The meeting you didn’t expect. The parent in crisis. The safeguarding concern that can’t wait.

For many school leaders, these aren’t interruptions to the day; they are the day.

In this Leadership Focus article, we explore the growing burden of school leaders’ ‘invisible workload’: the emotional labour, crisis management and unplanned responsibilities that rarely appear in job descriptions but consume time, energy and headspace.

You’ll hear from school leaders who describe:                

• Days that rarely go to plan, no matter how carefully they’re organised
• The emotional toll of supporting pupils, parents and staff through difficult situations
• The challenge of ever-increasing demands from systems and services beyond the school gate.                

These tasks may not be written down anywhere, but in many ways, they have become the job.

This feature shines a light on an often-overlooked part of school leadership and asks an important question: who supports the people who support everyone else?