We hear about how C19 will affect experienced leaders and lead to a spike in early retirements/resignations. Also wonder how it will effect those new leaders whose key formative months and years has been endless crisis management. What kind of schools will they build after this?

I know it sounds trivial but I worry about it. And that means with regards my own leadership too. My first Headship has been two schools in deprived areas doing nothing but crisis management. It shapes you, even in ways you might not notice. And it's not a small matter.

It's important because what comes after this is not the same as what gets us through it. And the transition from one to the other might not be straightforward. There's a chance a generation of leaders need to grow through that transition, and get the support to do that.

Or put another way, if leadership is often the things you don't know you're doing, then the last year will have ingrained habits, responses, anxieties, temperaments and protective traits which won't just disappear with the arrival of a vaccine. It will shape our schools.

I suppose there's a point in there for me to reflect on about my own pathway, or limitations. But the real worry is what we do when we don't have enough leaders - already happening - and the ones we do have are busted up and desperately need put back together.

If we don't, it will shape the kind of places our schools become. And all the political tinkering in the world won't change that.