**Abstract**

The history of the Covid 19 pandemic and its impact across the world is currently in writing. This chapter focuses on the impact of primary school closures in the Irish context on Principal and Teacher well-being, and specifically on self-care practices that participants engaged in during the extended period of school closures. Findings of a small-scale study undertaken with 12 primary school teachers and 10 principals are reported upon. A mixed-methods study with a qualitative research focus was undertaken. There were 2 phases to the study: Phase 1 was undertaken in June 2020 and phase 2 was completed in December 2020 when participants had returned to school. At each phase the participants completed a semi-structured interview via the online platform Zoom and they also completed 2 questionnaires; the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ ) and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory adapted for teachers (CBI). The research findings in particular highlight how the pandemic provided an opportunity to very busy principals and teachers to address their well-being. The article highlights in particular how self-care is so important for a profession that is demanding and the challenges in finding the balance between the demands of the profession and sustaining personal well-being through self-care practices.

**Keywords:** Covid 19, subjective well-being, self-care, teacher care, burnout
