SecEd Podcast

This episode considers how teaching staff can effectively support autistic students in the classroom and across the mainstream secondary school. Our expert panel offers a range of practical insights and advice to help teachers and support staff, including teaching tips and pastoral care. We begin our discussion by busting some of the common misconceptions and myths about autism and autistic students before dissecting what makes for an autism-friendly school and classroom environment and strong inclusive practice. We discuss what schools can do to support and foster friendships and social connections for our autistic students – and how can staff build strong relationships with these young people? We touch upon Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) but also why we cannot rely on the paperwork and must engage with the young person if we are to meet their needs – taking a strength-based approach. How can teachers adapt their lessons to include their autistic students without overwhelming them – and what part does technology (including AI) play in making learning accessible for young people? We also ask what needs to change in the school environment to support proper inclusion autistic young people – including asking each of our experts for the one big change they would make in schools… Finally, we discuss the common teaching methods that make things harder for autistic students. How can teachers combine routine with the flexibility that these students need.

In this episode, we consider what makes for excellent library provision in the secondary school, including ideas for supporting literacy and curriculum delivery. We speak with four experienced and expert school library professionals to glean their advice, ideas and tips for excellent library provision. We discuss the most important elements in effective library provision and why schools should consider employing a qualified librarian as part of their provision. We consider how school librarians can work effectively with teaching staff to support whole-school teaching and learning and ideas for how librarians can engage with colleagues across the school. Of course, we focus on literacy and reading and the role libraries and school librarians have to play, including ideas for library-based initiatives, managing library stock, engaging struggling readers, and boosting reading for pleasure. And it's not just about books, we also consider the hidden roles of a school librarian, including the pastoral side. And we finish with our ideas corner when we ask each of our guests to offer their ideas for library provision that schools can adapt and adopt.

This podcast discusses teacher training and induction, offering practical advice for trainee and early career teachers (ECTs) and their mentors. Our expert panel explores the Department for Education's new Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework – due to come into effect in September 2025. The combined ITT-ECF sets out what trainee and ECTs need to know – and know how to do – at the start of their careers and the panel discuss what is in the new combined framework and how it might work in practice, including how the distinct ITT and ECF elements will work together and key elements such as SEND and inclusive practice. We also touch upon the eight standards within the framework and invite our guests to pick out some of the elements crucial to meeting these standards. We discuss the transition from being a trainee teacher to being an ECT, including how trainees can best be supported to progress from trainee to ECT and then to successfully complete their induction and become fully qualified. We offer advice on a number of specific issues, including how ECTs can manage their priorities and embed themselves into their new schools as well as advice for trainees when applying for their first teaching job, among other “top tips” for new teachers. Our panel also discusses mentorship – what skills do good ECT mentors need and what support should they be offering to new teachers? What should new teachers expect from their mentors?

To celebrate the 100th edition of the SecEd Podcast this episode counts down our top 10 most popular podcasts of all time. Have you listened to them all? Launched in early 2020, the SecEd Podcast has been on air for five years and to mark episode 100 podcast co-hosts Pete Henshaw and Matt Bromley reveal our top 10 most listened to episodes – interspersed with clips and highlights from each one. Without giving the game away, themes include oracy education, senior and middle leadership, quality first teaching, classroom management, Pupil Premium, inclusion and SEN, and much, much more. Matt and Pete also pick out their own favourite episodes from the last five years. All these episodes and indeed all of our 100 episodes are available to listen back to via the SecEd website – www.sec-ed.co.uk/podcast – or via your streaming service of choice. Our thanks to you – the teachers and educators of the UK – for listening. Here's to the next 100 episodes!

This episode looks at the opportunities and risks presented by the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. We speak to three experts who are working in schools to develop AI in effective and safe ways. We kick off the discussion by asking our panel to list what they consider to be the three biggest benefits of AI in schools and the three biggest risks/threats. We then look at whole-school AI strategy and policy. What does a good AI strategy look like and what elements need to be included in a school's AI policy? What does effective staff training look like? How should education around AI be fed into the curriculum? What kind of “rules” need to be in place? And what does Ofsted have to say about AI? We also talk AI in the classroom. How might teachers use AI in their lesson-planning and resource-creation? We discuss a number of ideas for using AI to create resources/plan lessons. Also, what risks should teachers be aware of when using AI? What pitfalls do teachers need to avoid? We talk about diversity in resource-creation, the pitfalls of prompt engineering, and data protection. We name drop a few resources that our panel are using with success, and we end the podcast with their biggest “lessons learned” so far and their final reflections.

This episode looks at what it means to be a research-informed school and how we can use research to improve teaching, learning, and student outcomes. We talk to three experienced and research-engaged educators about what kind of research it is best for schools to use – and how we can know that any particular piece of research is valid and trustworthy. We then consider how we can balance external research studies and findings with our own evidence collected internally in our schools. Our panel advise how we can help teachers to engage with academic research, including via in-school CPD as well as further study such as doctorates. We also discuss how we can use research evidence in decision-making processes and school improvement planning.

This episode offers practical advice and examples for how we can protect the wellbeing of our teaching staff – with ideas for teachers and schools. The episode has been inspired by the recent publication of Education Support UK's Teacher Wellbeing Index 2024, which has once again painted a worrying picture about the wellbeing of those who give so much to educate our children and young people in schools. As such, we hear from Education Support about the findings of this year's Index research findings and speak to our guests about the wellbeing challenges that teaching staff face. Our expert panel offers practical ideas, discussing what schools can do to develop healthy working cultures, including promoting good working practices, building positive working relationships, and preventing staff burn-out. We discuss preventative action including coaching/mentoring, wellbeing audits, and more. We also consider how teachers can maintain a healthy work/life balance and discuss what individuals can do, including setting boundaries, saying 'no' effectively, safeguarding personal time, and good habits at home. We touch upon diversity and inclusion too, including the wellbeing challenges faced by staff from minority backgrounds and how schools can ensure they are supporting all colleagues.

In this episode we discuss ideas for how we can build a positive and inspiring whole-school culture which is inclusive of all, drives high standards, and sustainable in the long-term. We ask what we mean by “school culture” – the way we do things here – and consider how a school culture intersect with its vision, ethos and values, rules, attitudes, and social norms. We speak with three school leaders about how they have developed the culture in their institutions and offer a range of practical ideas and “lessons learned”. We ask how a school leader can go about creating and establishing the right culture in their school – what questions should we ask ourselves? We consider how to communicate your school culture and make it consistent and concrete. How can you sustain your school culture over the long-term and how can you handle any challenges to your culture? We also consider behaviours that can help establish culture – and how we can “nudge” students to adopt these behaviours.

In this episode, we discuss practical actions that secondary school leaders and teachers can take to reduce workload and working hours. The Department for Education's Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders research shows that secondary teachers are working almost 50 hours a week on average while secondary leaders work more than 58 hours a week. This episode features two experienced school leaders who have both undertaken a range of initiatives in their schools to bring workload down for all staff. We discuss some of the most common workload challenges before hearing about some of their approaches, offering tips and ideas, and identifying a number of areas where schools might be able to reduce workload and working hours. Specifically, we cover topics including strategies for assessment and marking, timetable and calendar planning, internal communications and meetings, behaviour management, additional duties, and more. We also touch upon the various forms of flexible working and how some of these can be made to work in the secondary school environment – including touching upon the government's plans to allow teachers' PPA time to be taken at home.

This episode looks at how we can best teach and prepare our examination classes in the secondary school, especially our GCSE groups. A panel of experienced teachers considers what specific challenges come with teaching exam clases and exam course content and discuss how we can best prepare our students for the exam hall experience itself, including how we can build good exam habits alongside teaching course content. We discuss how teachers can support their students' wellbeing during their examination years – especially in years 10 and 11 – and how we can build their resilience, thus helping them to manage stress and exam anxiety as the pressure mounts. We focus specifically on how we can build exam technique, including the dos and don'ts for using past exam papers as learning tools. We look at other teaching techniques too, including modelling good answers. And how and when should we teach and model these exam techniques to ensure they are embedded while avoiding student burn-out? Finally to what extent should we be helping students to plan their exam revision? We ask what self-study and revision skills we should be teaching and how? Our experts even suggest a few particular techniques that they like to use, such as mnemonics and revision games.

This episode offers practical advice for the effective use of teaching assistants (TAs) in the secondary school classroom. Packed full of practical ideas and examples, the episode features three experienced educators, including teachers and TAs. We ask why we need TAs in the modern secondary classroom and the kinds of skills, training and CPD that our TAs need to have in order to be effective. From there, we move on to discussing effective deployment and how teachers can work effectively with their TAs to support teaching and learning in the classroom. We discuss a number of ideas and approaches, including flipping the traditional model of TAs providing one-to-one support. We also discuss what role TAs should have when delivering additional interventions. And, crucially, we discuss what effective communication between teachers and TAs looks like. We also touch upon the role of TAs in supporting the social and emotional development of our young people.

In this episode we offer practical advice and tips for teaching staff to help you manage behaviour effectively in your classrooms. Focusing on the secondary school classroom, our experts discuss why school culture is vital to promoting positive behaviour and what this looks like in practice. We discuss where the line lies between overarching principles of whole-school behaviour and how that manifests itself in different classrooms and different subjects? We offer concrete, tangible classroom strategies, ideas and tips for your “in the moment” behaviour toolkit. We consider the role and use of rewards and sanctions/consequences, clear expectations, as well as tips for how teachers can remain consistent and encourage students' intrinsic good behaviour. We discuss the rule of “what we permit, we promote” and ask what that looks like in practice, we look too at how we can “teach” and model good behaviours. We chat about how we can “rebuild” relationships after a behaviour incident and talk about working with parents.

This episode considers what schools can do to spot vulnerable students at risk of suspension or exclusion and how we can intervene to pull them back from the brink. Official figures show the number of suspensions and exclusions is increasing year-on-year, not least due to persistent disruptive behaviour. Related factors seem to include unmet mental health and SEN needs, poverty, safeguarding issues, trauma, criminal exploitation, social media, and more. In this episode, we chat to a secondary school headteacher and a virtual headteacher to find out what they are seeing on the ground. We ask what preventative actions schools can take to keep students in school and what the signs are that we need to be alert to that a student is on a suspension/exclusion trajectory. We discuss a graduated response to supporting students and the role of the school environment and climate for learning, including how routines and expectations can help and “teaching” behaviour. We also touch upon potential interventions for students at risk, including pastoral support plans, unmet needs, a change of curriculum, family support workers and more. We also ask how we can support students who have been suspended to help them reintegrate into school life successfully, including running reintegration meetings.

In this episode we discuss excellent Pupil Premium practice and offer practical tips and ideas for how schools and teachers can support their most disadvantaged pupils. We explore the causes of disadvantage and why the attainment gap between rich and poor has remained stubbornly large. We look at the tangible classroom consequences of disadvantage and what that means for teaching and learning. Specifically, we touch upon how we can improve the attendance of disadvantaged students as well as their language and vocabulary levels. We look at how we can ensure the funding benefits all pupils living in disadvantage – and not just those eligible for free school meals – and we explore the Pupil Premium interventions that tend to work best in most settings. We look at the common ingredients of an effective Pupil Premium strategy, including breaking down the five steps recommended by the EEF (diagnose pupil need, ensure strong evidence, implement, monitor, evaluate). We look at the role and responsibilities of the Pupil Premium coordinator in schools and the part that must be played by senior leaders and governors. And we also discuss how to prepare for an inspection of your Pupil Premium practice.

This episode looks at how to be an effective line manager in the secondary school, offering practical advice, examples and strategies for middle and senior leaders who have line management responsibilities. We chat with two experienced school leaders to discuss the golden rules and key skills required to be an effective line manager. We look at the different type of line manage roles and identify the biggest challenges for line managers. We focus specifically on appraisal – a key duty of line managers. We look at effective appraisal practice, supporting CPD, how to prepare for and have difficult conversations, and dos and don'ts for conducting lesson observations. We also talk about effective quality assurance practice, including how line managers can act on the findings of QA processes. And we discuss staff wellbeing, morale and workload – what can line managers do to protect staff wellbeing, build morale and to help keep workload under control and in check.

This episode looks at how school leaders can thrive and survive in their role, including wellbeing advice, tips for leading from the front, and advice for those new to leadership roles. We interview two experienced school leaders to get their insights and practical advice. We look at the hardest challenges of school leadership for those new to the role and tips to help you start off on the right foot. We ask how school leaders can be visible in school and available while protecting their workload and work/life balance. We also ask how leaders can model good work/life balance and working practices, including delegation and distributed leadership. And how can we lead from the front, and set ourselves up to- make good decisions and drive school improvement? We consider how to have difficult conversations, dealing with conflict and tackling underperformance. And how can we avoid becoming an isolated leader. How do we show vulnerability and humility as a school leader, how do we model learning from our mistakes and how do we remain resilient?

In this episode, three experienced teachers discuss how to start and end our lessons in the secondary school classroom – focusing on getting the first and last 10 minutes right. We kick off with some “golden rules” and key ingredients for opening and closing our lessons. We look at achieving calm lesson starts from a behaviour and classroom management point of view, including setting the right tone for behaviour, meeting and greeting, and dealing with students who are late or those who do not settle well. We also consider ideas for getting into learning as quickly and smoothly as possible, including tips for starter activities, recapping previous learning, explaining learning objectives, and fostering student engagement and curiosity about the lesson. When it comes to ending our lessons, we discuss ideas and techniques for bringing learning to a natural close and assessing whether the lesson has landed well with students. Also, how do we give students reflection time? Do we always need a plenary? And what makes for effective end-of-lesson learning routines? And how can we end our lessons so that transition to the next lesson is calm from a behavioural point of view, including effective end of lesson behaviour routines.

Good questioning is at the heart of great teaching – as such this very practical episode looks at how teachers can plan and ask effective questions that support student participation, learning and progress. Two experienced teachers discuss the different purposes of questioning in the classroom as well as the things teachers must consider when planning their questions and questioning techniques. We detail some of the common challenges and how we can overcome them, such as getting the timing of questions right, encouraging student participation, dealing with “I don't know” responses, improving oracy and the quality of student responses, creating a safe questioning culture in your classroom and more. We look at the different types of questions, including hinge questions, Socratic questioning, discussions, metacognitive questions and more. And we consider different techniques, including hot seating, think-pair-share, cold-calling, mini-whiteboards, entry and exit tickets, students asking the questions and more.

This episode of the podcast asks how classroom teachers and teaching staff can best support the learning, progress, and wellbeing of their neurodiverse students. Our expert panel offer a range of advice, ideas, and tips based on their extensive experience within SEND education. We define neurodiversity and discuss what makes a learner neurodiverse and the kinds of conditions the term covers while also busting some myths. We discuss how we can support the wellbeing of these learners in our classroom, including examples of best practice and practical tips. Likewise, we discuss general teaching tips and approaches to support the progress of neurodiverse learners, touching upon pedagogy, common adjustments, adaptive teaching, and the classroom environment. We talk advice for supporting specific neurodiverse conditions and we also hear about one school's Autism Resource Base and how that has been established and works in practice. We finish with some recommendations for further reading, resources, and support for our work to support this cohort of students.

This episode looks at the role of the classroom teacher and teaching staff when it comes to effective safeguarding practice, offering insights, tips and practical dos and don'ts. Classroom teachers and teaching staff are on the frontline when it comes to spotting students who are at risk or struggling due to safeguarding issues. In the episode, three experts consider how we can spot the signs of safeguarding issues, what to do if we're worried, and how to support and handle disclosures from students – including what to say and what not to say. We discuss the key safeguarding duties of classroom staff, not least how teachers can engage effectively with the safeguarding documentation, including statutory guidance, and with training requirements. We consider general rules for ensuring good safeguarding practice in your classroom, how we can challenge our own assumptions, and how we can promote a culture of safeguarding, including via our classroom environment and the curriculum. Finally, we discuss some of the current safeguarding trends and offer tips and pointers for school staff.  

This episode focuses on subject reviews or “deep dives” in the secondary school, asking what they are, how we can conduct them effectively without burdening staff, and what information we can and cannot expect to gather accurately. Our expert panel asks what a subject review or deep dive is and looks like and why we need to carry them out – ultimately, what is their purpose? We discuss how we can best conduct reviews/deep dives in order to ensure that we gather reliable and valid information that helps to inform our improvement planning. And how can we do this while minimising the amount of stress that deep dives can cause to subject leader sand teachers, not least in terms of workload? We ask what information we can gather with accuracy and confidence through subject review/deep dives, including the kind of questions we might ask. And, crucially, we ask what information we cannot gather with accuracy and confidence and what approaches we should avoid. We also discuss the vital role of subject and middle leaders and the kind of CPD a school must have in place to support effective subject review processes. Ofsted has of course placed subject deep dives at the heart of its Education Inspection Framework, and we touch upon how good practice in this area can stand a school in good stead for when inspectors do call.

In this episode, three experienced teachers discuss ideas, tips and advice for fostering student curiosity and motivation in the secondary school classroom. We ask what curiosity and motivation look like in a classroom and discuss the key elements of the classroom environment and our teaching and pedagogy that can help to create curious and motivated students. Not least, we ask how we can create a “culture of curiosity” that students buy into in our classrooms, including inclusive practice, building strong relationships with our students as well as the importance of effective classroom routines and teacher role-modelling (and how they can do this). We discuss how we can motivate students who are struggling in their personal lives and as such arrive in our classrooms not ready for learning. We focus on pedagogy and curriculum delivery. How can we plan learning so that we engage and retain students' curiosity? How can we make learning relevant to students' lives? We offer a range of ideas for using hooks and other devices to boost engagement. We talk about the kind of tasks we set in lessons, how we can achieve desirable difficulty so that students are challenged but motivated, and the importance of chunking work and achieving a high-but-not-too-high success rate. We talk about the role of teacher expectations and ideas for how we should respond when students “fail” or struggle with their learning. And we touch upon metacognition and self-regulation, the importance of teaching students how to manage their own learning, and the role of autonomy and student choice in their learning.

This episode looks at how secondary schools can plan and implement flexible working practices to help boost teacher recruitment and retention. Our panel of experts include headteachers who have placed flexible working at the heart of their recruitment and retention strategies as well as teachers who work flexibly themselves. We discuss why schools should consider flexible working, the impact it can have, and the benefits for staff and students. How can we be strategic about our approach to flexible working? What do we need to consider when designing flexible working roles? How can we ensure it has an impact on issues such as workload and staff wellbeing? And it's not all about part-time working – we consider the forms that flexible working can take and the types of flexible working approaches that are possible. Our experts offer a range of practical tips and examples and discuss how schools and teachers can overcome common blocks or barriers to effective flexible working.

What is “calm leadership” and how can this philosophy help middle and senior leaders in schools to be effective and inspiring in their roles? In this podcast, we chat to Patrick Cozier, the long-serving headteacher of Highgate Wood School in London, about his philosophy of calm leadership. In a nine-article SecEd series last year, Patrick described his calm leadership approach, discussing what being a calm leader looks like in practice and the many elements involved, including empathy, listening, honesty, integrity, humility, trust, and so much more. The series is now being turned into a new book and in this episode of the podcast we chat to Patrick to get practical insights into what calm leadership involves and how we can all aspire to be “calmer” in our leadership approaches in schools. We discuss the challenges of leadership and how to deal with them in a calm and reasoned way, including the paranoia of leadership, imposter syndrome, when doubt sets in, handling difficult moments, and difficult conversations. We also talk about how to keep calm in challenging situations, keeping a sense of perspective, staying optimistic, and working with colleagues to make good decisions. We consider how to lead people effectively, including building trust, empowering colleagues, listening properly, and being kind. And we ask how we can nurture other key elements such as humility, empathy, integrity and more. And we discuss coping with the emotional rollercoaster that is school leadership.

This episode discusses how we can build strong connections and relationships with our students – especially those who are vulnerable – in order that they have the best chance of overcoming barriers and making progress in our classrooms. Two experienced colleagues discuss why this is important and some key principles to building these relationships. We ask how we can begin building connections with a new class of students and how we can foster strong relationships even when we might see hundreds of students every week. We talk about building a culture of trust and respect in our classrooms and the common traits that teachers might display in order to build these connections. We also consider quick wins, including shaking hands, seating plans, corridor conversations, positive calls home, how to remember key details about students, role-modelling, and apologising when necessary. We discuss strategies for building connections with individual vulnerable students – perhaps those who face the greatest barriers to learning and who are at the greatest risk of disengaging. And we look at engaging with families and some whole-school strategies that might help teachers to build connections with their students.

In this episode we speak with Rachel W – an abuse survivor who disclosed to staff at school when aged 14 after suffering years of abuse. Rachel talks powerfully about her story and the lessons schools and school staff can learn from it in order to improve safeguarding practice. Interviewed by pastoral specialist and teacher Adele Bates, Rachel discusses the impact of the abuse, including on her education and behaviour in school. She talks about her attempts to disclose and how she was finally rescued from her abuser. She discusses spotting the signs of abuse, the barriers to disclosure, how staff should handle disclosures – how we must respond – and what to do if you suspect a child is being abused or is at risk of harm. We also talk about the behaviour of children who are living with trauma and what staff should be aware of. Rachel has been writing about these themes in SecEd (https://bit.ly/seced-disclosure) and wanted to take part in this episode to help support school staff to know what to do in safeguarding situations. The podcast makes for uncomfortable listening at times but is essential listening for all those working with children in schools.

This episode focuses on how we can teach oracy and speaking skills in the secondary school classroom, with lots of practical tips, ideas, resources and advice. We discuss what oracy is – including the four strands of oracy skills – why oracy matters, the benefits of good oracy skills, what the national curriculum says about spoken language and student talk, and the impact we have seen on students' speaking skills since Covid (spoiler: 44% of secondary teachers say the pandemic has hit oracy skills negatively). We look at how we can teach oracy in the classroom and via the curriculum, including practical ideas and activities for the explicit teaching of oracy. We ask what high expectations for classroom talk look like and hear examples of practice from two secondary schools. We consider whole-school strategies, including creating a culture where students feel able to speak-up, cross-curriculum planning for oracy, how to ensure consistent approaches, staff CPD, the role of extra-curricular clubs, and much more. And we ask how we can best assess and monitor our students' progress in terms of oracy.

This episode of the SecEd Podcast offers best practice and tips for effectively managing Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) and supporting students with SEND in the mainstream secondary school. Our expert panel offer advice and tips for teachers, SENCOs, and school leaders across a number of areas. We discuss the main things that mainstream secondary schools need to bear in mind when a student has an EHCP. What do teachers need to be aware of when reading EHCPs and how should teaching staff and SENCOs work together (and with parents/carers) to ensure SEND students are supported effectively in their lessons and learning? And how should EHCPs evolve as the student moves through secondary school and into key stage 5 (and beyond)? We offer advice for SENCOs to help them manage the EHCP within the mainstream secondary school setting. We also look at how to support families of students should have an EHCP but do not. The EHCP is a local authority document and so we also discuss the role of the local authority and some of the common problems in the system. Finally, we discuss the implications of the government's recently published SEND Improvement Plan, especially plans to digitise the EHCP.

This episode cuts through the jargon and offers simple advice and tips relating to the Teachers' Pension Scheme and general financial planning for teachers and school leaders – no matter what age or stage of your career you're at. We chat with two financial experts to discuss the Teachers' Pension Scheme including the basics of how it works, how it pays out, and what you need to know and prepare for. We talk retirement – including early retirement, phased retirement, delayed retirement – and what the various options mean for your pension and how your benefits are calculated, as well as a number of crucial details you need to be aware of. The conversation is relevant to younger teachers too. We discuss what you need to be thinking about now – even if it feels that retirement is a long way off. We discuss normal pension age versus normal retirement age, the implications for teachers of the McCloud judgement and the change in minimum pension age from 2028. And we outline three methods for increasing income from the TPS, as well as ill-health pensions, and the impact of taking strike action on your pension. This episode of the SecEd Podcast has been brought to you in partnership with Wesleyan Financial Services – specialists in providing financial advice tailored to educational professionals within the UK. You can find a range of resources related to our discussion via www.wesleyan.co.uk/supporting-teachers

This episode looks at how we can best develop the literacy skills of our students, offering whole-school, cross-curricular and classroom-specific ideas, interventions and tips. The podcast defines literacy as the ability to speak, read and write and to understand and use language in order to communicate effectively. We welcome four guests from four schools who discuss the range of approaches, programmes, and interventions they use to support students' literacy. We ask why literacy skills are so important, what form these skills take in practice, and how we can help students to develop these skills. Our guests discuss the interventions and programmes they use to support literacy catch-up and how they go about identifying students most in need of these interventions. How can we ensure that all teachers see themselves as teachers of literacy and teach the vocabulary of their subjects? What is the role of phonics in secondary literacy education, especially post-Covid? We talk vocabulary and disciplinary literacy. How can we teach vocabulary effectively and explicitly? How can we close the vocab gap? How can we embed vital disciplinary literacy? How do we develop speaking and listening skills? We talk Ofsted too – what inspectors looks for and how we can ensure that our literacy work also meets inspection requirements.

This episode discusses the role of the secondary school form tutor – what the role entails, how teachers can become effective form tutors, key expectations and obligations, ideas for running your form day-to-day, and general dos & don'ts. Two experienced pastoral leaders offer their insights, including the key obligations of the form tutor and legal duties in terms of safeguarding and attendance. What is the purpose of a form tutor and how does this change with the age of the students? How can we create an effective form tutor environment?  Our guests offer a number of tips for running your tutor group, including the essential routines or checklists that will “set students up” for a successful day and the basic day-to-day and week-to-week tasks. Which school policies must new form tutors get familiar with and be sure to uphold? We offer ideas for activities, initiatives, or areas of focus to support students pastorally and academically and to boost morale. What does the role of the form tutor entail outside of tutor time? How should form tutors liaise with other members of staff in the school. How can tutors build relationships with students and parents, especially in year 7? What can you do when you have a challenging form group? And the podcast finishes with some dos and don'ts for teachers taking on form tutor groups for the first time.

This episode looks at career progression pathways in the secondary school, advising teachers on the range of options and how to develop specialisms and experience. Our expert panel beings with key things to consider when planning where you want to take your teaching career. We discuss the different options and why all teachers – including early career teachers – should be thinking about career progression. How can you hone your plans and develop your skills? How should teachers go about choosing a specialism? What kinds of opportunities should you look for? Who can you approach for advice/mentoring? Once teachers have their career progression plan in place, where can they find support? We discuss in-school CPD, other opportunities, qualifications and more. How do we go about developing a specialism? How long does it take? Should we change schools to support our career goals? And how can schools ensure they are supporting the development of their teaching staff? This is the second of two episodes focused on career conversations. The first offered advice, practical tips and inspiration for teachers thinking about taking on leadership roles within schools and those climbing the leadership ladder: https://bit.ly/seced-leadership These episodes have been produced in partnership with Teaching Vacancies, the free-to-use job listing service from the Department for Education: https://teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/

This episode offers advice, practical tips and inspiration for teachers who are thinking about taking on leadership roles within schools and for those already climbing the leadership ladder. Three experts discuss why teaching staff should aspire to leadership and the different pathways and roles within middle and senior leadership. What kind of skills are needed for leadership? How can teaching staff – including early career teachers – develop these skills and wider leadership experience? How can they dip their toe in the water and “have a go”? What kind of leadership opportunities can teachers look out for? We discuss different pathways, specialisms and CPD options, including via the Chartered College, WomenEd, National Professional Qualifications and other routes. What are the common barriers to leadership aspiration and how can we overcome them? And how can schools make middle and senior leadership attractive and more diverse? This is one of two episodes focused on career conversations. The second, out on March 22, will focus on wider career pathways and progression within the secondary school. These episodes have been produced in partnership with Teaching Vacancies, the free-to-use job listing service from the Department for Education. Sign up for job alerts via https://teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk

This episode looks at how to embed high-impact routines into your classroom and your teaching. We ask which routines or learning habits are the most successful and how can they be established in order to make teaching and learning more efficient and effective. We ask three key questions of our experts: Why are classroom routines so important? How can we establish classroom routines? What routines do we want to establish – which ones matter the most and will help to ensure that our classroom is an effective learning environment? What are the most useful habits and routines to introduce to facilitate teaching and learning? We offer some concrete ideas and suggestions. We discuss how we can decide upon, create, and establish these routines, including a seven-step process for creating and embedding routines. We talk about how routines can lessen cognitive load in lessons for students, the importance of consistency and efficiency in the routines we create, and what we do when students don't get the routines right.

This episode considers effective lesson-planning in the secondary school, offering practical tips, advice and ideas for teachers and subject/curriculum leaders. Our experts discuss the difference between a planned lesson and a lesson plan. We ask what should be included in medium and short-term lesson planning. What are the non-negotiables, including key knowledge, skills, and the big questions? Which end-points should we include? What do we want pupils to think about, know and do? What are your success criteria? How does lesson-planning link to curriculum sequencing? How do we incorporate our school's learning values? What is the balance between departmental direction vs individual teacher planning and autonomy? How do we plan lessons that cater for different levels of prior knowledge and tackle gaps in knowledge or misconceptions? We talk different types of lesson structure and different lesson ingredients, important lesson routines, planning for challenge & differentiation, using teaching assistants and more.

This episode tackles Ofsted school inspections, offering practical insights and tips – large and small – for secondary schools to help you thrive when the inspectors call. Three experts offer a wealth of advice including some simple tenets of best practice for preparing for and handling Ofsted. Our advice covers the 90-minute phone call, what needs to be in place pre-inspection, being ‘Ofsted-ready' without burdening staff, and what data you need to have in place. We offer tips for hosting the inspection team and managing the two days, including the emotional stress. We discuss protecting staff wellbeing and workload before and during inspection. We highlight trends from recent inspections, including the issues inspectors are asking schools about. And we discuss what you can do if things are going wrong, including how to challenge inspectors. Finally, we give you a sneaky hack for how you can predict when your inspection is due...

This episode offers practical advice and ideas for how secondary schools can support and protect the mental health of their students. NHS data shows that almost one in five students aged 7 to 16 have a probable mental disorder. Our experts discuss the most pressing issues they are seeing and offer advice for how schools can respond. We discuss creating a mentally healthy school culture, whole-school strategies, the role of the mental health lead, tips for things we can do to make a difference, building resilience after Covid, and staff CPD. We advise teachers on how to handle interactions with students who are struggling, what to say & do in moments of crisis, what to do if you have concerns, and other tips for conversations with vulnerable young people. And we discuss specific challenges including anxiety, low mood/ depression, loneliness, as well as the signs of change in pupils that may signal mental health issues.

This episode considers what effective governance looks like in the secondary school and how school leaders and governors can work together successfully and productively. We speak with three school leadership experts about: The distinction between the strategic and the operational and to what extent should governors be operational? How can we support governors who have little or no experience of schools? What makes for an effective chair and vice-chair of governors? What does an effective link governor role look like? How does governance change between individual schools and chains of schools within MATs? Which governance structures work best? What kind of information should school leaders provide to governors when and in which format?

This episode looks at leadership diversity in schools, offering a practical discussion about what diverse leadership looks like, how we can develop diverse leadership culture, and the benefits this can bring. We discuss how we “practise” diverse leadership – what should be in place to do it well and what are the crucial factors? How can we be vulnerable and admit mistakes – embracing the fear that this work can generate? What should we avoid when trying to achieve diverse leadership? We tackle the implications for recruitment processes, considering dos and don'ts. How do we create an inclusive culture and avoid tokenism? How can we ensure school priorities are equitable and inclusive? We also consider useful further reading, networks, and resources. This podcast follows previous episodes on diversity in the classroom and creating a culture of diversity across the school.

In 2016, teacher and school leader Peter Radford finally quit the chalkface after burning-out and breaking down due to untenable workload and wellbeing pressures. In this episode – the second of two staff wellbeing podcasts – we hear his story and seek advice for other teachers battling poor wellbeing, high workload, and poor work/life balance. Peter talks about his own experience and how others can spot the signs before it is too late. For schools, we discuss the tenets of creating a mentally healthy working culture, including six basic psychological needs for staff. For teachers, we discuss protecting our wellbeing, including tips for new teachers, how to say no, prioritising personal time, asking for help, managing workload, and defeating the myth of outstanding. For part one, visit https://bit.ly/seced-wellbeing-staff

Tens of thousands of teachers quit every year due to poor wellbeing and work/life balance. Across two episodes, we look at how schools can support the wellbeing of teaching staff and what teachers can do to protect their wellbeing. In part one, we discuss how to create a whole-school culture of wellbeing, including mentally-healthy working environments, the pillars of psychological safety, and everyday wellbeing. We consider how line managers can support colleagues and spot problems, how schools should respond if staff are struggling, and what teachers can do – including how to say no, sleeping properly, and protecting personal time.

One in four children are persistently absent from school and new government guidance means attendance is a priority this term. In this episode, we discuss why students struggle to attend school, the barriers they face, and effective approaches/strategies to help raise attendance. We seek tips from children's commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza and the Education Endowment Foundation, discussing the findings and recommendations from two school attendance research reviews. We ask what secondary schools can do to support students who struggle to attend, including how to engage with families, with a range of practical ideas for short-term and long-term interventions.

With soaring costs and real-terms school funding cuts, balancing the books has become a huge challenge. This episode offers practical advice for effective school financial planning and management. We consider the funding situation on the ground and contemplate some worst-case scenarios for the year ahead. We discuss how we can approach the challenges we face, touching upon generating efficiencies, managing cashflow, benchmarking, financial planning metrics, costing development plans, and more. We consider how business managers can work effectively with the headteacher and governors/trustees – including offering robust challenge – and the process of setting budgets for both MATs and standalone schools.

In this episode, Alex Quigley offers tips and ideas for the explicit teaching of writing skills in the secondary classroom. Drawing on his book, Closing the Writing Gap, Alex explains how secondary teachers of all subjects can improve their students' writing skills – and why this is important. We discuss general principles, the Simple View of Writing, explicitly teaching and modelling the stages of writing, using talk and rhetoric, disciplinary literacy, teaching grammar, sentence composition, handwriting, and spelling. Alex offers us some easy exercises/techniques including tips for improving sentence construction, editing-revising-rewriting, checking work back, vocabulary, and more.

Are you ready for the new school year? This podcast offers a checklist for senior leaders in secondary schools to help you prepare for the autumn term and beyond. Our experts discuss common ‘new year' tasks for school leaders as well as common problems at this time of year. We focus on the school improvement cycle and self-evaluation – what should be in place and what lies ahead for the School Improvement Plan? We talk staffing, including CPD, succession planning, induction of new staff, staffing shortfalls, and communicating priorities. We talk parental engagement, curriculum-planning, assessment, governance and meeting cycles, and finances.

At least 250,000 children and young people are living with Long Covid including an estimated 4.8% of secondary-age students. This episode looks at the implications for secondary schools and what we can do to support these students academically and pastorally. We discuss the many and varied symptoms of Long Covid and the impact they can have on learning, education, and wellbeing. We offer ideas and interventions – big and small – to address these issues and support pupils suffering from this often-debilitating illness in the classroom and beyond. The advice is relevant to anyone working with young people in schools.

This podcast tackles memory – asking what teachers need to know about how students learn, forget and remember information. Our experts offer a wealth of tangible teaching strategies as they discuss short-term, working and long-term memory, how they work and interact, and the implications for how we teach. We discuss how we can direct pupils' attention, the limitations of short-term memory, and how to help students manage the cognitive load. We discuss how to present information effectively so that students pay attention to it, how to build knowledge or schema, prior learning, pre-testing, and we ask what we should avoid doing.

This episode looks at supporting pupils as they make the transition from primary to secondary school. We chat with two secondary schools and two feeder primaries about common transition challenges and solutions. We look at when transition work should begin, what the process looks like, engaging with parents, identifying pupils who may struggle, and supporting vulnerable pupils. We discuss tried and tested ideas for transition interventions, activities and taster days. Other topics include curriculum consistency, academic support, year 7 transition activities, open evenings, year 7 pupil ambassadors working with year 6 pupils, and the impact of Covid on transition.

This episode considers extra-curricular activities and what effective provision looks like in the secondary school. What are the common challenges when delivering extra-curricular provision? What kind of activities work best? How do we schedule these activities – when and where? How do we ensure equitable access and do we 'target' students? We also discuss how we can staff extra-curricular provision and encourage staff to take-on activities. And how do we encourage student take-up? How can our provision support a 'broad and balanced' curriculum offer? What role do external partnerships have to play? And should we quality-assure and evaluate our provision?

How can school leaders ensure that teacher appraisal and performance management processes are fair and effective. Our experts discuss what an effective appraisal and PM policy looks like and what kind of evidence the process should require. We discuss how to set objectives to enhance mastery and protect teacher autonomy, what happens to those objectives once set, and how they should be monitored and measured. We explain why we should avoid data-driven objectives and how to manage the process to ensure “no surprises”. We discuss lesson observations, how to have challenging conversations, and how to protect teacher workload and wellbeing.

All homework should have a clear purpose – but what? This podcast asks what secondary teachers should consider when planning homework. We discuss the purposes of homework, different types of tasks, and which are most effective. We agree some golden rules for setting homework, ask how much we should be setting, and what teachers should avoid doing. We discuss what we should do with the results of homework. Should there always be feedback? What about checks or whole-class feedback? Should homework always be 'marked'? How can we tackle misconceptions? How can we use peer-marking and approaches to keep workload manageable?