Best Practice

The virtual staffroom: Morale and engagement during lockdown

Whole-school issues Senior leadership Staff wellbeing Mental health Coronavirus
During lockdown, we must not neglect staff morale and wellbeing. Denise Barrows looks at how school leaders can deepen trust and connections with and between staff. She considers our one-to-one interactions and how to build a virtual staffroom environment

Schools across the country have seen extraordinary levels of commitment from staff as they have rapidly reconfigured the way that they operate and put in place systems to support their students during the coronavirus outbreak.

However, ensuring staff can sustain realistic levels of engagement and productivity for the longer-term, when many are now working remotely, presents some key leadership challenges.

Much remote working advice has been shared over recent weeks, emphasising helpful strategies for maintaining personal interaction – through virtual meetings and collaborations, check-in calls, buddy groups, and virtual coffee breaks, for example.

At a time when many of us are feeling heightened levels of vulnerability, it is helpful to approach our conversations and plan our interactions with staff with the explicit intention of strengthening our human-to-human connection.

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