Rachel and Mick have been conducting an exploratory project investigating how teachers individually and in subject/year group teams, and schools as communities of practice, have been managing modifying their approaches to the curriculum and assessment, in response to COVID-19.

We began by seeking teachers’ and senior leaders’ views about the process of assessing students’ progress, following the disruption caused by COVID-19, and with ongoing uncertainty about external examinations, curriculum changes, and further potential disruption in individual schools. In particular, we wanted to understand more about whether and how teachers and schools were adapting their approaches and practices to the new context, and to identify good practice which could be shared across our education system.

As the research progressed, we found that teachers and senior leaders expanded the conversation way beyond curriculum and assessment, moving into territory which illustrated how much more there is to tell about what happened in schools during the pandemic. We are now writing a series of blogs and short reports about a number of aspects of our findings.