For all of us this is a time of anxiety and uncertainty. There seem to be few silver linings to what can seem like an immovable storm cloud. But one meaningful thing we can do at this time is to think ahead, to start to shape a better future for the world after lockdown. 

In education, there will be (at least) two groups of people. For some, a return to school will be the chance to forget what they see as this horrendous, messy, unsatisfactory experiment in distance learning. For others, something more productive is starting to happen. People are asking – what meaning can I make from this situation? How can we learn from the crisis so that when we return things don’t just go back to ‘normal’, whatever that looked like, but are improved. 

Three questions may help shape this thinking. At our school we have often used keep, lose, introduce, as a way of giving precise, concise feedback. For example, after assemblies – ours are usually the length of a lesson and interactive – the person giving the assembly asks for the other teachers to gather round for just two or three minutes, in what we call ‘the huddle’ to give their view on what she should keep from the assembly, what should be lost, and what was missing or should be introduced. I, and others, have found this immensely helpful. 

In that spirit these three questions, ones I know many in the NHS are also asking, would seem to provide a good frame for reflection and learning.