Certainty in the Uncertain

I had been a school principal for the grand total of four months when the global pandemic hit. To say it was a wild ride is an understatement and a half!

Just like everyone in the world, I didn’t know what the future held. The information was changing on an hourly basis and people were wanting answers.

At school, our community ranged from those who thought the whole thing was a mountain made out of a molehill to those who only saw the mountain. People argued with me about whether or not this newly formed covid virus was real and others argued why wasn’t I taking it more seriously and closing the school immediately.

It was beyond exhausting, it was… frazzling!

No matter what I said or tried to say I had 50% of people with me and the other 50 against me. I was only just getting to know the staff and here I was barking orders around health and safety and changing the goal posts with every new message or update from the government.

Only recently did someone say to me that they see now that the way I was in my first year of being a principal was actually ‘Pandemic Anne-Marie’ and not ‘Real Anne-Marie’… it’s not hard to guess which one they like more!

As those harrowing days of 2020 turned into weeks, months and even years, I recognised that everyone wants the same thing - for someone to give them some feeling of certainty.

This was incredibly difficult as everything was so very far from certain - including people’s jobs, health and future.

I remember using my famous ‘post-it note system’ to write out everything I was certain about. If you don’t know about my post-it note system, in short, when things are getting out of hand I write everything I need to do on post-it notes and stick them on my desk. From there I move the post-its around to create categories or themes. Essentially, people know my brain is crowded when there is a mosaic of coloured paper squares on my desk!

I managed to write down everything I was certain about: kids would continue to be educated, our high quality learning and teaching would continue (don’t ask in what format but it would continue), people would be working, we would follow the directions of Qld Health, we would provide resources such as ipads or computers for those who didn’t have access to technology, we would do everything we could to keep people safe, we would be a support system for one another… square after coloured square filled with ideas and when I finished, I had a good 20 different ‘certainties’ about the uncertain future.

I managed to catergorise the notes into a few groups: learning and teaching, health and safety and system messages. There I had it - 3 themes to which I was certain.

This helped us to craft the days and week ahead. The structure of online learning, the support of staff, students and families, the health and safety of all in our community.

I still look back at that time as one in which I learnt more about leadership than any subject in my Masters degree.

Now that we are in a time and place beyond those challenging days of the pandemic, I still use the system of creating certainty in the uncertain.

Parents feel uncertainty when they send their child on camp - the certainty I can create? Showing the campsite, talking through the activities, being clear on risk assessments, safety and wellbeing and reminding parents that I will call if there is a problem.

Students feel uncertainty before a test in class or before their report comes out- the certainty I can create is reminding them that the test is only on the things that were taught in class and that the test results are feedback on what they have mastered and what they need to work on some more. The report card? That is a snapshot over the course of the semester. As I say to the students ‘You were there. You know how you went. You could probably write the grades you think you’ll receive on a piece of paper now and be completely accurate’.

Staff can feel nervous about their class for the following year - the certainty I can create is letting them send through a few choices of where they WOULD like to go and I do my best to fill their choices.

There is something that is quite comforting in reminding yourself of the certainties and it helps us manage the uncertainties. During the difficult times, those certainties can be what you focus on until the uncertainties take some shape and become something that we can recognise and feel more certain about.

Take a moment now to think of the certainties in your day or week ahead.

Focus on those as a source of stability and strength whilst you manage the unchartered waters of the upcoming week.

Anne-Marie