Key Voices #110 - School leadership, social media and pandemic parenting with Dr Victoria Carr

Key Voices

This week we talk to Dr. Victoria Carr, Headteacher at Woodlands Primary School. Victoria tells us about her current role, as well as her previous diverse teaching experiences, and how she balances work and study with being a parent and an army reservist. We also talk about some of the issues around using social media as a school leader and her thoughts about what might change as a result of the pandemic.

We talk about:

• Victoria’s current school, its improvement journey and her recent experience of Ofsted
• The fascinating career journey Victoria has been on, including stints setting up a school in Kenya and teaching soldiers in Germany
• The academic study Victoria has done alongside her job and how she balances a demanding school leadership role with significant external commitments and being a single parent to two teenage children
• The relationship Victoria has with her governing body
• Victoria’s thoughts on how schools can flex to support teacher parents
• Victoria’s experiences of the opportunities and challenges of engaging with social media as a headteacher
• How connection and collaboration via social media can be really helpful
• Why Victoria chooses to share aspects of her work and life on social media
• What Victoria thinks might change as a result of the pandemic

The TED Talk that Victoria gave on the power of language can be found here