In Spring 2020, schools in many countries had to close in response to the COVID-19 virus pandemic and move to remote teaching. This paper explores the views of pupils, parents/carers and teachers of ‘home-school’ in one Norwegian municipality, gathered through parallel online surveys in April 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown period. It finds that adaptation happened very quickly and that home-school was well received by pupils and parents. There was more creative learning, better progress, more useful feedback and greater student independence. School leaders reported that they wanted to implement changes based on the experience of remote learning enforced by the lockdown, so that the crisis has become an opportunity for grassroots innovation.

It is known that the work of headteachers is demanding. Observation, diaries and logs completed by headteachers show a relentless, complex and emotionally demanding workload. What can be learned about headship from how new headteachers spend their time, and perhaps as importantly, what can new headteachers themselves learn? This article draws upon data, including that derived from observation, from a small-scale qualitative study of new headteachers in large cities, funded by the English National College for School Leadership. It examines how headteachers spend their days, the challenges faced and the value of being observed. It argues that the learning about leaders and leadership from observation has been considerable. A new observational classification is outlined. An analysis of the headteachers' day provided insights into the things that mattered most, the challenges currently faced and how they were acting as learning-centred leaders. The other main form of learning from observation was for the research participants themselves. Gaining feedback and reflecting on their actions and use of time as school leaders was deemed to be very helpful. The article concludes by suggesting that being observed has the potential to be a powerful form of leadership development.

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Since September 1999, all Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in England who wish to teach in the maintained sector have to complete an induction period. In the light of the introduction of this statutory policy, this paper critically examines the key role of the school based induction tutor in managing the process. It draws upon an analysis of the government's induction circulars (DfEE/S 1999; and uses empirical data from a large, national DfES-funded project which evaluated the implementation of the policy. We argue that, for the majority of schools the work of the induction tutor within the whole school context, including management by the headteacher, is the major factor in the success of the policy. Further, we argue that there remain some tensions in the policy between the professional development and the assessment agenda.This paper addresses an aspect of school management of induction, namely the role of the induction tutor. The induction tutor's role was one area of investigation in a wider, national research project carried out at the Institute of Education between October 2000 and December 2001. There were four overarching aims of the project. These were to assess:1. The effectiveness of mechanisms for carrying out the induction of NQTs, including the cost effectiveness of its various different components. The effectiveness of dissemination of information by DfES, TTA and AppropriateBodies about the statutory arrangements. 3. The impact on the effectiveness of NQTs as a result of undergoing the induction year. 4. The impact on recruitment and retention of NQTs.The four research aims were broken down into 40 research objectives. Case studies comprising semi-structured interviews, fieldnotes and school-produced documents and questionnaire surveys were carried out. An NQT, an induction tutor and the headteacher in 24 state-maintained primary and secondary schools were interviewed twice -near the beginning and end of an induction period -to gain some insight into changes in practice and perspective over time. Appropriate Bodies in which the school case studies were to be located were initially selected by geographical diversity, i.e. urban/rural and by region. Telephone interviews with representatives from 18 Appropriate Bodies, (17 LEAs and the Independent Schools Council Teacher Induction Panel -ISCTIP) were conducted. The LEAs were chosen to represent a wide range of size and type of local authorities nationally, avoiding those undergoing inspection. Nine were then identified for the case studies, of which one subsequently dropped out. The eight Appropriate Bodies were asked to identify one school which they deemed to offer 'best practice' in induction provision. The researchers selected a further two case study schools, ensuring that at least one primary and one secondary school were seen within each Appropriate Body, and that the sample contained a range of characteristics overall, e.g. small, foundation, single sex etc. This data was complimented by a survey of 568 NQTs from the 1999-2000 and 2000-200...

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