Coping through the unknown: School staff wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic

•School staff experienced a range of emotions during remote learning.•Anxiety, guilt and frustration were present for school staff during 2020.•School staff varied the way they coped during remote learning.•Both problem focussed and emotion focussed coping strategies were used. Approximately one quarter of all teachers experience feelings of stress throughout their careers, for many this leads to emotional exhaustion and burnout. In this article we present a case study that explores the wellbeing of three teaching staff from an Australian Primary School, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping devised by Lazarus and Folkman was used as the framework to interpret this group of experiences. The findings indicated that the additional stress induced by fear of the ‘unknown’ imposed by the pandemic further intensified the emotional toll experienced by participants. These emotional responses included feelings of guilt about their providing the best education for students, anxiety about the unknown implications on schooling and frustration at the lack of communication and inconsistent decision making by people holding leadership positions. Despite this, these teaching staff shared many positive strategies for coping and grow through the experience.