In March 2020, Alan Garnett, head teacher at North Primary School and Nursery in Colchester, decided to start a weekly column for a local paper chronicling the experiences of his school community as it responded to the pandemic. He ended up writing the diary for a whole year, and his articles have now been turned into a book, A Headteacher's Diary: Making it up as we go Along – Trying to lead a school through a pandemic.

In this episode, Alan shares some of his observations – talking honestly about how stressful it was reacting to last-minute announcements, and explaining why he wanted to tell the stories of “remarkable people doing remarkable things” during the pandemic, as they did in so many school communities across the country.

Click below, listen to the episode here or download and subscribe on your chosen podcast platform.