EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet with Steve Bladon, headteacher at Horncastle Primary School, a large 3-form entry school in Lincolnshire. Steve talks about his background in education and his route into teaching from undertaking an NVQ after leaving school and, at the same time, working as a teaching assistant before moving into teacher training at what is now the University of Cumbria. After gaining his degree, Steve worked as a reception teacher before becoming Early Years and Foundation Stage leader, then assistant headteacher and headteacher during his time at several schools in Lancashire. He relocated over to Lincolnshire and took over the headship at Horncastle Primary School. Throughout the episode, Steve discusses the challenges that he and all school leaders have faced over the last two terms with schools closing to most pupils and, more recently, the seemingly ever-changing and sometimes contradictory government guidance on returning to full-time schooling for all children. As a part of this, Steve talks about his recent open letter to Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary at the time of recording and how his school is preparing for the start of the new academic year in a time of significant educational upheaval. Steve shares his thoughts on the many complications and concerns around reopening schools in a time of a global pandemic and what steps he and his staff are taking to keep everyone as safe as possible.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Do what will work best for your school based on what you know. Remember that guidance is written by civil servants – many of whom will probably not be educationalists or have any significant experience in the field. Every school is unique and the staff are best placed to know what will work best for them and their setting. It is also important to remember that these documents are guidance and very little is statutory. Make bespoke plans for your school that are workable using your judgement, common sense, your collective experience and the knowledge you have of your community. For example, taking the temperatures of children regularly in some schools might be practicable and a reasonable measure in some places, but not necessarily workable or necessary in other settings. Expect unpredictable complications and changes of plan. Ultimately, everyone will have to start somewhere with plans for reopening. Even well thought out plans and the best preparation can unexpectedly come unstuck when put into practice. This isn’t necessarily reflective of a shortcoming of the planning process, more a reality that what transpires in action cannot always be foreseen. It’s important to be flexible and not be afraid to start again or rethink things if you’re not totally happy with them or if they can be improved. This is an ideal time for creativity and rethinking approaches. The upheaval and changes to our lives and ways of working brought about by the pandemic does actually provide a useful time for schools to rethink the status quo. School routines and ways of working – which for many will have been unchanged for a long time – could now be re-examined as we begin to return. An example is assemblies which, for almost all schools, involve a time consuming process of moving the whole school to a single room. From September, doing this would be almost impossible as it would involve bringing a large group of people and ‘bubbles’ together. However, time can be saved here with doing assemblies remotely into classrooms, creating videos or materials or discussing a common message.   BEST MOMENTS “I'm thinking rationally, by the end of September and early October, we'll be in a situation where some children are ill and we've got to make a decision. Are they ill with something which is a potential risk which is too serious to ignore? Or are their symptoms something else which, actually, we've got to live with going forward? Because to stop school for every cough, temperature and potential case of COVID-19 could be really problematic.” “That's where we've got to with schools because on the one hand schools have been tasked with reopening. But on the other hand, it's not really business as usual. It's everybody in, but there's this whole load of 'what if' questions.” “It's about being dynamic. You can have protocols and plans and theories and you can have opinions. But what you've got to do is be able to adapt and change and see what happens and then see what's workable.” “I believe that education is the most important profession in a civilised society. Things like dropping guidance on a Friday night, or in the middle of the night, or on a Bank Holiday Monday. That's not the way to treat a profession.” “Our profession has been saying for months, 'Please can we have the guidance. What's plan B?'… I can't think of an excuse for things not being done more timely.” “Part of my job this year has been to try and reassure parents. Even when sometimes that's been an impossible job because we're trying to reassure people about things that we're not always certain about ourselves.” “I think communication has been really important in my school in lockdown.” “I can't use the term ‘COVID secure’ because I think that's a misnomer.” “Things will keep changing, and goodness knows how long we're in this for. I think we reserve the right to change what we're doing, and to change our minds and to change our schools to keep them as safe as possible.” “In twenty-one years in schools, whether I've been an NQT or an experienced teacher or a key stage leader or a head, it doesn't matter whether you work in a town, or a city or a rural place, it's a hard job and it's a time consuming job. I don't think we should ever pretend we can make it really easy or a lot less time consuming. I think it just could be different.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Steve Bladon’s open letter to Gavin Williamson: https://stevebheadteacher.wordpress.com/2020/08/29/a-letter-to-gavin-williamson/ Steve Bladon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bladon_steve Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

The Teachers' Podcast

BONUS: Steve Bladon (Head at Horncastle Primary School): September with the DfE Guidance

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Clair talks to Alistair Bryce-Clegg, a former headteacher and now founder of 'ABC Does', a consultancy company that delivers training promoting the importance and power of play-based learning. Alistair talks about the significance of play-based learning in Early Years settings and Year 1, as well as how it helps children develop cognitively, academically and socially. He starts by explaining his teaching journey and how his family of teachers inspired him to take the same career path. He offers advice and guidance from his experience of working with Early Years practitioners in a range of settings including child-minders, day nurseries, schools, academies and home educators from around the world. Over the past eleven years he has developed his consultancy by offering training and conferences, in addition to support in the classroom setting. Alistair also speaks about how teachers should support children in the upcoming academic year after such a long period of time away from school due to the pandemic.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Early Years to Year 1 transition Alistair talks about how empowered children are when they leave Reception as they can choose their own tasks, resources, make their own snacks etc. However, often when they go into Year 1, it suddenly becomes adult-focused teaching followed by tabletop activities. He talks about the importance of continuing this play-based and investigative learning for children’s development and the association it has with progress and attainment. Play-based learning Alistair talks about the importance of play-based learning and the impact it has on children’s development. He talks in detail about how it supports pupils’ learning and cognitive development. Pupils can develop skills that cannot always be achieved through adult-focused teaching. He also speaks about how the assessment of this can be done by teachers, for example, if they should observe or if they should develop pupils’ understanding through questioning. Child-led learning approach Alistair talks in detail about how he led his school as a deputy and headteacher to foster a child-led learning approach. He talks about his journey including the successes and mistakes and what he has learnt from them. He talks about how he worked as a team with his staff to ensure they are delivering the best approach and teaching to the children’s’ needs. Pressures of Year 1 As a consultant, Alistair considers the pressures Year 1 teachers face such as the phonics screening test and ensuring children’s attainment is high as they work towards the end of Key Stage 1 tests. He underlines the importance of adapting and fostering a play-based learning approach in Early Years and Year 1 to support children’s cognitive development and attainment. Play-based learning catering for all abilities Alistair highlights the significance of ensuring play-based learning is set out correctly. He believes that, regardless of a child’s ability, if the play-based learning is rigorous enough, it can meet the needs of a disengaged learner and a more able learner. Role play area When creating and designing role play areas, it is vital to understand the purpose of the display. Alistair talks about understanding the aim behind putting up a display and how it will help the children’s development. Teachers should think about the experiences children will have, and the skills they want children to develop, from the display or area. The conventional displays and resources should be avoided such as a sand tray if it serves no purpose towards the children’s learning and development. Taking your time to understand pupils Given the current situation, Alistair emphasises the importance of teachers taking their time getting to know their pupils and supporting their wellbeing. He is encouraging teachers to ensure children’s wellbeing is their first priority, especially during the current circumstances with the coronavirus. He believes if the primary focus is not on children’s wellbeing, the battle for this will continue throughout the coming year. If children feel supported and safe, they will be able to progress faster cognitively and in terms of their maturity. It is essential that the play-based learning approach offers open and ambiguous provision as well as focused learning that can be related to topic work. Going forward Alistair believes children should be given ample opportunities for talk to help the transition into the new academic year as well as allowing children the opportunity to talk about their experience during the pandemic. Children should be provided with the opportunity to explore through continuous provision and play-based learning.   BEST MOMENTS “[The placement teacher] single-handedly made me love early years in the period of a nine-week placement.” “She just worked magic with [the early years children] to the point where she had them literally eating out the palm of her hands, because she understood them, and they loved her.” “By the end of that placement, I got to a point where I thought, ‘no this is where I want to be’, because when I began to see the skill that was involved in it, and also appreciate that, actually, it’s not the end of the primary learning journey where the important learning happens, it’s the beginning bit. If you get that wrong, you are making it harder for every teacher that comes after you.” “So you have a responsibility to get it right in Early Years because you are creating these curious, critical thinkers who want to investigate and explore and be resilient and have an opinion and be independent. All of those things are in our power in Early years.” “All of that huge independence and creativity is not utilised and, because they don’t utilise it, they forget it and stop doing it. So how this really powerful play-based transition from Reception to Year 1, for me, if it’s done well, the attainment that those children achieve or the progress they achieve is always significantly better.” “High level engagement has got a direct correlation to high level achievement and attainment. So, if you can keep their engagement high, then you have the potential to get a really good achievement. If anything is going to keep their engagement high, play and investigative learning as opposed to a very last-century chalk-and-talk activity.” “One of the reasons why I love Early Years is because you get to teach a lot. You’re not just delivering, you are teaching.” “We really evaluated practice, trying to discuss and really drill what we meant by child-based learning. We kept saying we have fostered a child-led learning approach, but if you said to the team, me included, can you actually articulate what do you mean by child-led learning it was a really difficult thing for us to explain.” “The internet makes the world so much of a small place. You get to share with an eclectic range of people who have different views and ideas and opinions. You can take all that in and that, ultimately, improves your practice.” “Just have twenty minutes in a reception or nursery class and you’ll feel great.” “Play is an effective vehicle for learning. It’s not something you do before the learning starts or after the learning has finished. It’s not a holding space waiting for an adult coming to teach you something and it’s not what you go on to to keep you busy while I’m teaching somebody else. It’s acknowledging that ‘A’, developmentally children learn way better through play-based approach if there is rigour in your play. And ‘B’, play brings a high-level of engagement which links directly to high level of attainment. “This environment that I have created based on observation and assessment is going to engage these children in discovery-based learning. It’s going to keep them inquisitive. It’s going to keep them in the moment.” “If your provision is rigorous enough, if you’ve got challenge in play, that 5-year-old who’s progressed well down their learning journey should flourish even better because play is encouraging creative critical thinking, resilience, independence, social interaction, plan, execute. All of those things you don’t get to do with a worksheet.” “Behaviour is never the child. Behaviour is always a symptom of something a child is trying to process or articulate but can’t.” “Wellbeing has to be at the very top of everyone’s list always.” “Children don’t articulate in an obvious way. A lot of the time they will articulate in a very abstract way.” “The pedagogy for play-based learning has to stay because it’s developmentally appropriate.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES ABC Does: https://abcdoes.com/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Alistair Bryce-Clegg (Founder of ABC Does): Play-based learning in schools

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet with Bryn Llewellyn, founder of Tagtiv8, a company which specialises in creating resources to enable pupils to learn through physical activity. Bryn talks with Claire about his background in education: from growing up in South Shields close to the coast and developing an interest in environmental issues, to gaining a degree and working in an urban studies centre in Newcastle, to then becoming a teacher and deputy headteacher in Bradford. Bryn discusses how his work in school led him, eventually, to develop his company Tagtiv8 after he found that what he was being asked to do as a teacher was conflicting with his core values. Bryn talks about how Tagtiv8 aims to promote the benefits of physical and active learning and how this way of teaching can be useful for developing and enhancing pupils' learning across the curriculum.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Take learning beyond the classroom. Along with a number of studies, evidence from research shows that physical activity has proven benefits within teaching including increasing pupils’ engagement with their learning and enabling them to absorb and retain more of what is taught. Learning which takes place away from the classroom, and involves movement and exercise, is not only fun and exciting for children but also contributes to developing levels of fitness. Bring active learning into other lessons in addition to Physical Education. With statistics reported to show that 4 out of 5 children in westernised countries are not getting enough physical activity, increasing periods of physical activity in schools can only be beneficial. Active learning, implemented in addition to the usual PE lessons, can be incredibly useful in enhancing learning in a wide range of subjects such as maths, history and science along with other areas. Giving children some ownership of activities can boost their engagement. With any active learning games or physical activities teachers bring into their lessons, allowing children to develop and adapt them or design their own variants can bring out creative discussions and problem solving skills which in turn promote engagement and interest. Physical learning alongside social distancing. Although current guidance seems to indicate that social distancing in primary schools is less of a concern than previously thought, some schools might wish to maintain some of these measures. Where this is the case, physically active lessons can be adapted to account for this. There are a number of non-contact activities teachers could use and Tagtiv8 have a pack of suggested activities such as orienteering-style games and tree-tag. Teachers can also combine the daily mile with other subjects by incorporating things such as times tables or key vocabulary. Dance and yoga are also good physical activities which can be done in a socially distanced way in schools.   BEST MOMENTS “When I was a teacher and a deputy headteacher, I loved it, but I was aware of the fact that a lot of the things I was being asked to do were against my core values.” “With the education system in the way it was at that particular time, I thought 'it's not going to change', so let's think of a way of changing it; not necessarily from within, but maybe chipping away from the outside.” “I think, sometimes, when you take the learning out of the classroom, beyond the classroom walls, learning takes place in a different way completely.” “My big concern is that many schools will look toward the daily mile. But if you force the children to do a daily distance... it's happened with the daily mile in terms of it becomes the once-in-a-while mile or the-occasional-mile. If I had to run every day, at certain time, come rain or shine, I'd get well hacked off with that.” “I think that the young lady that's doing everything so well at the moment is Greta Thunberg. I think you've got more and more children looking towards her. In primary too, not just older children, but primary as well. And the amount of times I go into schools and you see displays on the wall to do with oceans and plastic and things like that, I think there's a naturalness in a lot of children that we need to start thinking and doing more for the environment.” “I think teachers need to realise that it's okay to make mistakes. You'll try something and it doesn't work so then, so what? It didn't work. At least you've tried.” “If you have chances for the children to give you feedback on 'what is it like to learn' and then, sometimes, in terms of 'can you see your own teaching through the eyes of the learner that you're trying to teach', then that gives you a genuine chance to reflect.” “If teachers and school leaders were allowed to get on with the job, if they were trusted in the way that the Finnish government ministers trust their teachers, and other countries trust their teachers, and don't use education as a political pawn, we'd have a far better workforce and we'd have far happier children.” “It would be gorgeous to think if certain people within the powers-that-be could just sit back and reflect and think, 'is everything we've done the past 10 to 12 years the right thing?'”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Tagtiv8 website: https://tagtiv8.com/ TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tARSCzHLF5g Juliet Robertson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Juliet-Robertson/e/B009RU4MJO/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Bryn Llewellyn (Founder of Tagtiv8): The benefits of active learning in schools

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet with Dr Victoria Carr, headteacher at Woodlands Primary School in Ellesmere Port. Victoria discusses how her difficult and sometimes distressing childhood meant that she would spend a lot of time reading and learning on her own before she even started at school. This head-start gave her a good grounding and the words of her reception teacher, ‘this girl is university material’, stuck with her and motivated her throughout her educational journey. Although she had (and still has) a keen interest in the military – in particular a desire to fly Chinook helicopters – Victoria moved into teaching and leadership with an ambition to motivate and inspire children and her staff to seek and fulfil their dreams. Victoria discusses the challenges of leadership in this period of disruption within education, how she supports the pupils and staff in her school, and how the coronavirus has led to her having to be more creative with the latest round of recruitment. She also shares how she strives to help, support and motivate others to be the best they can having learned from her own experiences and seen through her own life what the power of words can achieve.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Words really can have a long-lasting impact. Victoria talks about how just five words from her reception class teacher, and the implicit belief about what was entirely possible in her future, have stuck with her and helped motivate her throughout her life. Victoria talks about how being where she is today is proof that teachers and those involved in education really do shape lives and that what we say to children absolutely matters. Develop teams with critical thinking. Building a culture where people are actively encouraged to constructively question and challenge decisions and the way things work means that a team will always be growing and developing. As well as this, the team members themselves will be growing and developing personally and professionally too. Sticking to the status quo can sometimes be the best course of action, but if nobody is questioning it, nothing will improve where gains could, perhaps, be made. Invest in everyone. Creating opportunities for everyone - not just teachers - to develop both personally and professionally is an investment in that person which can realise potentially significant benefits both for them, the team and, ultimately, the organisation as a whole. Do what’s best for you and your school. Often, those who develop and implement policies in government are not best placed to have an understanding of the impact of the policy at a ‘ground level’, or an appreciation of how different each individual school can be. Leaders, now more than ever before, can find themselves having to make difficult decisions. However, taking a course of action that you know is best, even if it might be a tough one, will usually always be the right thing to do.   BEST MOMENTS “I became a teacher and I've been teaching now 23 years and it is a job that I absolutely love. All of the amazing people I've met through that journey and the things I've done, I don't regret any of that now. I do wonder how my life would have been if I'd been a pilot...” “I have this philosophy… that when I'm an old lady - hopefully I'll live to become a really, really old lady when I'm 90 - that I'll be able to look back and think that I was lucky enough to seize every opportunity that came my way, that I've got no regrets and that I can truly say I've lived my life and that I've touched lives as I've gone through in a positive way.” “I know that the teacher who said to my mum and my nan when I was five that I was ‘university material’ did change the direction of my life because, before that, nobody in my family had ever thought about university. It was just never a thing.” “Back in the 70s, everybody respected the teaching profession. They were well respected. So my grandparents were of an era that teachers were utterly respected.” “Now that I'm a head, I try to make sure that everything I say to the children in our school is personalised and positive and in some way transformational both to their parents and their children.” “I wouldn't want to lead ninety-odd people who are just doing my bidding. I want them to actively challenge me because I want to be the best I can be and I want to model that. It can be a really collaborative thing that everybody does and that way we get the best out of everyone.” “I don't just invest time in teachers. I think you should invest time in people because they are my team and I really want them to feel fulfilled and challenged. I think it just empowers your team.” “If you can help someone, even in a small way, to realise their dreams then is there anything better? I don't know if there's any better thing than helping people to effect their dreams or their passions in life.” “We'll just be adaptable. Because one thing's for certain: in my leadership journey of eight years, I do know and, in fact, in my life if I'm honest with you, you just have to adapt. If you want to survive with your marbles, you just need to adapt.”     VALUABLE RESOURCES The Power of Language – TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/victoria_carr_the_power_of_language_everyday_heroes Victoria Carr – Twitter: https://twitter.com/headofwoodlands Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Dr Victoria Carr (Headteacher at Woodlands Primary School): How one headteacher is coping with partial reopening.

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet with David Sherriff, headteacher at Lawton St. Mary’s CE Primary School in Warrington. David talks about his journey in education and teaching including how, from a young age, he always knew that he wanted to be a teacher. Starting in year 4, David soon moved to teaching year 6 and, as well as leading maths in his school, was also given responsibility for leading all of Key Stage 2. After ten years, David decided to move to a different school where he became deputy headteacher and is now headteacher of his own school. As we are, at the time of recording, seeing schools begin to open to more pupils following the coronavirus restrictions, David discusses what his school is doing to minimise the risks while trying to make sure that children and staff are as safe as possible. He shares his thoughts on the importance of teamwork, communication and how vital it is that everyone at all levels support each other. He also talks about personalising learning for the children and the challenges of organising provision for both the children who are in school and those who are still at home.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Teamwork and communication are crucial. With so much information coming from so many different departments and sources in a short period of time – including directives and advice from the government – it can be incredibly difficult to know which decisions to make and how to best coordinate things. Here, ensuring that whatever decisions are made are clearly communicated is key. Along with this, making sure that the messages are consistent between staff will also be important in making sure mixed messages are not given. Having a staff that works well together, good links with other local schools and the local authority is also hugely beneficial. Flexibility and adaptability has been and will be key. As the situation with the coronavirus can change very quickly, and might even soon see decisions made based on locality rather than nationally, being able to be flexible and adaptable is really important. Also, as every school is very different and has unique considerations and circumstances, this can create additional frequent challenges. Having a staff that can be flexible and adaptable makes these challenges much easier to overcome, and this will be even more important in the days to come as schools eventually begin to move back to some kind of normality. Wellbeing and welfare are paramount. Above all else, ensuring the safety of the children and staff in a school is a primary consideration. Many children and adults have struggled and continue to struggle with the lockdown restrictions. Schools have played and will continue to play an important part in supporting children and their families. BEST MOMENTS “I think the key to it all has been communication and that sort of two-way conversation. We've always prided ourselves on being an open-door policy listening school, so we use our various means of communication to make sure that the parents have got the answers that they need.” “I was self-isolating at the start… I wanted to do my bit to help with the smooth closing of school but, this is just how great my staff are, they all pulled together and they all rallied round and yes, obviously, I was involved from a distance, but I just led a great team of individuals.” “I must thank the other local heads that I work very closely with for their support. I think it is really important to have those close links right at the outset.” “I owe a lot to the staff throughout this and they continue to be amazing.”“In some of our groups we've got a range of age groups so it can be difficult to pitch to reception right through up to a year five. So there have been challenges but we've met them head on.” “There's nothing better than going out of those gates first thing Monday morning or last week on a Friday night and wishing them well for the weekend or welcoming them back. I'll go out wind, rain or shine and I think the parents appreciate that. I'll always do that no matter how busy I am or what things I've got to get done. I think that's a crucial part of leadership that you are visible.” “I've really prioritised staff wellbeing and welfare over the last three or four months; more so than anything majorly strategic or operational.” “The parents have been really positive in terms of the information we've given them and the decisions that we have made. They've understood why they've been made and they've all been made, obviously, with the best interests in the safety of their children and the staff. That’s what it's always about.” “I think that it's the million-dollar question isn't it, really, on everybody's lips. What's it going to look like in September? Are we going back to normal? In an ideal world, that's what we're all hoping: that things go back to the way that they were and we're able to bring more children back in. But obviously, if that's not the case, then I suppose this last twelve weeks has been a rehearsal for what's to come.” “Parents are absolutely doing their best but, in an ideal world, you want everybody back in the classroom because nothing replaces the impact and the motivation and the inspiration that a teacher can have on a child's life. It's important. You only get one shot at education, so we want to make it the best we possibly can.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

David Sherriff (Headteacher at Lowton St. Mary's CE Primary): First week of opening for EYFS, year 1 and year 6

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet with Georgia Hibberd, wellbeing consultant and founder of The Happy Child Agency. Georgia talks about how she began her teaching career a little later than usual following work in science, marketing and sales. Having been involved in the Brownies organisation and then seeking work experience in a school, Georgia found that she loved working with children and went on to gain her teaching qualification at Manchester University. After working at several schools, and following some upsetting experiences in her life, Georgia discusses how she became increasingly involved and interested in mental health and wellbeing, and supportive roles within schools. This led to her taking a lead role for wellbeing within her cluster of schools and then working for a local authority. Following a move back into teaching in schools, Georgia felt she still wanted to work in a more supportive role for children and their families, so she founded The Happy Child Agency which offers a range of supportive services for both children, families and schools. Along with discussing her journey through education and founding her own company, Georgia also shares ideas and approaches for supporting mental health and wellbeing, considerations around supporting year 6 pupils as they transition to secondary schools in the midst of the coronavirus restrictions, and how schools could prepare for children returning after losing family members.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Look for opportunities to add wellbeing to other areas. Along with everything else that teachers need to cover each week, it can be difficult to find time for mental health and wellbeing in the curriculum. However, looking for opportunities to teach it alongside or as a part of other curriculum areas can mean that it doesn’t end up being missed. For example, teaching personal safety or being aware of strangers could, perhaps, be taught within units on fairy tales. Talk to each other. This is just as important for adults as it is for children and communicating with each other, especially when we might be finding circumstances challenging, can be really important. Also, as we all react differently, knowing how we each prefer to handle situations can help to make sure we can care and look after each other effectively. Transition anxieties. This year’s move to secondary school will be very different to normal. For some year 6 pupils, they might not see their primary school or meet with their class again which will add to their worries. Pre-visits to new schools will either be hugely reduced or will not be taking place at all. Strategies that might help could be to focus on self-esteem and self-confidence. For those children who are especially anxious, encouraging them to relate to times in their life when they were resilient (for example, riding a bike for the first time) could help them to reduce their pessimistic outlook. Also, looking for times where children can change their thought patterns: turning negative thoughts to positive thoughts and working together to role play as negative and positive views can be beneficial. Some children might be worried about making new friends so developing strategies ahead of time might alleviate worries. For example, having three topics to talk about ready in their minds means that they could be prepared when they first meet new people. Senses and memories. One way to help children begin to handle worries is using senses to link back to things which have positive associations for them. Having objects which relate to meaningful smells, tastes or images that they can interact with and which hold special significance (such as a photograph of a place they really enjoy) can mean that they have something to turn to if they find themselves becoming anxious.   BEST MOMENTS “Sadly, we go through all sorts of different things that affect our feelings and affect our mental health. Had I not had the various networks and various things in place, I don't know where I would be. But I did and I was really lucky.” “I want to be that person… I want to be a teacher that helps that child get through the tough times.” “Ultimately it's about what you do for yourself, isn't it? It's about how you are able to actually say, ‘Do you know what? I really need to look after my mental health at the moment because I know I'm struggling.'” “I think teachers, from what I can see, from what I've read, are doing a brilliant job at the moment. Massive round of applause and standing ovation for those school staff. I think we have to trust the fact that they know the children.” “Who have you made smile today? I say that every week, I think who have I made smile today?” “Try to do things that make you happy as well and actually say to yourself, look I can't do it all. I can do my best, but that list never does get completed. Put on your list 'have a break'.” “If you're not in a good place, who's going to look after those children in school? You need to look after you so then you are in a good place to look after your children.” “If a child is happy then they're more likely to learn, and a happy teacher is more likely to do a better job. Somebody who feels valued puts in so much more than they would do. So I would say it's about being kind to each other to get most out of everybody.” “You know what I really hope as well? I hope that parents really value teachers again. I think it's got a little bit lost. I think sometimes we're kind of mud on their shoe. I don't know why. They have some conversations with us… they probably would never question their doctor or their dentist, and yet they question teachers.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES The Happy Child Agency: https://www.happychildagency.co.uk/ Action for happiness: https://www.actionforhappiness.org/ The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Georgia Hibberd (Founder of The Happy Child Agency): Mental health and wellbeing

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet with Abigail Hawkins: an experienced teacher, special educational needs coordinator and, now, SEN consultant. Abigail talks about her journey to becoming a teacher including how, as a teenager, she herself found being a student challenging and how, initially, she had her heart set on becoming a research scientist rather than a teacher. Abigail also discusses how she became increasingly involved in the special educational needs (SEN) aspect of schoolwork through her experiences with helping A-Level students at college alongside completing her own studies. Following this, she spent many years as the SEN coordinator (SENCO) in a Nottingham secondary school before leaving to work as a consultant for a company which produces software to assist SENCOs. This led to her starting her own consulting business supporting schools and SEN coordinators. Now, alongside her consultancy work, Abigail has also published two books and has her own YouTube channel dedicated to SEN current issues. She also helps to lead and support three schools as a governor and she talks about the beneficial aspects of this work.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Support for parents of children with SEN can sometimes be difficult to find. Just as training and information for teachers around SEN issues can, sometimes, be difficult to source, this also applies equally for parents. While teachers have the sometimes challenging task of catering for special educational needs in the classroom among a number of children, parents can find it daunting knowing what they can do at home to help, particularly where behaviours might be extreme. Abigail created and aimed her YouTube channel, initially, towards parents having noticed that there were few good sources of information available. Being a governor can be a very rewarding and informative experience. Although occasionally time-consuming, there are huge benefits (both academic and personal) to becoming a school governor in whatever capacity. Many people who take on this role have found that is has helped with self-development in, usually, unexpected ways and it can also be useful and enlightening gaining an insight into the systems ‘above’ the headteacher. Assistive technology has huge untapped potential. While there are many apps, systems and resources teachers and parents can purchase to support children with special educational needs, the free assistive technology already built-in with common technology is very often overlooked. Nearly all laptops, smart-phones and tablets come with plenty of incredibly useful features to support children with a variety of different special educational needs, and many people don’t know these features exist. Social media can be great for support and educational professional development. Although it does have its faults in some areas, social media has, particularly over the last few years, become a really useful source for professional development for teachers, sharing and discussion of ideas, and support for those in education. Along with messaging and posting sites, many blogs and online journals can also be found which can help those looking for resources. Transitioning SEN children back into their school is an important consideration. As schools begin to return, how we transition students with special educational needs back needs to be carefully considered. How this will happen, along with when, are both aspects schools and teachers will need to think about. Communication with parents and the student is a key part of this along with making sure consistent messages are conveyed. Depending on when students return, some might find that the school they return to is not the one they left. In these cases, having virtual tours of the new school and online group chats such as virtual coffee mornings might help alleviate anxieties.   BEST MOMENTS “Now I think my education background meant I haven't had loads and loads of terminology to learn. I think as a SENCO you learn an entirely different language, anyway… all those words. But as a governor there's a whole load more to learn. My education background really helped me with that. I think being a SENCo has helped me with it, because you have to be incredibly patient with some of the governors. I don't know what most people's experience of governors is? Let's go with slightly older in age and a little slower at processing sometimes. Technology is not their friend.” “I'm not confident in front of groups people and being a governor and having to offer that challenge without being abrasive or without being overly negative with somebody when you're talking to them… so their data may be absolute rubbish, but you have to put in some kind of supportive challenge to that. And my governance has really taught me how to do that, and I can now bring that skill into my professional work, because when I now go to do an SEN review in a school, I can walk in and I'm confident enough to shake the headteacher's hand and think 'actually, I'm now on a similar level to you mate. You're not my boss anymore. I can have this conversation with you and actually I can tell you your department is not where it should be and this is what you need to do to improve it.' Whereas, before, I wouldn't have done that, I would have just gone right, OK, fine, I'll go deal with it and hideaway in a corner.” “I'm really passionate about what I do so, for me, my work life balance… if I start to not enjoy something, that is when it is going wrong. If I want to work till midnight tonight, and if I want to work all weekend, provided I am happy doing that and everybody else around me is happy and catered for, if you like, then that's okay because that is me in my happy zone.” “One thing I have noticed is that what is not taught is how to use assistive technology. So our mobile phones have the ability to zoom in on things, they have magnifiers on them. You can turn text into speech so your children who are struggling to read something they can get it read on mobile phone. We have settings within Macs and PC's and laptops and iPads and tablets that will allow them to do that and it really surprises me that children don't use them. I think parents don't necessarily know they exist, but also as teachers we're not teaching them that they exist as well. So for me it isn't about going out and buying an app or something that helps them to do something, but it's about teaching around the things that are available to them within their devices that they've already got.” “I wish that social media had been more active four years ago. I don't think it was. I think it a little bit of a novelty at the time. It was more friends and family that you used it for. Now, I think, social media is very definitely seen as a bit more of a professional forum and I think if I'd had it four years ago, I probably wouldn't have hit the pit bottom that I actually did because I could have reached out and gone this is what's happening in my school guys, give me some advice, and know that somebody would be there to do that.” “OK, well we know that PGCEs and, to be fair, the Bachelor's degrees in education don't particularly prepare individuals for being in a classroom with students who have special educational needs. It's woefully inadequate in most establishments. So, I would say, talk to your SENDCO as soon as you find out who's the SENDCO in your primary school, talk to them. If you're a primary school teacher, talk to the current class teacher and find out about the needs of the children in that class and, if you can, start talking to the parents of the children in that class because the parents are the experts on their child, or should be. They will be able to tell you even more about what that child needs to move forward.” “If you are unsure about anything, reach out and don't expect to be an expert the day that you walk through the door. I've learned over 25 years how to handle, and how to work with, the students I work with but also the adults that we work with because they can be equally as awkward. Learning those skills is not something you learn overnight.” “Make mistakes because children learn from mistakes and you tell them all of the time that it's okay to make a mistake because you're learning. It's okay for us to make a mistake as well because 'a' we are human, 'b' we are showing the children we are human, and 'c' we need to make mistakes to learn.” “I just think it would be really great to really rethink things and to rethink things for our special educational needs students. We know for so many of them attendance isn't great and exclusions are high. Why? Usually it's because the curriculum isn't meeting their needs. So how can we utilise what we've learned? The number of posts I've read where it's 'those boys I can't normally engage in something have produced this this week. It's amazing!' Can we use that? Can we build that back in so that those students don't lose out and keep losing out as they have been doing over the last few years”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Sensible SENCO on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sensiblesenco/ SENDCO solutions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SendcoSolutions SENsible SENCO on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs65LPIrjCurcGUw01WtFkA The SENDCO: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SENDCO-Book-1a-Solutions-Support/dp/198078261X Approach it: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Approach-Map-Manage-Graduated-Management/dp/1980890994/ SENCO solutions website: https://www.sendcosolutions.co.uk/ The One Thing: https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Thing-Surprisingly-Extraordinary-bestselling/dp/1848549253/ The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Abigail Hawkins (SEN consultant and author): Special Educational Needs in schools

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, which was recorded just before the coronavirus restrictions were brought in, Claire talks to Katy Cox who is the headteacher at St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School, Bradford. Katy began her headship at the age of 33 and, 15 years in, she continues to seek ways of improving and supporting her staff. She talks about her keen interest in supporting her staff and newly qualified teachers with leadership roles. Katy talks in detail about the benefits of working in a Catholic partnership and how the support has developed her school and staff. She draws upon her own experience and the opportunities she was provided in her own teaching career and expresses the need to provide the same support to staff now with the on-going changes in education. In this podcast, Katy summarises her journey through leadership to being a head and a Local Leader of Education. She talks about the advantages and disadvantages of leadership and the various factors that contribute towards it. Furthermore, she discusses how she supports her staff and the opportunities available for all staff to progress within their careers. Drawing upon her experience and practice, Katy expresses the benefits of working in a partnership school and how this has rapidly improved the progression of her school and staff.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Work as a team Learning from her teaching experience and headship role, Katy believes it is important to aid and facilitate teachers - including newly qualified teachers - with leadership roles. She discusses how all teachers should be given the opportunity and support to undertake a leadership role irrespective of their teaching experience. The new OFSTED framework As a head, Katy has developed teams of staff-members for each subject. This allows teachers to support one another with the subject’s pedagogy and development within the school. When the teachers are inspected and questioned (from Ofsted) about their assigned subject, they can support one another within the meetings. Recruiting teaching assistants When recruiting for teaching assistant posts, Katy actively looks for and advertises for graduates that aspire to be teachers. She then supports them and provides them with classroom experience and encourages them to progress and develop their career path. Many of the staff do eventually enrol on postgraduate teacher training courses that are available through the school’s partnership programme while others pursue other education-based careers. Katy also supports those teaching assistants who do not wish to become teachers by offering other roles and responsibilities which allow for progression such as taking on cover supervisor roles. Distributed leadership Katy believes in distributed leadership whereby newly qualified teachers shadow and support experienced teachers and senior leaders with different responsibilities including course subjects. Through this approach, teachers are given the opportunity to develop and expand upon their skills when they are leading their own course subjects. Moreover, this approach can bring out a passion for progression and leadership within newly qualified staff at an early stage as they experience being involved within the team and working alongside leaders. Working in a partnership Between partnership schools there can be a lot of opportunities for professional development for all teachers and staff. Katy believes that the pace with which her school and staff have developed so far, along with the quality of the development opportunities, would not have been possible without this collaboration. Training leaders Staff are offered training including National Professional Qualification for Middle Leaders (NPQML) and National Professional Qualification for Senior Leaders (NPQSL) through the Catholic school partnership. Other opportunities include working with peer groups within the partnership school.   BEST MOMENTS “I think it’s really made me think about the teachers that are coming into the career as newly qualified teachers, thinking about what was in place when I was a newly qualified teacher and then the development I had. Which I suppose was a little bit ad hoc for when I was a class teacher and I suppose it shaped my philosophy and from those very first few years in early careers that, as leaders, we need to support those teachers and give them the opportunities to develop leadership skills alongside developing the classroom skills as well.” “They used to say you’ve got to have five to seven years of classroom experience before you can try to have a go at leadership. Whereas, for me, that’s not how it should be at all. You should be learning and developing those skills right from the start.” “The new framework makes me a little bit concerned for middle leaders and class teachers because I think the emphasis has moved. Certainly, how it used to be, you, as a head, you were the only one involved in Ofsted. You have all the meetings and maybe with your senior leadership team. Now, the focus really is on those middle leaders and leaders of the subject. They’re not even core subjects, they are the foundation subjects that they’re doing deep dives on.” “What I’ve really thought about at [my] school is how to support the leaders of those subjects. We’ve put a team around those leaders. Now, they’re working together looking at the curriculum planning and evidence, so that when we come to an Ofsted, if the inspectors will allow us, it won’t just be one middle leader having to go through that process. Two or three will be able to submit to go together.” “We’ve got teaching assistants who haven’t got degrees and who don’t want to go into teaching, but they are also offered opportunities within school.” “For me, a big part for my staff is being a part of the Catholic schools partnership. Over the last nine [to] ten years, as headteachers from all 18 primary schools and two secondary schools, we’ve come together and formed a really powerful collaboration that’s formalised. It’s renowned throughout the diocese but it’s also renowned throughout the country. The work that we’ve done collectively is really powerful for people to come and join.” “When you join our partnership or join my school, then you are guaranteed that you are going to have a bespoke training package every year. We are already ahead of the game, thinking about the early career framework.” “My inspiration would be that I was encouraged to develop when I was a class teacher. I had the opportunity quite young [and] early on in my career to put myself forward for what was [the] National Numeracy Project. I got involved with that, worked alongside the maths leader who was due to retire. When she did retire the year after, then I took that on with another colleague.” “I think, as a leader in the profession, it’s really important that we invest right from day one because these teachers who are new to the profession… they are our future leaders.” “Our whole ethos is based on our motto ‘I tried to live like Jesus; I love; I forgive; I pray. Come follow me, be the best that I can be.’”   VALUABLE RESOURCES St. Matthew’s Catholic Primary School: https://stmatthewscatholic.co.uk/ The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/  LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Katy Cox (Headteacher at St. Matthew's Catholic Primary School): Support and development in partnerships

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet to Glenn Russell, executive headteacher of Stalham Academy and Stalham Infant & Pre-School in Norfolk. Glenn talks about his background in education including about how he initially trained as a secondary teacher. He took on roles in middle schools in Norfolk before the county closed these to become a primary and secondary only system. Glenn decided to move into leadership roles in primary schools and became a deputy headteacher in a federation of four schools, eventually becoming headteacher of Stalham Junior School which, at the time, had been judged as inadequate by Ofsted. Glenn helped to turn the school around and became executive headteacher overseeing both the junior school and the infant school. Glenn discusses how, despite the coronavirus restrictions currently in place, his school has still managed to recruit new staff and he shares some tips and advice about what has worked best and what his school have learned from this process. He also talks about the importance of care and respect within his team, how his schools support, encourage and value all staff at all levels and how this was a crucial part of improving the school from inadequate to good.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Remote recruitment can take away some of the benefits of meeting candidates face-to-face. While remote recruitment can make some elements of an interview process easier to administer, you can lose some of the benefits of meeting people face-to-face, such as being able to get to know people a little more than you might over a video-link. You can lose some of that ‘personal’ element that you gain when meeting in person. Be clear about how you will assess values and attributes remotely. Assessing values, skills and attributes over a remote interview can, in some ways, be quite tricky as some of these elements might be ones which you would pick up on and assess less formally face-to-face. One way around this can be to plan carefully in advance what you want from a successful candidate and structure the process and questions in a way which will promote or highlight these more clearly and explicitly. Build in more time than you think you’ll need for remote interviews. Whereas face-to-face interviews can usually run relatively smoothly and quickly, remote interviews will invariably take longer than you might think. Whatever time you think you’ll need, it can be advisable to double it as things like technology glitches, pauses and hand-overs to others on a panel can all add up to extra minutes. Be clear about time limits and expectations around any tasks. With on-site interviews, timings can be very tightly managed and controlled to ensure fairness for all candidates. Candidates on-site will also be on their own and you can be more certain that you are seeing them as they are. This can become more complicated with remote interviews where people could, if they wanted to, arrange to have access to other resources and help. While you can’t guarantee to be able to eliminate all of these possibilities, more tightly prescribing the amount of time each person has with tasks can go a long way to ensuring a level playing field. Remote panel interviews can bring their own unique issues. It can be easy in remote interviews involving several people to end up talking over each other or unintentionally interrupting someone and creating awkward pauses before someone takes a lead. To help with this, be clear about handing over to someone else when it is their turn to speak and have pre-determined ‘signals’ so that everyone can see when someone might want to ‘drop in’ and ask an additional question or make a point. Spreading the process out can be useful. Due to candidates’ other commitments, almost all interviews for school positions tend to be carried out in just one day. Remote interviews, though, can be structured to allow for more time to be able to delve into people’s responses and task submissions so that you can follow-up with questions in an interview on a subsequent day.   BEST MOMENTS “When you're running interviews normally on site, you're able to get away with a number of the same types of activity or the same types of processes because actually you get to meet people. You get to kind of read them, you get to use your emotional intelligence, you get to find out about them. But without all of those advantages of being able to sit opposite someone and really get to meet them face to face, we had to sit and really rethink what does each position actually need. So the thing that we did first was be really, really clear on what we were looking for for the positions.” “In terms of how long you think something is going to take, I would clearly double the process time, because actually, speaking to somebody on Zoom, you have that pause, you have that wait, you have that shifting over to somebody else if you're doing the panel interview with several of you. If you are watching a lesson, then you've got the lesson, you've got the conversation remotely afterwards with a colleague about what you've seen or what you haven't seen. Whereas normally you'd both sit down and watch it together, so a lot of the activities take a lot more time.” “Being really, really specific about when things are being sent out and when you expect them back in gives you that kind of tight time limit that's really, really essential for clarity and fairness with all candidates.” “It really was good. It showed the candidates in such a different light and you got to have conversations with them in such a different way than you probably would do in the normal formal process.” “I don't see [some of this way of working] going away any time soon and actually there's plenty of things from the process that I think I'd replicate in the future.” “When you are doing panel interviews… be really, really clear about who is asking what and then, once you've asked the question, be explicit about handing over so it makes it easier on the number of voices happening at the same time. Also planning things like if [someone has] a follow-up question, what's the signal? What's the sign?” “Make sure that technology works. Definitely do some practices. Do some dry runs. My wife was good enough to sit and us interview her a couple of times and to make sure that it worked.” “One thing was actually having the process over more days rather than in the normal process when, in education, we tend to get it all done in one day. Having the different stages to this interview spread out over the week allowed us to really delve into candidates and what they did in different kinds of activities and how they responded to different time limits.” “That normal visit when the participant or candidate comes to your school to look around… because of this situation, I rang every single candidate that put in an application before we shortlisted to try and find out about them, but also to let them find out about me and the school. And those phone calls were going on for, like, forty-five minutes to hour long conversations and you've got such a good feel. And I think I probably gained more about the candidates in that way that I ever do when I give them a tour of the school.” “I say to my staff that I look after them so they're then able to look after the children. As far as I'm concerned the job is hard enough as it is without putting extra pressure and extra strain on.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Stalham Academy: https://www.stalhamacademy.co.uk/ Glenn Russell on Twitter #ValuedPeopleSuccessfulSchools: https://twitter.com/glennrussell84 The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Glenn Russell (Executive Headteacher at Stalham Academy and Infant School): Remote recruitment

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet to Ben Cooper, vice-principal of GEMS Wellington Academy in Dubai and founder of the WAGOLL teaching and Literacy WAGOLL websites. Ben talks about how he began developing his Literacy WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like) website ten years ago in England just after the key stage two writing assessments were adapted to use moderated evidence. After creating a range of example texts for his class and publishing them online, other teachers began contacting him to share their example texts and his site grew. After moving to Dubai about six years ago, Ben soon became the head of teaching and learning in the primary school at his academy and is now vice-principal for the primary phase. During this time, Ben blogged about his experiences of everyday teaching beyond the subject-specific skills, focusing on elements such as the humanistic side of educating children. Although this blog started out as a part of his Literacy WAGOLL site, Ben felt that as it was more about teaching in general, it didn’t gel with the site’s literacy focus so he created a new WAGOLL Teaching site to share his ideas and observations. Ben also talks about the approaches his school has taken as a result of the impact of the coronavirus including how, ahead of local school closures, they liaised with other international schools to share ideas and discuss successful or innovative approaches being taken in places where restrictions were already in place. Ben also discusses his school’s arrangements for home-learning including how they are currently delivering four live online lessons a day for maths, English, science and story-time. Along with this, Ben also discusses the benefits of technology, the importance of social connections now more than ever, and shares some tips for parents trying to balance home-learning alongside work.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Moving to teach abroad is easier than you might think. While moving to another country to teach is an attractive proposition for many teachers, some people might be put off expecting the process to be complicated and full of paperwork. While there is indeed a need for forms to be completed, if you are successful in being appointed at a school in another country, in almost all cases, most of the processes will be handled by the school who will be well placed to make key arrangements on your behalf. However, there can be a perception that teaching at an international school can be ‘easier’ than teaching in England. While there can be less work to complete outside of school hours, there are different types of pressures and expectations which can make it equally challenging but in different ways. The humanistic side of teaching is important. Teaching can sometimes feel almost solely focused around academic expectations and progress and it is important that we don’t forget the people at the centre of everything we do. This is particularly important during this time of increased isolation and restrictions. Maintaining and developing social connections for the children as well as the teachers is vital. Don’t forget to dedicate time to yourself. As the coronavirus has restricted us to being at home almost all of the time, many people have found that they have more time to themselves. This can be an ideal opportunity to try and find new interests and different things to do with one unexpected positive being that many people – children included – could emerge from this experience being more aware of themselves and wellbeing. Try to maintain some normality. Even though we are in extraordinary times it can be helpful, for children as well as ourselves, to try and keep aspects of our lives as ‘normal’ as we can. This can help to reduce feelings of being overwhelmed or anxious about the ongoing situation which, as it continues, can be unsettling for everyone but particularly for children Make the most of opportunities to upskill on technology. For teachers, the current situation is ideal, for those who can, to undertake more professional development. As schools are now reliant on technology to reach their children, researching and upskilling ourselves on the possibilities afforded by computers and digital devices will almost certainly be advantageous in the future of education. BEST MOMENTS “Story time is fifteen minutes where the teachers just sit and read a novel as they would do in school and we see some lovely pictures from the kids sat on their beds or sat on the sofa curled up with a cuddly toy just listening to the teacher read a story. And it’s those types of moments, really, that I think are the most important about remote learning because it’s that humanistic element. Learning is really portable. The children still need to develop that understanding of connection and make connections with people. It’s really lovely to see.” “It’s really important we allow for flexibilities. We offer support in terms of making sure they have time off from live sessions. We’ve introduced things like wellbeing-Wednesdays where there is no screen-time. We set the children wellbeing activities like yoga or mindfulness or treasure hunts. The idea is that they turn off their iPad and they spend the afternoon off doing things. That’s the same for teachers. We want them to enjoy wellbeing-Wednesdays with their families as well.” “We adopted a mentality of saying just take every day for what it is, just accept it and then move on and try not to plan too far ahead.” “This new way of living… we’re getting used to it. So it’s just being patient, going along with it [and] taking every day as it comes.” “To start off with, parents were fearing that the children were going to fall behind, they were going to find it difficult. What happens if they just can’t access it? They’re just not going to learn for 12 weeks until the end of term. And we did say ‘no they will start to learn, they will pick up, and they will start to access the learning and be more effective because they will get into those routines.’” “Just be patient and just see how it goes. Do what you can. Your child is not going to not go to university because they’ve missed three or four weeks of year 3.” “We were speaking to parents on the phone, just reassuring them because they were getting worked up that their child was missing subjects. We just said, ‘look, at the end of the day you do what you can for your family in this time and we’ll support you though that. As soon as your child is back in school, we’ll make sure that they are catching up and back to where they need to be.’” “There is a reason why we have classrooms in schools. If remote learning was as effective as it is school, we wouldn’t have school buildings. But we do because we know that that’s the best place for our children to learn.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES GEMS Wellington Academy, Dubai: https://www.gemswellingtonacademy-alkhail.com/ WAGOLL teaching: https://www.wagollteaching.com/ Literacy WAGOLL: https://www.literacywagoll.com/ WAGOLL teaching on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wagollteaching The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.  

Ben Cooper (Founder of WAGOLL Teaching): Home-learning in Dubai

In this episode, which was recorded just before the coronavirus restrictions were put in place, Claire meets with Jonathan Glazzard, professor of Inclusive Education at the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University. Although Jonathan initially wanted to work in secondary education, he taught for ten years at two primary schools, eventually being promoted to assistant headteacher. Earlier in his teaching career, Jonathan took on the role of being the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) for his school. It was through this aspect of his work that he developed a passion for inclusive education and which, in turn, led to him pursuing and gaining a master’s degree in Special Educational Needs (SEN). Jonathan then moved into initial teacher education having become interested in helping to develop student teachers. Within this role, Jonathan took on modules related to special educational needs and inclusion which became the focus of his teaching and, eventually, his doctorate. Jonathan and Claire talk about how, when they were training to be teachers, there was little, if any, preparation for encountering children with special educational needs much less becoming a school coordinator for this area. Despite improvements in this area, Jonathan talks about how there is still work to be done for further progress to be made. Within this episode, Jonathan also talks about mental health and wellbeing – in particular how, despite a lot of progress, there is still a stigma around mental health. Jonathan highlights that further work still needs to be done around understanding the causes of poor mental health in children, such as social factors and the increasing difficulty of the curriculum and exam stresses. Jonathan also shares some advice for teachers and leadership teams and suggests some possible approaches. He discusses the importance of whole-school strategies and an inclusive curriculum, and shares details of some online resources and thoughts on more specific issues which schools could face.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Inclusion is an ongoing process. Just as all children are different, all additional needs are different. While there is a wide variety of resources and training options for teachers covering different aspects of special educational needs, one size cannot fit all. Teachers cannot expect a training course to give them a solution that will work for all children. There is a need to constantly reflect on practices and approaches in order to find what does work for individual children. Children with additional needs don’t necessarily need approaches that are significantly different to other children. In many cases, the teaching for children with additional needs can be almost identical to that given to the rest of the class. Overall, good inclusive teaching is all that is needed to benefit every child, but will especially help those children who do have additional needs. Have realistic expectations. Although the term ‘special educational needs’ has become somewhat synonymous with ‘low ability’, teachers should be mindful of not assuming that additional needs will automatically hold a child back. There are many different types of need and some children with additional needs will not encounter any problems with their learning. Expectations should be set based on the individual child and, even where some children might find it more difficult to achieve at the same rate as their peers, it might not mean that expectations need to be lowered. Teachers can sometimes be defeatist about their own teaching skills. As schools have become increasingly inclusive, teachers can feel as though they need to have more and more training to deal with children with additional needs. Schools have also called more frequently for specialists to help and, while this is indeed needed in many cases, it isn’t always necessary. Over time this has had the effect of disempowering teachers and there is not always a need for additional training or specialist help. All teachers are teachers of children with special educational needs and teachers will already have a lot of skills and strategies they can use to good effect. Mental health is not the same as mental illness. The persistent stigma around mental health has, in part, been maintained by avoidance of using the term. Mental health has, over time, come to be mean ‘mentally unwell’ and people have then avoided using the term. Just as the term ‘physical health’ covers the whole range from being physically fit to suffering from ill-health and needing medical intervention, we should not shy away from using ‘mental health’ in the same way. Everyone has ‘mental health’ and the term should be used more to describe good mental health as well as when it is not so good. School-based programmes around mental wellbeing can be successful. Where schools have been most successful, there has usually been a whole-school approach championed and maintained by senior leaders and a positive and inclusive environment and curriculum. In these schools, the number of children who need referring with mental health issues has reduced. Some schools have found that using outside organisations (such as a local football club) to deliver parts of their mental health curriculum has been useful, as the children have a more informal relationship with the adults. Developing mindfulness programmes and using well-trained peer listeners has been positive for many children, as they might prefer to talk with people their own age rather than directly to an adult. Signs of mental illness are not always identifiable. Many teachers will find that the first signs of a child struggling with their mental health are physical (self-harm marks or tiredness) or through a change of behaviour. However, some children can appear outwardly fine but, inside, be quite mentally unwell. Here, good programmes and systems are key to educating children about their own mental health and knowing where they can go for help. Talk about mental health One important way to remove the stigma is to just talk more openly and regularly about mental health and feelings. This can be particularly useful for boys who can, through a sense of imposed gender expectations, feel as though they need to keep their feelings hidden or somehow ‘in check’. The curriculum needs to be more inclusive. Although there are movements in the right direction, the curriculum has, over time, become increasingly academic. Vocationally orientated children can feel marginalised and there is still work to be done here to improve. Units around race, gender identity, sexuality and disabilities need to be featured more prominently in the curriculum, in particular the history around these and how perceptions of them have changed over time. This also should not just be delivered through assemblies or only feature in PSHCE lessons. They need to be embedded and threaded throughout.   BEST MOMENTS “A year into my teaching career, I became a special educational needs coordinator and I had no underpinning knowledge. And that’s when I started to think actually this is not good enough. Trainee teachers need input and that’s really what motivated me to focus on special educational needs in the university sector because I felt that I wanted them to have that input.” “I think that new teachers are going into teaching and there is pressure on them to feel that they are getting things right, right from the beginning, and there is pressure on them to deliver outstanding teaching right from the beginning. And, actually, learning to be a teacher is an ongoing process.” “One of the problems is that we’ve had this stigmatisation of mental health for many, many years and what we’re now trying to do is destigmatise mental health. But the reason for that stigmatisation is that we’ve automatically assumed that mental health is the same as mental illness. Mental illness is only one facet of mental health.” “We know that the majority of children with poor mental health will benefit from things like physical activity, social connectivity … they will benefit from a sense of belonging in the school, they’ll benefit from good self-esteem, they’ll benefit from an assessment process that actually boosts their self-esteem rather than tells them they’re failures. They’ll benefit from a curriculum that’s rich and exciting and broad.” “I feel that the government’s emphasis on placing mental health into schools is actually absolving the government of addressing the real systemic factors that create poor mental health.” “A good mental health curriculum should be giving children strategies to manage their own mental health: teaching them how to manage stress and anxiety and depression.” “The problem is that there’s so much information for teachers [about mental health]. Teachers are really, really busy and they haven’t got time to do all that searching. We need to pull it together.” “It's very, very important that parents understand that we are not trying to impose a particular identity or viewpoint on your child. This is about preparing children for life within a socially inclusive, modern, contemporary society in which they will interact with people who are different and, therefore, it is really important that we treat everybody with respect.” “Some of these issues with parents are very challenging for schools to deal with. And ultimately, if you are a school within specific cultural communities, you might be worried about the parental backlash. That’s not about weak leadership, because schools legally have to teach this. That’s about, in those situations, when that happens, somebody coming into the school from the DfE and Ofsted and actually addressing those issues and supporting them.” “When do we actually, in the curriculum, educate children about disability? We don’t, basically … All children need to be educated about different types of disabilities and they also need to be educated about the fact that people with disabled identities can achieve brilliant things such as the Paralympics. They need to not see disability as a tragic thing.” “We have to teach the Equality Act, and the Equality Act says that we have to foster good relations between different groups. So we can’t foster good relationships if we’re not actually talking and highlighting to children the fact that there are different views and beliefs.” “We need to make sure the curriculum’s giving children the skills they need for the future, not just an academic curriculum. I think that we need an assessment system that recognises that broader range of skills and recognises a broader range of strengths and talents; not just recognising maths and English.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES The mentally healthy schools website: https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/ Young minds: https://youngminds.org.uk/ The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Jonathan Glazzard (Professor at Leeds Beckett University): Inclusive education

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet to Haylie Saunders, deputy head academic at St Swithun’s Preparatory School in Hampshire. Haylie shares with Claire how, after leaving school herself, she had little interest in being a teacher. However, this changed following a conversation with an honest member of her family who pointed out how much she enjoyed teaching dance as a part of a local group. This prompted Haylie to enrol on a Bachelor of Education degree course and, having some experience of teaching through her dance class, Haylie excelled and qualified after only three years via the accelerated route the course offered. After gaining her degree, Haylie taught in several different settings including spending several years in a small New Forest school and becoming the head of games in a very sport-focused top preparatory school in Hampshire. This role, in particular, was invaluable in gaining leadership skills which led to a deputy headship in an all-girls school in Surrey. Following this, Haylie moved to St Swithun’s Preparatory School where she is now deputy head academic leading curriculum development and assessment. In this episode, Haylie and Claire discuss the challenges Haylie’s school has faced preparing and organising home-learning for their pupils, some of the issues that have arisen, and what might be around the corner for all schools and the education sector in general.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Preparation Although school closures came about very quickly, and there is still no real idea of when things will return to ‘normal’, whatever preparation can be done using the information to hand is essential for leaders. Considering what can and cannot be realistically accomplished is important – particularly with so much relying on technology and busy working parents being able to organise things at home. This is also important for the future. While there is little indication of when schools will return, there will likely be areas that can start being considered and planned for ahead of time. The importance of routine A key aspect for success with home-learning is having some sort of routine in place for children. However, it is equally important to allow for flexibility within any routine as all of this is taking place in real-life, where the unexpected occurs and things don’t always run to plan. Parents have reported that getting children started on tasks one of the most challenging parts of the day, so consider starting the daily routines earlier on, building in periods of down-time and breaks and using the afternoons for other less intensive tasks and family time. Focus on covering just the key pieces of learning Full lessons are just not possible to achieve at home in the same way they are in school, even with a teacher remotely teaching a full lesson. What can be accomplished in a classroom environment cannot be effectively replicated via video or though bringing people together virtually with conference technology. It is far more valuable to make sessions shorter – maybe around twenty minutes of quality learning time – and have smaller achievable goals. This is particularly useful for parents and teachers who will likely have their own personal circumstances at home and who could, if the goals are too ambitious, end up feeling demoralised and as though they’ve failed. Take time to consider what’s working and what’s been less successful As all of this is uncharted territory for schools, things will not always go to plan. However, do take time to consider what has worked well and where small adjustments could be made to fix issues rather than opting for wholesale revamps. This can be particularly important for schools who get complaints. While these will generally come from parents who want to do the best for their children, it is always worth keeping in mind how many complaints there might actually be versus any silent majority who will, probably, be more than happy with what is on offer. Technology While technology has been incredibly useful during this time, it is important to be mindful of problems that can arise – especially for non-technical parents and individual home circumstances. Schools make great use of computers and tablets during their usual teaching weeks, but the amount of screen-time many children are currently getting could likely be greater than they might normally have and, with this in mind, building in breaks and down-times away from screens is important. Keep a focus on essential skills In and amongst everything that schools, teachers and parents want to achieve, it’s always good to have some daily focus on maintaining essential skills wherever possible: regular reading or phonics activities, fun times-tables games and conversations during down-time are essential for all children’s development.   BEST MOMENTS “If you allow for the fact that the parents and children have had to up-skill to a degree on these new platforms, or they’ve had to adjust to this way of reading plans that are designed for educators, really, and then you’re sat down with your daughter or son trying to get through this, you can very quickly, as a parent, end up feeling like a failure.” “Remote learning is not twenty-four hours a day. Teachers have still got to have their PPA time, their administration time and also breaks from the screen so they don’t get screen fatigue. So we had to make sure it was manageable for them as well.” “So far we’ve been well-staffed. In fact, probably, over-staffed. So, another problem for leaderships is actually assessing how many children you have in and what is a safe ratio of teachers to be in. Is it absolutely necessary?” “You’ve got to be flexible in all areas. Look after your teachers. Look after your parents. It’s a highly stressful situation.” “What you don’t want is parents to be panicking that [they] haven’t got the ingredients for a recipe or they haven’t got this, because again it just makes them feel that they’re inadequate.” “It’s okay for kids to be bored, and I think we’ve forgotten that sometimes and they actually have to occupy themselves. It’s a really valuable life-skill as well… to be able to occupy yourself and be independent.” “It’s about not being too hard on yourself when you’re in school and demanding too much of teachers.” “It was quite alarming how long I spent on the screen last week. And I think everybody’s feeling that… we talk about wellbeing but are we actually encouraging our staff to get out for the afternoon. It can be easy as a leader to just expect them always to be there answering those e-mails straight away, and yet that’s not the case in school.” “What’s really difficult is, if you are in school managing stressful situations - and there’s plenty of them - you’re not doing that in front of an audience. Now we are opening our teaching up, and that’s nothing to be scared of because they do a really, really good job, but I think it’s quite intimidating for teachers to suddenly be in a room of 18/20 children and their parents.” “There’s going to be gaps in the learning. The children will have experienced different things at home so I think we’re going to have to be really mindful of that and, again, make sure that we can identify those gaps in learning pretty quickly and bridge them as quickly as possible so those families don’t feel as though they’ve done anything wrong.” “I always love a brave teacher. One thing that makes a class exciting is those risk-takers that will do that science experiment that could result in slime everywhere all over the laboratory but that’s what kind of makes school fun.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES St Swithun’s independent preparatory and boarding school: https://www.stswithuns.com/ Haylie Saunders (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/haylie-saunders-56b685186/ The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Haylie Saunders (Deputy Head Academic at St Swithun's Preparatory School): Leading home-learning

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks over the internet to four members of the Classroom Secrets team about the varied (and sometimes quite confusing) terminology that schools and teachers use or need to know. As a result of the coronavirus ‘lockdown’, many parents are trying to provide some form of education for their children at home. Many schools have provided wonderful ranges of resources to help with this, but, sometimes, these materials do contain words or phrases which class teachers would regularly use or would quickly explain in class. In this week’s podcast, each of our guests is an experienced practitioner in a particular age-range of primary education, and, with Claire, they talk about the vocabulary and potentially confusing terms which appear most often in their phase of school. First, Claire talks to Victoria Clay – the early years team manager – about the first phase of education that children experience. Victoria initially trained as teacher for the general primary age-range rather than specifically on the early years phase but, after covering a maternity leave in a reception class for several weeks, she knew that this particular area of school was where she wanted to work. In her teaching career, Victoria worked in three very different settings, including in a nursery, but made the difficult decision to leave teaching after having her own children. Claire then talks with Katie Cockroft, a key stage one proofreader, about the terms children will hear and use in years 1 and 2 at primary school. Although her degree specialism was in the early years, Katie has worked mainly in key stage 1 and has been a leader of English in the school where she worked. Lindsay Grix – our year 3 team manager – discusses some of the key learning children in lower key stage 2 will experience. Lindsay has 12 years’ experience of working across all primary ages from early years to year 6. Lindsay talks about the changes and challenges that children in years 3 and 4 experience as they quickly build on their learning in key stage 1. Lastly, Claire talks with Betty Powdrill – the year 6 team manager – about upper key stage 2, where children, in normal circumstances, would be working towards the statutory assessments. Betty shares how, apart from a brief desire to become a dentist, she knew that she always wanted to be a teacher from a young age. After volunteering in schools and completing the Graduate Teacher Programme, she realised that she felt most comfortable teaching in year 6 and spent the majority of her career teaching in this year-group. Betty has also moderated writing for the local authority and co-ordinated maths across the school where she worked.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Learning can happen anywhere It can be easy to feel ‘lost’ sometimes with how much children are expected to cover, but don’t overthink it. A lot of learning that children do – especially at the younger ages – can be unplanned and happen anywhere at any time. There is a lot that children can learn through doing things that don’t need to be organised or planned out ahead of time. For early-years children, play is vital Play is incredibly important for nursery and reception aged children and developments at this stage are crucial to achievements later in their academic journey. Within this, it is also important to remember that children will learn at their own pace and developments will happen slightly differently between different children. Don’t worry too much if something other children can do isn’t yet evident for your child as they will, undoubtedly, catch up. The importance of routines that work for you Whatever your routine looks like, it will almost certainly be fine. While we are still unsure about when schools will be reopening, having some form of routine in place is important. However, it is also useful to have flexibility in the routine and, as long as it works for you, it will help children to thrive and will allow some form of transition back to the school day when ‘normal life’ resumes. The importance of talk One of the most important things to do with children, at any age, is just to talk with them as conversation and discussion can prompt a whole wealth of learning opportunities. As well as this, talking increases and expands children’s vocabulary, allows development of ideas and can allow you to explore and develop your child’s interests alongside them sparking more focus and willingness to work.   PODCAST CHAPTERS Within this podcast, you can find out about the following aspects of teaching terminology that is used within primary education. 0:30          Introduction 1:48          Early years education – Nursery and reception Early Learning Goals (ELG). Prime and specific areas. Phonics, including the phases of phonics, phonemes, graphemes, digraphs and trigraphs. Tricky and nonsense words. Number bonds.   34:10        Key stage 1 – Years 1 and 2 37:02        Maths 3D shapes Venn diagrams Related subtraction and exchanging Pictograms Fractions Digits Mathematical symbols Multiples Place value and place value counters 47:24        English Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs Noun phrases Conjunctions Consonants Clauses Ascenders and descenders Question marks and exclamation marks Commas and apostrophes Contractions Command words Prefixes and suffixes Extending sentences   59:56        Lower key stage 2 – Years 3 and 4 1:06:37     Maths Non-unit fractions Single-digit denominators Fractions of quantities Part-whole models 1:12:40     English Main clauses, subordinate clauses and relative clauses Pronouns Abstract nouns Prepositions Adverbials Synonyms and antonyms Subordinating and co-ordinating conjunctions Alliteration   1:29:14     Upper key stage 2 – Years 5 and 6 1:32:47     Maths Translation Decimals Ones and units Percentages Improper fractions and mixed numbers 1:36:55     English Subjects and objects Active and passive verbs Personal pronouns Subjunctive form and present perfect form Present progressive tense Idioms Acronyms   VALUABLE RESOURCES The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/ Coronavirus Home Learning Support for Teachers and Parents: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coronavirushomelearning/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Coronavirus and home learning (Classroom Secrets): Terminology in teaching

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire remotely interviews Helen Woodhead, a proofreader at Classroom Secrets and now, through her videos of home-learning activity ideas, a Facebook Live star. Alongside her two children, Gabriel (4) and Noah (7), Helen regularly presents short, accessible and easy to follow videos on Classroom Secrets’ Facebook groups. These videos showcase fun and practical tips and suggestions for parents who, with the current coronavirus restrictions, will be finding themselves teaching their children at home. Helen talks about how she always wanted to be a teacher from an early age – even arranging her own ‘teaching’ sessions where she would read to her friends and other children when playing. After qualifying as a teacher, Helen moved into working as a supply teacher, which she found to be an incredibly beneficial experience. Going into many different schools, usually not knowing what to expect of each class, and teaching a wide range of year-groups gave her a huge amount of experience in a short space of time. Following this period as a supply teacher, Helen taught Year 6 at the same school for 10 years but, ultimately, found that teaching full-time with two children at home became too demanding. Realising that either work or home-life would suffer, she made the decision to leave teaching. Currently, with the coronavirus crisis, school closures and restrictions on movement have meant that parents up and down the country – Helen and Claire included – are now trying to home-educate their children. Helen shares her experiences of this, talking about some of the challenges she has faced including how her children see her as a ‘mum’ rather than a ‘teacher’, and how having two children at quite different ages has also been difficult at times in terms of differing expectations and her children’s reactions to what they need to do.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Home-schooling is very different to teaching a class Along with the different ‘feel’ of a school environment, teachers have classes of up to thirty children and will usually have their attention divided between all the children or across several groups. However, with teaching at home, the attention is much more focused and, as it is a parent doing the teaching, children can find this more difficult to become accustomed to. Even where the parent is a qualified teacher, children will still see you, primarily, as a parent. Along with this, children’s attention spans will be much more limited. Having ‘flexible’ routines can be beneficial here and not worrying if things don’t go to plan. Vary the activities and be mindful of how much you are trying to fit in Trying to fit too much into each day can, ultimately, end up with things just not working as well as they might, or a sense of disappointment where time or attention runs out. Don’t worry about having to adjust your expectations in light of how things need to work for you. Also, not everything your children do needs to be fun and practical. While practical activities are usually the most entertaining and enjoyable for children, they can sometimes be the most time-consuming activities to organise and demanding to ‘run’. There will also need to be times where children complete quiet and focused tasks, and these are just as beneficial and important as the more physical activities. Having children at different ages can bring its own challenges As well as having to find age-appropriate activities for each child, an additional challenge can be organising your routines around individual needs. On top of that, some children, depending on the age differences, can become envious of the more practical activities the younger children might need to do. While many children will try to be considerate of this, it could be harder for some to come to terms with. One takeaway here might be to encourage the older children to re-teach or revisit the activity the younger child has done alongside them later on. That way, they will get to take part in the activity, experience teaching and explaining something which could encourage communication and problem-solving skills, and the younger child will get an additional opportunity to put into practice what they’ve learned. You can find out where your children are in their education As busy parents, it can sometimes be difficult to keep fully up-to-date with where your children are in their schooling and what they can and can’t do. A positive to come out of the current situation is that, through day-to-day home-learning activities, parents can become more familiar with their school’s curriculum, the expectations for achievement and where their children are in their learning journeys. Technology can be useful for children to keep in touch Although, for a variety of reasons, not every family will be able to facilitate it, utilising technology in a safe way to allow children to socialise can be really beneficial. Along with adults, children will find being cut-off from friends and family quite difficult. Finding ways for them to keep in touch – perhaps through video chats, online platforms and e-mails – can help to alleviate anxieties and maintain links to the outside world.   BEST MOMENTS “[Homeschooling] is very different to school. Very different to having thirty children. It’s so intense because you’ve got them all the time. When you’re teaching, you’re not just with one child. You’re stopping them and sending some off to do something. And then there’s break time. You might be on break-duty but you might not, but you’re not just with the same children all the time.” “It’s compromising with them as well. So sometimes they’ll be like ‘oh we’ve done something really fun’ – especially when we’ve filmed it – ‘oh that was really fun’. Yeah, but what we do now might not be as practical. It might be where you sit down now and you do something that’s more focused.” “The thing that bothered [Noah] the most was when I said we can’t go to Grandma and Grandad’s house. That really bothered him. But we’ve video-called and spoken on the phone. Every time the phone rings, the minute I answer, one of them will run over. ‘Is it Grandma?’” “They are coping well. They have got into the routine really well.” “[In the Easter holidays,] I don’t want to do the same stuff really. I want to do different things because it is the holidays. But they still need occupying. It’s not like we can go places like we normally would.” “They don’t need to work all the time. They need to have a break and they need to have fun.” “Every child is going to remember this period of time. I want it to be enjoyable.” “I try and do as much as possible with stuff I’ve got around the house. Because we can’t just go out and buy things and get hold of things. So I am trying to do as much as possible with what I’ve got. I keep going into my garage and I’m like, ‘oh I didn’t know I had that!’” “I think testing-wise and exams… I think that’s going to have to be looked at: how children are assessed and is more faith going to be put into teachers and their teacher assessments?”   VALUABLE RESOURCES The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets Facebook Coronavirus Home Learning Support group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coronavirushomelearning/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/    ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend.  The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Helen Woodhead (Classroom Secrets): Balancing homeschooling and work

In this episode, Claire talks over the internet to Deputy Headteachers Steve Eastes and Russell Pearson who, online on social media and with their own podcast, are known as the Dynamic Deputies. Steve and Russell talk about how, although now both deputy headteachers at different schools, they met at the same school in Kent and remained good friends after Russell moved to take up another post in Devon. Although they kept in contact, they felt that they had begun to lose some of the valuable professional dialogue they had both maintained while working together. Following this realisation, they started a Facebook group and developed an online community to promote educational discussion and collaborative working amongst teachers. Now, in their separate schools, both Steve and Russell are heavily involved with leading their staff and pupils through the current coronavirus situation. They share the approaches they have taken in their schools, how the virus outbreak has unfolded for them and how they and their staff are doing their best to work in challenging times while planning for an uncertain future.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Leadership can unexpectedly throw you in at the deep end The current coronavirus situation is something that everybody, not just school leaders, has had no real equivalent experience of. It has meant that everyone has had to adapt quickly and, in many cases, continue adapting to daily despite having had no meaningful training which can be drawn upon to help. All establishments, but in particular schools, are having to handle the crisis in their own unique ways – and adapt and evolve to what is happening quite differently – given the very different make-ups of their communities and staff Often, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ course of action As has been made even more apparent with the coronavirus events, leaders have to make quick decisions and take courses of action which, at the time, are based on the evidence to hand and where there is no clear correct or incorrect choice. An example discussed here are the decisions senior leaders had to make around when to inform parents of what will likely happen with schools and, within that, what to say or speculate on. Just before the announcements of school closures, there was very little concrete information to go on, so contacting parents or waiting for more details to emerge was neither the right nor wrong thing to do. Trust in staff, but offer support where needed During times of major news events which can be potentially upsetting for children, deciding what information to discuss can be very tricky. Managing anxiety amongst children who are exposed to information via the news and, in some cases, disinformation on social media can be tricky. Although being on-hand with support for staff where needed, this can be a good time to trust in the class teachers who know the children best and allow them to tailor the correct information to their groups in the best way. Be realistic about remote-learning expectations The current situation has prompted a lot of very speedy possible ‘solutions’ to children learning at home. While there is a lot of useful software and online content, it can be wise to keep in mind what options you can provide for families with little or no technology at home or who have no internet access. Also what can seem as though it is easy to administer at first can turn out to be quite time consuming. Along with this, many schools have tried to make sure that there is enough for children to work on at home, but what has become increasingly apparent is that a lot of families won’t have enough time in the days and weeks to get through all of the tasks. Revisiting your plans and liaising with parents can be a good way to get feedback and find out what’s working and what isn’t and what help or support parents might be looking for. Be as consistent as you can be To try and reduce anxiety and uncertainty, wherever possible continue doing what your children are familiar with in terms of the work and tasks. A lot of things sent home for children to do will of course, in terms of the types of work, be quite different to what would normally happen in school. However, if you use particular schemes or resource banks, sending these home or using a familiar format could help the children as they will already be used to working with that. Although we have no clear ideas about what the future will hold, there are some important questions that will need to be considered There are so many uncertainties about what the future will hold and trying to be fully prepared for all eventualities will be impossible. However, when the time comes, schools will need to consider a huge range of challenges. For example, what will staffing and recruitment look like for the next academic year given that a lot of staff will already have secured new jobs for September? If schools do not reopen until September (or possibly later) what will happen with the curriculum and missed learning? Some children will have done over and above the work sent home whereas others will have done much less. Collaboration and the online educational community are both great for ideas and professional development. A notable ‘positive’ to come out of the current crisis is that it has brought together a lot of people from all aspects of education. A lot of new online groups have sprung up and existing groups such as the Dynamic Deputies own group have been much more active in sharing ideas and collaborating to try and do the best for children and their parents at home. If you’re stuck for ideas or just need to discuss a particular issue, there are a lot of places you can now turn to for support.   BEST MOMENTS “I feel like that’s an enormous burden. You are being thrown into a position in leadership where you are having to make decisions about something you have never had training in and never had any practice in.” “I feel like I am learning every day about what I should and shouldn’t be doing.” “In terms of the staff, I’m really proud of everyone involved. I’ve really seen a coming togetherness.” “One of the decisions me made early on was that we weren’t going to get everyone into a big assembly and talk about it because that would just heighten anxiety and make it feel really big and really huge. We said have conversations in your own classes where it feels quite calm and it feels very normal. But, at the same time, we’re dealing with something that’s really not normal.” “I think we very much trusted that our staff knew the kids and knew how to tailor the message to them.” “One thing that’s really good is to be using your parents as a bit of sounding board and sending e-mails out just saying, ‘Look, can you give us a bit of feedback? What’s working, what isn’t?’” “We’ve asked an awful lot of parents to become teachers overnight.” “We’ve all got through the short term. And then it’s like we need some headspace to go, ‘Gosh, what do we want for the long-term?’” “We’ll be starting a year in September, potentially, where we have not finished the previous year.” “We’re like a cog in this giant machine right now. We need to be doing our bit for the children’s welfare.” “Children are resilient. They do adapt easily. Being safe at school and having that routine at school will be essential to making sure that we can go back to normality as quickly as possible.” “I think it’s a time more than ever to treat people with some decency and not expect crazy extras of them. Don’t ask for timesheets… Just trust people a bit because everyone’s trying their best and be aware of the emotional burden of all this.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Don’t shoot the deputies podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dont-shoot-the-deputies/id1449384975 Make an impact education: https://www.facebook.com/dynamicdeps/ Dynamic Deps on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DynamicDeps The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST Claire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.

Steve Eastes and Russell Pearson (The Dynamic Deputies): Coronavirus and school closures

The Teachers' Podcast provides additional support to teachers. Whether it's ideas to be used in the classroom, listening to the perspective of someone else in school or just being able to relate to the challenges other educators face, each episode delves into a key topic within education with a guest. Developed in association with Classroom Secrets and hosted by Classroom Secrets’ MD, Claire Riley, the podcast is also available on YouTube.

hubhopper

The Teachers' Podcast

hubhopper