressed in the first instance because of the delay of the promised distribution of laptops by the Ministry of Education.

Principals of low-decile schools are now celebrating that for the first time their “kids are getting more of a level playing field” due to the eventual rollout.

Many schools were also involved in distributing food parcels to the vulnerable families and connecting with other social agencies, reinforcing the role of schools as social institutions.

Principals demonstrated empathy for the challenges staff were facing, particularly those who may have been vulnerable or caring for vulnerable others.

Messages such as “stay safe, look after yourself, look after your family and do what you can in terms of online learning” and “if in doubt go for kindness and humanity rather than efficiency” reinforced this was an unprecedented situation and individual allowances needed to be made.

Similar messages were also sent when students returned to school having engaged in varying amounts of school work.

One principal told her students who may have been worried about the amount of work they had completed: “Don’t worry about the work you didn’t do, you all did the one thing that we were asked to do, stay home and stay safe, and you did that and that’s why we can come back to school”.

Associate Professor Kate Thornton is in the School of Education at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.

Read the original article on Newsroom.