NQT experiences in the pandemic and what it might tell us about leadership

In the summer of 2020, we were lucky enough to be successful in bidding for some funding from the British Academy to explore how the newly qualified teachers (NQTs) starting in September 2020 are experiencing their first year of teaching given that their training had been so badly disrupted during the first COVID-19 lockdown. This is ongoing research which will continue to collect data until later this summer (2021). However, the results from our mixed methods research are already beginning to give us useful insights, and not merely in looking at NQT experiences, but in the apparent changes in schools more generally because of these exceptional circumstances.