Leading school learning through COVID-19 and beyond: online learning and strategic planning through and post lockdown in English secondary schools

Covid 19 has presented unprecedented challenge to school leaders in England: challenge that intensifies as pupils return to full time schooling. The UK government has issued warnings that schools will close if two or more cases of the virus appear within a fortnight and that schools must offer,'a high standard of remote/blended learning' (DfE, 020720). During the lockdown schools developed online learning strategies, but to date there is little or no knowledge of how these strategies have been led and managed or how they have /or will address the needs of disadvantaged pupils, who are recognised to be disproportionately impacted by school closures. This project takes a three stage mixed methods approach to investigate how school leaders at three levels; head teacher (or CEO), heads of curriculum planning and heads of department, in state secondary schools in England, are strategically planning for the management of online learning over the next 2 years, and how this builds on current practices. Using a case study approach based in 20 schools, the project uses an adaptation of Puntedura's model of differing degrees of technology integration to establish what level of online provision is being offered at present and what plans schools have for the next 2 years (Puentedura, 2012) These are : L1 - Substitution- technologies are used passively to support teaching; L2 - augmentation - traditional pedagogies are adapted for online use; L3 - Modification-strategic thought is given to the design of online learning and enhancements that add value to online teaching are implemented in order to improve learner performance; L4 - strategic planning for design of online offerings linking to whole school/ department approaches in online learning. As such, the project will offer unique insights into the short and medium term planning for online learning.