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The times when no matter what a headteacher decides, they simply cannot win

Senior leadership
From curriculum choices to snow closures, school leaders often find themselves between a rock and a hard place when leading their schools, as our headteacher diarist has recently experienced.

Winter is not my favourite time of year. From November through until March I mentally tick off the weeks, spend many hours glued to the Met Office website, and the Countryfile weather forecast becomes an unmissable part of my Sunday night routine. This is all because of one thing – SNOW. 

The “to open or not to open” decision is probably the aspect of being a headteacher which I dread more than any other part of my job. For me the forecast of snow brings with it a sleepless night, rocketing stress levels, sky-high blood pressure and many phone calls at ungodly hours in the morning. This is also an occasion when, whatever decision is taken, one knows that there will be parents queueing up to criticise.

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