Podcasts about since february

Good morning, RVA! It’s 53 °F, and maybe a little rainy. You can expect the rain to taper off this morning and for temperatures to stay right where they are for most of the day. Cooler temperatures return tomorrow.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,736 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 170 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 150 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 58, Henrico: 57, and Richmond: 35). Since this pandemic began, 976 people have died in the Richmond region. That’s now seven days with a seven-day average of fewer than 2,000 new reported cases across the State. We’re now back at pre-Thanksgiving levels of new cases, and that certainly makes me feel some optimism. VDH continues to work through the backlog of winter death certificates, and locally the results are grim: Since February 19th, our region’s death toll has increased by 253 and now stands at 976. 26% of the deaths caused by COVID-19 in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield were reported in the last nine days.In exciting vaccine news, over the weekend the CDC authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use. That means we now have a third vaccine to use to fight this disease, and it means a small bump to our local supply, too. VDH says that the Commonwealth expects to receive 69,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week, and that it will be “prioritized for mass vaccination clinics across the state.” Remember! The best vaccine for you is the first one you’re offered.Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that a freshman student at VCU “was found dead early Saturday after a fraternity rush event involving alcohol.” Just awful and terrible. Both VCU and the national Delta Chi fraternity have suspended the local chapter, and you can read the University’s full statement here.The RPS School Board will meet tonight and discuss three things I find interesting: Graduation rates (PDF), a reopening “Safety Dashboard” (PDF), and the results of the year-round school survey (PDF). About the first, the administration projects that the dropout rate across the division will drop by 13% this year. About the third, caregivers and teachers both are pretty split about a year-round school calendar.GRTC updated their Regional Public Transportation Plan page to include a handful of new and useful maps. They’ve now got both concepts—the ridership and coverage concepts—overlaid on poverty data and race/ethnicity data. Additionally, they’ve got a bunch of these cool neighborhood maps (PDF) comparing the new places, jobs, and residents that are accessible should we implement either the ridership or coverage concepts. The aforelinked map for Richmond Community Hospital shows how the ridership concept would unlock access to almost all of Northside—frequency is awesome! After you’ve finished tapping, zooming, and scrolling, make sure you fill out the survey to let them know which concept you prefer. Oh! Also! You can read a bit more about this regional plan over on Jarrett Walker’s blog.NBC12’s Hannah Eason reports that the City will install pedestrian hybrid beacons at 12 locations, beginning with one at Grove and Somerset in March (which I think I’ve written about before). These beacons aren’t just your typical flashing yellow light that drivers tend to ignore until you thrust your body in front of their vehicles hoping for the best. No! These have actual red lights and require drivers to stop. The list of planned locations is amazing and addresses some of the most dangerous street crossing for pedestrians, cyclists, and folks trying to catch the bus. Here are a few of my favorites: Belvedere Street at the War Memorial, Laburnum Avenue at Holton Elementary, and Main Street & 24th Street. I’ve nearly been hit by a driver at each of these locations, so to see the City doing something about it is pretty exciting.Tapping around City Council meeting agendas this morning, and I came across this presentation on “Deferred Facilities Maintenance and Fleet Replacement Planning” (PDF). It’s boring. But! Page seven says “The City does not have defined capital funding sources to address the aging [fire department] fleet…we recommend that the RFD work with Fleet Services to identify the aging fleet and to identify actions which need to occur in the Capital Improvement Program to replace apparatuses as they approach the retirement age.” Also boring! BUT! Fire truck access is a constant barrier to creating slower, safer streets for people. Big, huge fire trucks require big, huge streets, which results in other drivers flying around at fast and dangerous speeds. Smaller fire trucks do exist, and if we’re at a critical point for replacing the RFD’s fleet, we should replace them with smaller vehicles as part of the City’s ongoing equitable transportation work. P.S. Page four of this presentation also has a pretty comprehensive list of other important plans and documents if you wanted to add a few PDFs to your collection.The City has released one-pagers provided by each of the six operators who filled out the casino RFP. I couldn’t find the actual responses to the RFP, so maybe they’re Top Secret for now while negotiations are ongoing. I dunno, but I imagine some intrepid reporters are firing up their FOIAs as we speak. Also, the City has outlined the engagement process (PDF), which kicks off with a virtual citywide meeting on March 9th to talk about “1) the community engagement process and 2) the community benefits a resort casino may provide, how communities have used resort casino revenues, and how a resort casino may mitigate negative impacts.”The marijuana legalization bill working its way through the General Assembly almost died an interesting and sudden death over the weekend. Mel Leonor at the RTD reports that, as it stands, Virginia will create a new, regulated market by 2024, but “punted to next year key decisions on the regulatory framework for the market and the new criminal penalties that would go into effect when marijuana is legalized.” We’ll see if the Governor makes any tweaks this week.This morning’s longreadThe Lies Hollywood Tells About Little GirlsA good chaser to the Golden Globes by Mara Wilson.At 13, I already knew all about The Narrative. As an actor from the age of 5, who was carrying films by age 8, I’d been trained to seem, to be, as normal as possible — whatever it took to avoid my inevitable downfall. I shared a bedroom with my little sister. I went to public school. I was a Girl Scout. When someone called me a “star” I was to insist that I was an actor, that the only stars were in the sky. Nobody would touch the money I made until I turned 18. But I was now 13, and I was already ruined. Just like everyone expected.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the Day

Did you miss our very first live episode? No problem! We've got the playback for you right here... Since February commemorates the release of Madonna's seventh studio album, Ray of Light, we thought there couldn't be a better way to celebrate than to speak with some listeners live on the air. We chat with people from NY, Ohio, California and Brazil and reminisce about M's spiritual, electronica-filled opus. Thanks to everyone who joined us during the broadcast! We plan on doing another live show in the near future, so make sure to follow us on Podbean so you don't miss out. Follow MLVC on Instagram and Twitter: @mlvcpodcast

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop TODAY'S HEADLINES: Senators yesterday voted to proceed with the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump after watching dramatic videos of last month’s insurrection. Democrats will begin presenting formal arguments later today. Meanwhile, Lloyd Austin, the first black secretary of defense, is trying urgently to curtail right- wing extremism in the military ranks. But first the Pentagon needs to figure out how to track the problem. And lastly, a small group of Inuit hunters in remote northern Canada has blockaded an iron mine that threatens their food supply. It’s an inspirational story that should also make you feel relatively warmer this winter, wherever you are. THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW: Let’s get up to speed on Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, via the New York Times. Yesterday the Senate voted to proceed with the trial. The vote was a rejection of Trump’s defense team’s claim that it would be unconstitutional to prosecute a president after leaving office. But the final tally signaled that his Republican allies could muster enough support to potentially block the two-thirds necessary for conviction. The fifty six-to-forty four vote, with six Republicans joining all fifty Democrats, paved the way for House Democrats to formally open their arguments this afternoon. They are seeking to prove that Trump incited an insurrection by encouraging supporters who stormed the Capitol last month. According to the Times, yesterday’s vote came after House managers moved immediately to their most powerful evidence: the explicit visual record of the deadly Capitol siege, juxtaposed against Trump’s own words encouraging members of the mob at a rally beforehand. On the screens, senators saw extremists storming barricades, beating police officers, setting up a gallows and yelling, Take the building, Fight for Trump and Pence is a traitor! Traitor Pence! Representative Joe Neguse of Colorado, a House impeachment manager, told senators QUOTE Presidents can’t inflame insurrection in their final weeks and then walk away like nothing happened ENDQUOTE. Trump’s lawyers argued that his words at the rally on January 6th constituted free speech akin to typical political language and hardly incited the violence, the Times reports. They condemned the violence but rejected the suggestion that Trump was responsible for it. They maintained that the Constitution did not permit an impeachment trial of a former president because it was meant to lead to removal, which is now moot. If he committed a crime, they said, he could be prosecuted criminally. Excellent suggestion – let’s do that next. Pentagon Tackles Soldiers' Extremism How do we prevent the next insurrection? Among the one hundred and ninety people charged in the Capitol siege, at least thirty are veterans, the Washington Post reports. Now Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is facing an early test as he races to advance a major initiative targeting far-right extremism in the ranks. The military is slated to pause normal operations in coming weeks so troops can discuss internal support for extremist movements. Austin’s highly unusual order for a military-wide stand-down underscores the urgency of the task ahead. Even as they seek to get the effort off the ground, the Post says, Pentagon officials are grappling with legal and institutional issues. First among the challenges for Austin and his aides is the lack of centralized means of tracking incidence of extremism. Last month, Pentagon officials said the FBI had informed them about sixty-eight domestic extremism cases in 2020 involving current or former troops. Little other data exists. One reason for the military’s limited understanding of the problem is that current rules permit troops to join extremist organizations, so long as they don’t become active members who fundraise, recruit or take part in other prohibited activities. While the distinction is rooted in troops’ First Amendment rights, it means supporters of extremist causes can go undetected. What’s more, the Post reports, some extremism experts say the military’s screening procedures for recruits are insufficient. Lawmakers including California Democratic Congresswoman Jackie Speier are calling for stronger screening of social media for service members. Speier chairs the House Armed Services’ military personnel subcommittee. Under her proposal, recruits would be required to provide social media handles when they apply for security clearances. Wait, they don’t check those already? Crazy. Inuit Hunters Blockade Mine Here’s a remarkable tale of community organizing. A group of Inuit hunters have braved nearly a week of freezing temperatures to blockade a remote iron mine in northern Canada, the Guardian reports. The hunters are protesting an expansion plan they say will harm local wildlife. The blockade has prompted solidarity rallies in other Nunavut communities. Since February 5th, seven hunters have created a makeshift barrier of snowmobiles and sleds to block the airstrip and service road of the Mary River ore mine, halting operations. Temperatures in recent days have dipped to twenty degrees below zero, Farenheit. At issue are controversial plans drawn up by the mine’s operator, Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation, to double output, the Guardian reports. To bring twelve million tons of iron ore to market, the mine has said it needs to build a railway to a port near the community of Pond Inlet. But hunters have pushed back over fears that the expansion could threaten the populations of caribou and narwhal – two key sources of food – if approved. As the standoff entered its fifth day, seven hundred workers were stranded at the Mary River site, according to the Guardian. The company claims the blockade on the airstrip means food supplies cannot be delivered. Residents of Clyde River plan to bring supplies to the Mary River protesters in the coming days, a journey that could take three days by snowmobile and requires travellers to brave mountain valleys and perilous sections of ice. Jerry Natanine, mayor of Clyde River, said QUOTE We’ve been clearly and repeatedly telling the mine that their plans were unacceptable. And they haven’t listened to any of our suggestions. So now we’re left fighting for our culture and way of life ENDQUOTE. Solidarity with the Inuit hunters. AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES: Joe Biden, along with vice president Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, met with corporate executives at the White House yesterday. It was an attempt to rally support for Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Those invited included Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Tom Donohue of the US Chamber of Commerce, and Doug McMillon of Walmart. What a diverse crew. I guess the Monopoly Man wasn’t available. It is extremely unlikely that the coronavirus leaked from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where Covid-19 first emerged, NBC News reports. The new assessment comes from the head of a team of experts that yesterday released details of its fact-finding mission into the virus's origins. Doctor Peter Ben Embarek from the World Health Organization said it was more likely that the virus had jumped to humans from an animal – possibly bats. Take heed and don’t cuddle up with those those furry, winged fiends. The Biden administration yesterday asked the remaining US attorneys appointed by Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate to submit their resignations, the Washington Post reports. The request applies to fifty-five federal prosecutors and spared only two, who are conducting politically sensitive probes, including of President Biden’s son. One way or another, Hunter Biden is going to stay in the news. German prosecutors have charged a one hundred-year-old man with three thousand, five hundred and eighteen counts of accessory to murder, the Guardian reports. The man served during the second world war as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin. His name was not released. The prosecutor called him QUOTE part of the functioning of [a] machinery of death ENDQUOTE. Old fascists are still bound to lose. FEB 10, 2021 - AM QUICKIE HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner WRITER - Corey Pein PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Nobel Gibbens has a long history of success in the military, as an entrepreneur and with his family, but something snapped last year. He and his wife, Kathy learned to see, map and understand their own emotional lives which has helped them manage their own trauma, behave differently and be in better, healthier relationships.   Since February, Noble and Kathy have launched EQ for Entrepreneurs, which is really for anyone who wants to dig into their own triggers and feelings, learn to own them and deliberately create the emotional context of their lives. They now have a podcast, eight-week training course and video series that is used by the military, business leaders and is being applied more broadly (link below).   https://www.eqforentrepreneurs.com   You can also find Noble and Kathy under EQforEntrepreneurs on social media and YouTube. Great discussion that fits with people who are being Kickasspirational in a difficult time and breaking through barriers of their own. #BeKickasspirational 

Since February, WFTV reporter Lauren Seabrook has been covering the COVGID-19 crisis from lockdowns and masks, to schools and nursing homes. Lauren joins the podcast again to talk about what's going on right now in Central Florida, concerns as we head into the winter months, and what gives her optimism as we continue to deal with the virus.

Since February, a series of tit-for-tat restrictions on and expulsions of journalists in the U.S. and China have resulted in the decimation of the ranks of reporters in the P.R.C. While the bureaus of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post remain open, they've had to make do with reduced staff and journalists reporting from outside of the Chinese mainland — in Taiwan and South Korea. Emily Feng, a reporter with National Public Radio (NPR), is one journalist who is still in Beijing. She tells us about how restrictions and expulsions have impacted morale and the ability to report on China.16:58: Morale among foreign media reporters in China26:29: Rising tensions and the U.S. strategy of reciprocity33:33: Reporting from China under increasing pressure36:08: Journalist expulsions and changing perceptions on China reportingRecommendations:Jeremy: A column by Alex Colville: Chinese Lives, featured on SupChina. Specifically, Jeremy recommends Mao’s ‘shameless poet’: Guo Moruo and his checkered legacy.Emily: The Children of Time series, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Kaiser: The China conundrum: Deterrence as dominance, by Andrew Bacevich.

Since February retailers and fmcg manufacturers have been challenged as never before in peacetime. They have risen to the coronavirus threat with feats of organisation and radical changes to their logistics.On the front line, store employees tread warily. Admin staff are now familiar with working from home. Some ask why they once commuted to the office every day. Even top managers question the vast carbon footprint they make by jetting around the globe when a videoconference would often do just as well.Lockdown, home office and furlough have accelerated structural change in the trade. As customers order more online, home delivery is becoming mainstream. Fear of infection has taken what little joy there ever was in shopping at mass retailers. A wave of small business closures has already begun to stoke unemployment and recessionary concerns. At all events, the feel-good factor is totally lacking among consumers.Anyone can draw a doomsday scenario, but ways out of the crisis are what really matters. So we asked a panel of international trade experts to find them...

Since February we’ve been washing our hands, staying alert, eating out to help out, working from home and all while trying to stay two metres apart. But last week, the government brought in a new attack on the surge in coronavirus cases: the rule of six and ‘Operation Moonshot’.In this episode, Professor Stephen Reicher, one of the government’s scientific advisors, argues that the Prime Minister is risking playing a ‘blame game’ with his strategy; and Sky political correspondent, Kate McCann talks us through how realistic the Moonshot plan really is.Credits:Daily podcast team:Podcast producer - Annie JoycePodcast producer - Nicola EyersInterviews producers - Oli FosterInterviews producers - Tatiana AldersonInterviews producers - Megan CouttsArchive - Simon WindsorMusic - Steven Wheeler

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.

Are you ready for some football? Kapn Krude has returned, and he is joining this edition of Bumming with Bobcat to help break down the upcoming NFL season. Be sure to check out his annual NFL Preview blog. Download your favorite sports gambling app, tape photos of NFL cheerleaders onto your coffee table, stock up on MRE pizza, and let’s roll!Since February we saw the return of the XFL, it's bankruptcy, and now it's purchase by The Rock. What's next for the XFL? Will the third time be the charm? Only time will tell on that one.Don't forget that the BWB NFL Pick 'Em league is BACK for 2020! Pick some winners and win some bWb swag! Come on down and tell your friends to join the fun!https://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/pickemGroup ID#: 701Group Password: bumwine2020What do you plan on drinking once the 2020 NFL season kicks off? Will you be taking it easy with a cold beer, or taking things up a notch with some of the hard stuff? With how the year 2020 has gone so far, I don't think anyone can blame you either way. Sit back, relax, and stay tuned to bumwinebob.com throughout the 2020 NFL season! Cheers!

* How Did Radioactive Decay Start in Earth's Crust? (Re-run during recovery from a minor accident while Bob was out boating. "See you guys, Lord-willing, next week!") Real Science Radio co-hosts Bob Enyart and Fred Williams describe Walt Brown's Hydroplate Theory from his book, In the Beginning, and Dr. Brown's discovery of the origin of Earth's radioactivity. Ways to learn about the origin of Earth's radioactivity: - Listen to today's program (above) - Read this written show page - Read Bob's brief 2019 RMCF articles Part 1 & Part 2 - Read Walt's theory right here at hpt.rsr.org - See this visually just below in Bryan Nickel's video tutorial - Read Walt's theory beginning on page 380 of the PDF of ITB 9th Edition. Consider: - God created a paradise for mankind so no radioactivity would have existed on the original Earth because radioactive decay can cause birth defects, disease, and death with lowered lifespans. - For ex., uranium formed on Earth, as evidence by its worldwide ratio (see below)  - The fourth state of matter, beyond solid, liquid, and gas, is plasma (lightning, neon lights, etc.) which is like a gas but with the electrons stripped away.- By the piezoelectric effect, pressure on quartz produces an electric voltage and the granite in the Earth's crust is more than one-fourth quartz. - Z-pinched electrical pulses produce nuclear combustion by stripping away electrons and then squeezing together nuclei producing radioactive and other elements. - Decay rates speed up by a billion times or more when half lives are measured for atoms stripped of their electrons; for example when ionized the 41-billion year half life of rhenium's beta decay speeds up to 33 years.- Atmospheric lightning produces new isotopes (most of which decay within minutes).  2017 Update: Nature reports that lightning storms "trigger atmospheric photonuclear reactions" that produce isotopes. [In 2010 Dr. Brown published his Radioactivity theory including references to little noticed research showing that atmospheric lightning produces radioisotopes (and also explains the Oklo Natural "Reactor").] 2017 Science Headlines: Lightning produces radioisotopes. (See ITB since 2010.)  - Earthquake Lights: Earthquakes produce piezoelectric lightning flashes in the ground and also, coming out of the ground. (See also rsr.org/eql.) 2017 Update: Twitter video of this phenomenon during Mexico's deadly magnitude 8.1 quake. [Thanks to RSR London listener Remy for the heads up.] 2016 Update: Video of earthquake lights surface, this time after New Zealand's magnitude 7.8 quake epicentered between Christchurch and Wellington. 2014 Update: A paper in the journal Seismological Research Letters is reported on in USA Today's Scientists find records of rare 'earthquake lights'. 2013 Update: This may be the phenomena causing the apparent pre-quake disturbances in the ionosphere that led scientists to consider a possible earthquake warning system, as reported in 2008 by BBC News, and pursued by the U.K. and Russia in 2011 and generating continued interest and research in 2013 in a European Geophysical Union conference presentation, and here with RSR's 2014 interview with QuakeFinder. - The journal Nature reports that an average earthquake produces hundreds of millions of volts. - During the upheaval of the global flood pressure in the crust produced enormous voltages that produced plasma surges in the crust. - Those voltages smashed together the nuclei of atoms to create, in the crust, radioactive elements and massive, instantaneous apparent radioactive decay.- Missing uniform distribution of earth's radioactivity: From our RSR debate with theoretical physicist (emphasis on the theoretical), Lawrence Krauss... The theory of chemical evolution claims that all of our radioactive elements were created in the explosion of stars, but that would predict a relatively uniform distribution on Earth, at least throughout the crust, and possibly the mantle too. However, in an otherwise contentious interview, Krauss agreed with Enyart's statement on air that 90% of Earth's radioactivity (uranium, thorium, potassium-40, etc.) is located in the continental crust, and Krauss added, a mystery for him, that it tends to concentrate around granite! That is, that 90% is not in the mantle nor in the enormous amount of the crust which lies under the oceans, but our planet's radioactivity is concentrated in 1/3rd of 1% of the Earth's mass, in the continental crust. (Further, the release of it's heat has not yet reached a steady state.) Krauss offered a partial explanation: that uranium was originally evenly distributed throughout (an alleged) molten earth but being a large atom, it floated toward the surface. This the bias of this physicist led him to forget, apparently, that it is density, and not size, that causes things to float. Even denser than gold, uranium is one of the most dense elements (excluding atheists and other manmade phenomena). Further, for argument's sake, that would only explain the relative absence of radioactivity deep in the Earth, but would not explain uranium's distancing itself from the mantle and from the oceanic crust, nor its affinity for the continents and even, of all things, for granite. Further, under Krauss' belief in the widespread falsehood that the planet was once molten, if so, then the gold in the crust should have sunk to the core! The creationists, on the other hand, have a theory based on observational science as to why radioactivity is concentrated around granite. - Absurd consistency of uranium isotopes IF formed in space: Consider this from Walt Brown's Origin of Earth's Radioactivity chapter: The isotopes of each chemical element have almost constant ratios with each other. ... Why is the ratio of 235U to 238U in uranium ore deposits so constant almost everywhere on Earth? One very precise study showed that the ratio is 0.0072842, with a standard deviation of only 0.000017. [There's less than one U235 atom, with its 700M year half-life, for every hundred U238s, with their 4.5B year half-lives.] Obviously, the more time that elapses between the formation of the various isotopes (such as 235U and 238U) and the farther they are transported to their current resting places, the more varied those ratios should be. The belief that these isotopes formed in a supernova explosion millions of light-years away and billions of years before the Earth formed and somehow collected in small ore bodies in a fixed ratio is absurd. Powerful explosions would have separated the lighter isotopes from the heavier isotopes. Some radioisotopes simultaneously produce two or more daughters. When that happens, the daughters have very precise ratios to each other, called branching ratios or branching fractions. Uranium isotopes are an example, because they are daughter products of some even heavier element. Recall that the Proton-21 Laboratory has produced superheavy elements that instantly decayed. Also, the global flux of neutrons during the flood provided nuclei with enough neutrons to reach their maximum stability. Therefore, isotope ratios for a given element are fixed. Had the flux of neutrons originated in outer space, we would not see these constant ratios worldwide. Because these neutrons originated at many specific points in the globe-encircling crust, these fixed ratios are global. - Waltbrownium, the IUPAC, and the Nobel Prize in Physics: The element that decayed into daughter products U-235 and U-238 is the naturally occurring though now-extinct waltbrownium. Symbol Wb. Atomic number (Z) 184. Atomic weight of > 473.07. 184 protons. > 289 neutrons. Solid at Earth's crustal temperatures and pressures. Half-life perhaps ~10 ns. Waltbrownium is the heaviest chemical element discovered (though indirectly) and therefore atop the post-Actinoid series. Wb is not [yet] an IUPAC officially named element but has been preliminarily named, here, by RSR. The identification of this element should earn its discoverer a Nobel Prize in Physics after he identified the evidence for its existence and the experimental evidence for its formation. The uniform uranium ratio provides the evidence to confirm that waltbrownium existed on the Earth. (This evidence provides as much, or even more, confirmation as neutrinos provide for solar fusion.) Further, the thousands of Proton-21 Laboratory experiments in the Ukraine (and in the U.S. at Sandia Nat'l Labs, Russia,

* How Did Radioactive Decay Start in Earth's Crust? (Re-run during recovery from a minor accident while Bob was out boating. "See you guys, Lord-willing, next week!") Real Science Radio co-hosts Bob Enyart and Fred Williams describe Walt Brown's Hydroplate Theory from his book, In the Beginning, and Dr. Brown's discovery of the origin of Earth's radioactivity. Ways to learn about the origin of Earth's radioactivity: - Listen to today's program (above) - Read this written show page - Read Bob's brief 2019 RMCF articles Part 1 & Part 2 - Read Walt's theory right here at hpt.rsr.org - See this visually just below in Bryan Nickel's video tutorial - Read Walt's theory beginning on page 380 of the PDF of ITB 9th Edition. Consider: - God created a paradise for mankind so no radioactivity would have existed on the original Earth because radioactive decay can cause birth defects, disease, and death with lowered lifespans. - For ex., uranium formed on Earth, as evidence by its worldwide ratio (see below)  - The fourth state of matter, beyond solid, liquid, and gas, is plasma (lightning, neon lights, etc.) which is like a gas but with the electrons stripped away.- By the piezoelectric effect, pressure on quartz produces an electric voltage and the granite in the Earth's crust is more than one-fourth quartz. - Z-pinched electrical pulses produce nuclear combustion by stripping away electrons and then squeezing together nuclei producing radioactive and other elements. - Decay rates speed up by a billion times or more when half lives are measured for atoms stripped of their electrons; for example when ionized the 41-billion year half life of rhenium's beta decay speeds up to 33 years.- Atmospheric lightning produces new isotopes (most of which decay within minutes).  2017 Update: Nature reports that lightning storms "trigger atmospheric photonuclear reactions" that produce isotopes. [In 2010 Dr. Brown published his Radioactivity theory including references to little noticed research showing that atmospheric lightning produces radioisotopes (and also explains the Oklo Natural "Reactor").] 2017 Science Headlines: Lightning produces radioisotopes. (See ITB since 2010.)  - Earthquake Lights: Earthquakes produce piezoelectric lightning flashes in the ground and also, coming out of the ground. (See also rsr.org/eql.) 2017 Update: Twitter video of this phenomenon during Mexico's deadly magnitude 8.1 quake. [Thanks to RSR London listener Remy for the heads up.] 2016 Update: Video of earthquake lights surface, this time after New Zealand's magnitude 7.8 quake epicentered between Christchurch and Wellington. 2014 Update: A paper in the journal Seismological Research Letters is reported on in USA Today's Scientists find records of rare 'earthquake lights'. 2013 Update: This may be the phenomena causing the apparent pre-quake disturbances in the ionosphere that led scientists to consider a possible earthquake warning system, as reported in 2008 by BBC News, and pursued by the U.K. and Russia in 2011 and generating continued interest and research in 2013 in a European Geophysical Union conference presentation, and here with RSR's 2014 interview with QuakeFinder. - The journal Nature reports that an average earthquake produces hundreds of millions of volts. - During the upheaval of the global flood pressure in the crust produced enormous voltages that produced plasma surges in the crust. - Those voltages smashed together the nuclei of atoms to create, in the crust, radioactive elements and massive, instantaneous apparent radioactive decay.- Missing uniform distribution of earth's radioactivity: From our RSR debate with theoretical physicist (emphasis on the theoretical), Lawrence Krauss... The theory of chemical evolution claims that all of our radioactive elements were created in the explosion of stars, but that would predict a relatively uniform distribution on Earth, at least throughout the crust, and possibly the mantle too. However, in an otherwise contentious interview, Krauss agreed with Enyart's statement on air that 90% of Earth's radioactivity (uranium, thorium, potassium-40, etc.) is located in the continental crust, and Krauss added, a mystery for him, that it tends to concentrate around granite! That is, that 90% is not in the mantle nor in the enormous amount of the crust which lies under the oceans, but our planet's radioactivity is concentrated in 1/3rd of 1% of the Earth's mass, in the continental crust. (Further, the release of it's heat has not yet reached a steady state.) Krauss offered a partial explanation: that uranium was originally evenly distributed throughout (an alleged) molten earth but being a large atom, it floated toward the surface. This the bias of this physicist led him to forget, apparently, that it is density, and not size, that causes things to float. Even denser than gold, uranium is one of the most dense elements (excluding atheists and other manmade phenomena). Further, for argument's sake, that would only explain the relative absence of radioactivity deep in the Earth, but would not explain uranium's distancing itself from the mantle and from the oceanic crust, nor its affinity for the continents and even, of all things, for granite. Further, under Krauss' belief in the widespread falsehood that the planet was once molten, if so, then the gold in the crust should have sunk to the core! The creationists, on the other hand, have a theory based on observational science as to why radioactivity is concentrated around granite. - Absurd consistency of uranium isotopes IF formed in space: Consider this from Walt Brown's Origin of Earth's Radioactivity chapter: The isotopes of each chemical element have almost constant ratios with each other. ... Why is the ratio of 235U to 238U in uranium ore deposits so constant almost everywhere on Earth? One very precise study showed that the ratio is 0.0072842, with a standard deviation of only 0.000017. [There's less than one U235 atom, with its 700M year half-life, for every hundred U238s, with their 4.5B year half-lives.] Obviously, the more time that elapses between the formation of the various isotopes (such as 235U and 238U) and the farther they are transported to their current resting places, the more varied those ratios should be. The belief that these isotopes formed in a supernova explosion millions of light-years away and billions of years before the Earth formed and somehow collected in small ore bodies in a fixed ratio is absurd. Powerful explosions would have separated the lighter isotopes from the heavier isotopes. Some radioisotopes simultaneously produce two or more daughters. When that happens, the daughters have very precise ratios to each other, called branching ratios or branching fractions. Uranium isotopes are an example, because they are daughter products of some even heavier element. Recall that the Proton-21 Laboratory has produced superheavy elements that instantly decayed. Also, the global flux of neutrons during the flood provided nuclei with enough neutrons to reach their maximum stability. Therefore, isotope ratios for a given element are fixed. Had the flux of neutrons originated in outer space, we would not see these constant ratios worldwide. Because these neutrons originated at many specific points in the globe-encircling crust, these fixed ratios are global. - Waltbrownium, the IUPAC, and the Nobel Prize in Physics: The element that decayed into daughter products U-235 and U-238 is the naturally occurring though now-extinct waltbrownium. Symbol Wb. Atomic number (Z) 184. Atomic weight of > 473.07. 184 protons. > 289 neutrons. Solid at Earth's crustal temperatures and pressures. Half-life perhaps ~10 ns. Waltbrownium is the heaviest chemical element discovered (though indirectly) and therefore atop the post-Actinoid series. Wb is not [yet] an IUPAC officially named element but has been preliminarily named, here, by RSR. The identification of this element should earn its discoverer a Nobel Prize in Physics after he identified the evidence for its existence and the experimental evidence for its formation. The uniform uranium ratio provides the evidence to confirm that waltbrownium existed on the Earth. (This evidence provides as much, or even more, confirmation as neutrinos provide for solar fusion.) Further, the thousands of Proton-21 Laboratory experiments in the Ukraine (and in the U.S. at Sandia Nat'l Labs, Russia,

The first featured guest on America’s Work Force Radio Podcast today was Andrew Tinkham, Senior Outreach and Education Program Specialist with the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel (OCC). He spoke about a possible Ohio H.B. 6 repeal, emergency utility filings and energy shut-off scams.The second guest today on AWF Radio Podcast was Ryan Zamarripa, Associate Director of Economic Policy with the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He spoke about the organization’s new memo, “Trump to Tout Manufacturing in Ohio as Unemployment Surges to 10.9% Since February,” which reevaluates claims that the President made during his campaign trail and how he is responsible for countless broken promises.

Meet David Mylrea David is the president and CEO of Engage Technologies Corporation. Engage owns a number of companies in the printing and packaging sector - including selling inkjet printers. Prior to becoming the CEO of Engage he was Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of Engage. In addition to his duties with Engage, he was also a Capital Partner with the national law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, a firm of in excess of 650 lawyers in 30 cities across the United States, as well as London UK. In the sports world, David is a member of the St. Olaf Football Hall of Fame and has spent many years as a hockey coach. Where are you speaking to us from? I'm speaking from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Actually a suburb in the southwestern corner of the City of Minneapolis. And I'm working from my office, my home office this morning. The last several months have been very interesting as a result, obviously of COVID-19 and how that's impacted our company and the operations we are in the industrial packaging business, we do coding and marking - meaning inks and printers. But we have another side of the company that does packaging and delivering. So we package, we sell equipment that packages products, we sell equipment that puts codes and marks on products. Everything from bottles of various types of vitamins and foods - to the little white plastic clips that you see on a bag of hot dog buns that you buy at the grocery store. Those little white plastic clips have  a code or a mark that's printed that say this bread is good through this date. Our motto is that we help companies deliver their products to the world. Last year we sold products into 50 countries all over the world. We've been operating largely remotely, our entire sales team operates remotely because of COVID. My marketing group, including our social media people, operate remotely. Most of our engineers are operating remotely. All of our accounting group except for a couple of folks who work daily out of the office, but substantially all of them at our customer service group are all operating remotely. So we've had to make some adjustments that way to allow us to continue business, but not business the old fashioned way, where everybody went into the office all day every day. Relating to sports here, we’re all waiting as the various leagues’ executives sit behind closed doors and discuss what’s best for their respective sport. So what’s it like having those types of conversations as a company executive? I don’t want to sound cliche, but the most important asset that we have is our employees - and I think we really walk the walk. We take all of this COVID-19 stuff very seriously. Since February, I have taken to writing notes, emails to all of our employees, to talk to them about what we're doing and why we're doing it and why we want them to participate in things like being very careful. Wearing face masks, social distancing, doing all of the things that the CDC recommends that we do. We spend a lot of money on cleaning our facilities, much more than we did in years prior. We now require people that visit our facilities to wear masks and have their temperature taken.They also have to fill out a form stating they haven’t felt sick - all of those provisions that the CDC suggests. I also regularly communicate with our entire team and let them know how we're doing on the COVID front and also how the company is doing. My way of dealing with this has been to communicate openly and freely with all of our employees on a regular basis and to do everything that we can that the CDC requires. The goal is to maintain the health of our employees because if we lose our employees, we're out of business. So far we've been very fortunate, we haven't had any COVID direct hits so far. When you look at what you guys have been able to do, do you think that it is possible for some of these professional sports organizations to put together a successful bubble that will be able to keep their athletes and team personnel safe? There are much smarter people involved with those leagues than me. But, I have my doubts and very serious reservations about whether they ought to be going back on the field. You know, as well as I do, there's a ton of contact in these sports and there's a lot of speaking and yelling at these high levels. There’s lots of contact and I don't know how you can minimize that. Why would you want to strap on the skates and go out and play hockey? Knowing what we know about how contagious COVID-19 is. Or would you want to put a football helmet on and run out on the field and tackle on an offensive lineman, running back, wide receiver or  a tight end? In this environment with this highly contagious situation I don't know, honestly. Everybody's chomping at the bit to get back on the field, and certainly the fans want to see that but I personally think that it's too early to do that. I think that we're going to see a lot more sick people than we have right now. Being in Minneapolis, not only have you been recently dealing with the pandemic, but also the protests and everything that has been happening locally there. Has your corporation put out any statement? And as a leader where do you find your resources on how to handle situations that aren’t in your original job description? In my prior life, I was involved in managing a gigantic law firm, and I had contact with just about every kind of issue that you could imagine. So it isn't all new for me. I've been the CEO for, going on four years. But I’ve known the company and the senior management for many years. Everyone has a set of skills within each of our departments, each of our department leaders. Also, we're an ISO certified company, which means we have gone through the process of creating structure, organizational structure, documentation, policies and procedures - things that we have to do every day, every week, every month, every quarter, just as part of our normal business regimen. So part of learning how to deal with situations is just experience. Part of it is an ongoing training regimen. The head of our HR group is constantly involved with HR associations. Since she's getting the input from lots and lots of leaders. So we have the benefit of not just our own people but other people that support them and the same is true for our engineering, operations and accounting - each one of the leaders in those divisions are constantly getting updated, constantly being trained and have constant access to the information that we need to make the hard decisions and the right decisions when when called upon to do that. And so much more...

In this episode, Claire 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. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

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.

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.

The Canberra Times identified Bill Stephens as one of 75 people who had shaped the National Capitol. He is one of the region’s best known theatrical personalities, and although his career was in Hospital Administration, it has been through his passionate involvement in the performing arts nationally, that he has made his most important contribution.He has carved a lengthy career as a Theatre Director with theatre companies in Griffith and Canberra. For 15 years he was Cabaret Producer and Artistic Director at the Queanbeyan School of Arts cafe. The School of Arts Café became the longest established cabaret venue in Australia, attracting a host of sterling talent and enthusiastic audiences.As a Theatre Critic and Writer he regularly contributes reviews to the Canberra Critics Circle blog, and reviews productions of musical theatre, cabaret and dance for City News, and Australian Arts Review. Bill has also contributed feature articles on theatre to ‘Stage Whispers’.Bill has had extensive experience presenting radio programs of interviews, reviews, music and news. Since February, 2019, he has been producing and presenting weekly episodes of the arts program, In The Foyer for Artsound FM.Commencing in 1985, Bill has been an interviewer for the National Library of Australia’s Oral History Program, specialising in the performing arts and preserving vital conversations with artists across all disciplines and roles.In 2017 he was honoured with the Medal of the Order of Australia - for services to the performing arts. Bill has spoken to everyone and now it’s my treat to speak with Bill - and learn more about the passion and energy that has sustained him over several decades in a passionate pursuit of the performing arts and its practitioners.

A virtual keynote webcast with Alabama state Rep. Anthony Daniels (D-53), minority leader in the state House of Representatives. Rep. Daniels will discuss educational reform, prison reform, voter suppression issues, and the healthcare system in conversation with Kimberly Freeman, Associate Dean and Chief Diversity Officer of USC Dornsife. They will also explore how these “domestic” issues impact the United States’ standing in the world. In March, a Pacific Council delegation traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, with the goal of better understanding the legacy of slavery and institutionalized racism in the United States. Inspired by the trip, Pacific Council President and CEO Dr. Jerrold Green and Board member Ambassador Michael Lawson wrote an op-ed piece on why institutionalized racism is a national security threat. They argue that to preserve democracy and security in the United States and to be effective as an international actor, we need to address issues of race in our own country. Selma's Bloody Sunday occurred 55 years ago. The question that begs to be answered is: Where are we now? Featuring: The Honorable Anthony Daniels, Minority Leader, Alabama House of Representatives Anthony Daniels has represented the 53rd District in the Alabama State House of Representatives since 2014. Since February 2017, Daniels has served as minority leader in the state House of Representatives, leading the House Democratic Caucus. Moderator: Kimberly Freeman, Associate Dean and Chief Diversity Officer, USC Dornsife Kimberly Freeman is a Pacific Council member and the associate dean and chief diversity officer at USC Dornsife.

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.

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 Classroom Secrets Kids website: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/ 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.

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.

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.

Since February, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. This month, he methodically began re-opening the state’s economy. Jon asks him about what the near-term future holds, his collaboration with the White House and fellow governors, and why so many businesses are fleeing blue enclaves for the Grand Canyon State. Before serving […]Sponsored by Express VPN, Tommy John Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/king-of-stuff/arizona-gov-doug-ducey-reopening-and-recovery/.Now become a Ricochet member for only $5.00 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/membership/.Subscribe to King of Stuff in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.

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.

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.  

For many years, aircraft manufacturers and suppliers in the upstream of the aviation supply chain enjoy higher protection due to technical barriers, and the level of competition in the industry is much lower compared to the lower end of the supply chain. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a large-scale blow to the demand side of air transportation, making it difficult for aircraft manufacturers and suppliers to escape. Since February, the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world. As the closest link in the aviation industry chain to public travel needs, airlines bear the brunt. As the air transport markets of various countries are shut down like dominoes, an unprecedented large-scale grounding of the global fleet is taking place. According to Cirium’s updated data on April 17, 64% of the world’s 26,000 aircraft in service are grounded. As can be seen from industry figures, the current A330, A340 and B787 series grounding ratios of the wide-body aircraft have reached 90%, and due to the busy cargo aircraft, the B777 grounding ratio is slightly lower, about 75%. Also, more than half of the A320 and B737 series of narrow-body aircraft are grounded. Due to the possible deep damage to the global economy caused by the pandemic, the depression is expected to last longer, and it is difficult for air travel to recover as before in a short period. -Airbus- At present, the damage to Airbus’ commercial aircraft orders has begun to appear, and the aircraft delivery volume has also been greatly affected by the pandemic. In the first quarter of this year, Airbus cancelled 66 aircraft orders, with a net increase of 290 orders and a monthly average net increase of 97, which was higher than last year’s monthly net orders for 66 aircraft. Net orders include 248 A320neo, 42 A220 and 4 A350, while cancelled orders include 29 A320neo, 16 A220, 17 A350 and 34 A330neo. However, if we only look at the March data, Airbus received a total of 60 gross aircraft orders, while 39 aircraft orders were cancelled, and the net order volume was only 21, far below the average of 66 aircraft per month last year. In terms of delivery, Airbus originally planned to deliver 880 aircraft in 2020, slightly higher than the 863 aircraft delivered in 2019. However, in the first quarter, Airbus delivered a total of 122 aircraft, including 31 in January, 55 in February, and 36 in March. The three consecutive months of delivery were lower than the average of 72 in 2019. Delivery level. The aircraft delivered included 91 A320neo, 14 A350, 8 A220, 5 A320ceo, and two A330ceo and A330neo each. In late March, Airbus’s factories in France and Spain were shut down due to the pandemic. Airbus’ original production and delivery plans were disrupted. At the end of March, it announced the cancellation of the original 2020 production plan and delivery plan. Aviation analyst Sandy Morris predicts that Airbus’ delivery this year will likely drop to 650, and it may drop to 600 in 2021. Deliveries Cancellations Net Orders Backlog A220 8 -16 42 529 A320ceo 5 0 0 61 A320neo 91 -29 248 6159 A330ceo 2 0 0 36 A330neo 2 -4 -4 287 A350 14 -17 4 569 A380 0 0 0 9 Total 122 -66 290 7650 As of March 31, Airbus had 7,650 reserve orders, including 6,220 A320, 529 A220, 323 A330, 569 A350XWB and 9 A380, this is still a positive increase compared to 7,482 reserve orders at the end of 2019. After the outbreak, due to tightened airline funding and declining travel demand, the market’s demand for new aircraft will also decline, and the number of new orders is expected to decrease significantly. The current situation may be just the beginning. Although the impact of the pandemic is not very obvious from the perspective of the number of aircraft orders, the market will remain pessimistic after the pandemic has become a consensus in the industry. Aircraft demand is expected to shrink in the future. To this e...

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.

Enrico Vannucci mainly works as short film advisor for the Venice Film Festival and as short film programmer for the Torino Short Film Market. He has been working in film festival programming teams since 2010. In recent years he has written essays on the short and feature film festival ecosystem and covered major film festivals as a journalist since 2009. In August 2018 together with Carla Vulpiani he co-founded Varicoloured, a holistic film agency. Since February 2020 he is a member of the board of Talking Shorts, an online film magazine dedicated to short films. For the outlet he hosts a weekly podcast called Short Talk and developed the idea of the online fundraising event My Darling Quarantine Short Film Festival. He has been passionate about films since childhood due to his permissive parents letting him watch VHS tapes and going to the cinema together with them. And this passion awakens in him innovation and creativity, as he proved not least in the Corona crisis. In the course of this, he has, for example, initiated the My Darling Quarantine Short Film Festival. More about this you will find here: https://talkingshorts.com/festivals/my-darling-quarantine-short-film-festival. On that website you will find also his own Podcast, in which I was interviewed a few days ago.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hello friends and listeners. A lot of crazy has happened since our last podcast. Specifically, COVID-19 has become a global pandemic. Since February, local, state, and federal governments have called for unprecedented prevention measures including social distancing, shelter-in-place, and more. So, since many of us are home, we chat about how this time has changed our routines and what we’re doing to stay sane. We hope all of you are well in this strange and scary period. If you want more info on COVID-19, check out the CDC website.

In this episode of the Teachers’ Podcast, Claire reflects on her initial experiences educating her children in the early days of the national lockdown. Despite the huge changes to our way of life, many parents are looking to keep their children entertained while still getting some form of education. Claire talks about how she has tried to make a start with this for her own children. Claire discusses how her expectations of what home-schooling would look like contrasted with the reality and how, even with a teaching background, the challenges of educating at home are notably different to those within a school. For parents up and down the country, providing some form of education for their children will be a concern. As every family is different, there will likely be a variety of unique challenges and issues parents will be facing such as sourcing activities for children of different ages while trying to build in routines to also allow working from home. Claire considers the challenges she has already encountered, what has been successful and what has not gone to plan, and shares some helpful tips and advice which could be of use to others.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Teaching at home is not the same as teaching in school. School is a very different environment to the home and it is not at all unusual for children to behave and react differently between the two places. While some aspects might be able to work in a similar way, the home cannot hope to replicate school. To compound this further, everything about our current situation is new for everyone. Parents, as well as the children, are having to adjust to a totally new way of life and, for the moment at least, we are all just trying to catch up and do our best in an unfamiliar landscape. Things won’t always go ‘right’, and that’s ok. Having children of different ages brings its own challenges. In terms of providing some form of education, children of different ages, and those who are different school years, will need work pitched at (sometimes significantly) different levels of challenge. This can be tricky for teachers let alone parents who don’t have as clear an understanding of the curriculums. Here it can be very useful to make use of resources the school has provided and other materials available more widely (see below). For families with siblings where one child is quite young, there could well be the additional complication of competition for attention to consider. Looking at timetabling might help for scheduling work between naps if this is possible. Don’t be afraid to adjust your expectations. Plans for how timetables might work, and how home-learning will go, may need to be changed – even on a daily basis. This happens in schools too where unexpected things occur and lessons or activities need to be reorganised. It is not unusual to find that expectations of what children might be able to do or accomplish need to be adjusted as well. Some activities are going to be over really quickly, prove too challenging or just take much longer than anticipated. On top of this, with the home environment being quite different to school, children’s attention spans and focus will likely be different. If you can, make use of what’s available online. There are a lot of resources available online for parents which many people and companies are providing for free. Online resources can be useful in many ways: they will probably be pitched reasonably accurately or will be focused on the topics your child will have covered, and some websites will give parents a quick introduction to the terminology and methods schools use which can be different to ways that were covered in the past. A number of celebrities are also providing live video lessons or putting content online for children and parents to use at home. While these celebrity resources have been met with some criticism from some quarters, they can be useful as they give your child a chance to hear from someone different, but who is still likely be a familiar face. These are unprecedented times and it’s new for everyone. It is important to remember that, at the moment, everyone is going a day at a time trying to make things work as best as they can. There has been a huge change that we have had to adapt to incredibly quickly. If things don’t go as expected, don’t be hard on yourself. Look for the positives. In and amongst the difficult circumstances we are facing, there is an opportunity to make some great memories with your children. When they are older, these times at home will be something they remember. If we can give them fun and positive experiences to remember, it will be time well spent. In the same way as schools are doing with the wider curriculum, alongside maths and English activities, this is a great time to try and boost creative work such as junk modelling for art or making music out of household items. Another positive to be mindful of is how this experience is bringing out the best in the online world through a ‘community spirit’ of individuals posting in a number of parent support groups offering help or advice and swapping of ideas and suggestions. If you need help, you don’t have to look far. Don’t worry too much about structure. Any change can be unsettling, particularly for children so adjustment to new routines at home will take time. Don’t feel bad if this doesn’t always work or feels like it never quite settles down. Parents will likely have everything else they would normally do too – including working from home – as well as looking after and educating their children, so plans will need to be ‘flexible’ anyway.   VALUABLE RESOURCES Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/ Coronavirus Home Learning Support for Teachers and Parents: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coronavirushomelearning/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ 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.

In this episode of the Teachers’ Podcast, Claire considers the extraordinary circumstances we are all currently experiencing and shares some ideas for home-learning in the event of school closures or isolation. Over the last few weeks, everyone, not just those in education, has faced a great deal of uncertainty about what will happen. Parents will, almost certainly, face some very troubling and difficult times in the coming weeks. Along with the likelihood of jobs being affected and family members possibly becoming ill, many will find themselves in the situation of having to occupy and educate their children at home – most likely in isolation or with few, if any, options for places to go. There are many companies and organisations doing all they can to help parents, teachers and schools. Details of these can usually be found online – generally on social media forums including Classroom Secrets’ own dedicated Facebook support group: Coronavirus Home Learning Support for Teachers and Parents. In this podcast, Claire discusses a number of different ideas for supporting children at home – whether you are a parent in need of inspiration or a teacher looking for suggestions to send home – and she talks about how to make the most of what will undoubtably be very challenging circumstances. Schools and teachers could also share the link to this podcast with their parents via their website or social media channels as an alternative way to hear about activities they might want to try. Classroom Secrets, and our sister site Classroom Secrets Kids, will do our very best to support teachers and parents in the coming weeks and months. Everyone in the company sends their best wishes to all who are affected in any way and we hope you and your loved ones are able to stay safe and well.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Classroom Secrets will do what we can to support your children’s learning. We have created free home-learning packs for each year-group which can be downloaded and, if you wish, printed out for children to complete. If you are a teacher, these can be sent home to parents as suggested activities. The home learning packs cover a range of mathematics and English activities pitched at different abilities, along with practical ideas, so all children can have something they can complete. Along with this, Classroom Secrets Kids – our sister site – is packed full of interactive activities for maths, grammar, reading, phonics and other subjects. All of the content is aimed specifically at children to enable them to learn independently. At the time of recording, the site is in BETA and is totally free for the duration of its development in this stage. We are continually adding new and exciting activities and all children in a class or family can have their own individual logon. Social media is full of ideas and offers. If you are stuck for suggestions, or just don’t know where to turn for a particular problem or concept, there is always social media. A lot of forums and discussions have been set up to help parents and teachers in these challenging times. Just have a look on Facebook or Twitter using hashtags such as #education, #edchat and #teaching. You can always come along to Classroom Secrets’ own Facebook support group (Coronavirus Home Learning Support for Teachers and Parents) where we are sharing live videos of practical ways to learn. It also has a mentoring section where you can direct questions to volunteers who might be able to give you help or further suggestions. Create and stick to routines. Routines are important for maintaining stability with children – especially younger children. Although setting up new routines in the event of school closures or isolation might seem daunting, these don’t need to mirror the school day and don’t necessarily need to follow a ‘9 to 3’ pattern. However, agreeing set times for when learning activities will take place, and which are kept to, will be beneficial for making sure children maintain some form of education. Daily reading is really important. Some form of daily reading should be a key part of any routine. Making time for children to read independently or to an adult is incredibly useful. If you can, ask questions about what they are reading: recapping or summarising events, describing the characters, exploring their thoughts, opinions and predictions. Where children might be less willing to read, allowing them to follow their interests can be a way to motivate and engage them in this. Get children doing chores. While this might seem like something children might enjoy doing the least, many children – in particular young children – usually do enjoy helping parents around the house and can be keen to get involved. Even older children, where it can be built into the routines of daily life, usually become more willing to undertake jobs and become less resistant to household tasks. Not only does getting involved in daily chores develop independence, it can develop problem-solving skills and be an opportunity for some social time. As well as this, chores can work to your advantage with sorting and tidying belongings, and routines you develop around chores will hopefully continue well into the future. Involve the children in what you are doing where you can. For parents who need to work from home, or for parents whose children can be safely involved in their jobs, teaching them about what you do can be great for communication and a useful window into the world of work for them. Consider what they can learn for the future which might help them and make the most of anything you can teach them. Always build in play. Children of any age can benefit from just being able to play. While younger children learn a huge amount through play, older children still need their own time to play in different ways: for example through creative expression such as art or crafting, or though imaginative writing. While the learning might sometimes be less easy to see, it is most definitely taking place. Allow some time for daily writing. Just like reading, build in some time for children to write each day. This can, again, be something some children might be less willing to do, but keeping it a part of daily learning routines is important. To encourage them, allowing children to write about topics of their own choosing can be a way to make the most of the time and will enable them to develop their imaginations and bring in their own interests. Do make the most of home-learning packs. If you are a parent, your child’s school might send packs home and they will have looked at the content to make sure it is something your child can complete. Make the most of these resources as they will help your son or daughter to continue revising and learning about concepts they have covered. However, do be mindful of when they are completed and how much impact they might have in terms of use of time. Look for the best ‘windows’ in the day for when it might be best to bring them in considering attentiveness and mental fatigue. If you are a teacher, a lot of companies are offering a range of options for building home-learning packs including the free packs from Classroom Secrets. Your house will almost certainly be full of useful materials. Parents might not always be aware of just how many materials and items they will already have in their houses which are perfect for teaching. Talking and experimenting with capacity, sorting various objects, using money, varying your vocabulary and scientific talk are just a few areas which can be covered with things you can find in the average house. Wherever you can, make learning practical. Learning in the home will, for most children, not feel the same as being in the classroom, and the teacher-pupil dynamic rarely transfers to parents or relatives. Confronting this head-on, and looking for ways to make learning ‘feel different’ by turning it into practical activities is a good way to motivate and enthuse children. Going outdoors where possible can bring in a wealth of learning opportunities: for example using chalk on flags in the garden for spelling games or making times-table arrays with leaves or berries. Involving maths and science in baking can be fun (and bring in some skills for the future) or describing things using elaborate vocabulary can teach children new words. You can also play memory games with almost any household objects too. For children who thrive on an element of competition, looking for opportunities to turn learning into games with a light-hearted competitive edge can encourage them to be much more enthusiastic about what they are doing.   VALUABLE RESOURCES Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/ Coronavirus Home Learning Support for Teachers and Parents: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coronavirushomelearning/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ 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.

What we're talking about in this episode! Key foods that will balance your hormones naturally Why nutrient deficiencies may be the root cause to hormone imbalance My top nutrients for thyroid, PMS and fatigue Which green smoothie you should be drinking to support your liver How to begin to balance your hormones naturally with food Keeping your hormones supported during times of fluctuation with nutritional tools   Episode Summary Today is a MAJOR milestone that I am so excited to celebrate with you. This is the 100th episode on the Essentially You podcast and we have officially reached 500,000 downloads! My heart swells with so much gratitude for having you a part of this women’s health journey. When I came up with the idea to create this podcast, I had you in mind. I am committed more than ever to give you what you want and need on this podcast. Since February this year, I have spoken with thousands of women and listened to their stories. It breaks my heart to hear that women are being dismissed and told that they will have to simply live with their symptoms. Your symptoms are valid and I’m here to advocate for you on your hormone journey. How does food influence your life? It's hard to comprehend just how much food impacts everything that we do from social events to nights at home. However food is also medicine, and it is one of the most important ways that you can impact your hormone health, energy levels, and overall well-being. Today I break down the Top 10 ways to leverage food to rebalance your body, reset your hormones and feel functionally better over time, because who doesn't want that? When you know how to eat for your body, take care of yourself and use essential oils properly, you can turn your symptoms around and heal your body on a cellular level. Join me on this milestone episode to learn what foods can help your hormone health and address some key nutrient deficiencies you might not even know you have. Learn easy rituals to jump-start your digestive system, which foods you should be eating to metabolize fat and increase your energy, and how to fuel your gut with good bacteria and nutritional supplements to fix the root causes of your issues. Food and self-care can turn your life around, and when you learn what is going on with your body you can find the best approach to help. Are you ready to protect and support your hormones through nutritional and delicious natural remedies? Share your favorite tip from this episode in the comments on the episode page!   Quotes “Self-care is a non-negotiable, practically it's necessary for survival.” (4:54) “In my research, I discovered a trifecta for losing stubborn weight, boosting energy and focus and getting deep restful sleep so your body can recover.” (9:23) “Now its no surprise that nutrient deficiencies are a root cause of disease in the body, especially when it comes to our chemical messengers, aka our hormones.” (25:26)   Resources Mentioned Get Dr. Mariza’s Detox EO Blends + Recipes Here Top 11 Supplements for Hormone Balance Guide Order The Essential Oils Hormone Solution Essentially You #95: Dr. William Li Essentially You #16: Magdalena Wszelaki Essentially You #12: Summer Bock Essentially You #50: Loving Your Liver Essentially You #88: My Hashimoto’s Diagnosis The Anit-Oxidant Counter by Dr. Mariza   Other Resources: The Essential Oils Hormone Solution by Dr. Mariza Check out the full show notes page Keep up with everything Dr. Mariza Follow Dr. Mariza on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube

Guest Bio:We are Eric and Christine Musick, proud parents of four wonderful children… all boys!! We know how overwhelming it feels to prepare for the birth of your child. We know because, during the birth of our fourth baby, we still forgot items in our hospital bag.This was the birth of Louis and Léa!It was now our mission to better help prepare parents. Whether it’s your first or fourth, we’ve got you covered from Birth Day to Birthday!When it comes to you and your baby, we know how important it is to have safe and natural products, because it was for us. You can rest assured that all items in our boxes were carefully curated to meet the highest standards in quality, while also being eco-conscious and friendly.Since February 2018, we’ve spent countless hours researching companies to work and partner with. Our strict, yet simple mission statement guided us to where we are today. From our 100% made from recycled material boxes, to reusable and biodegradable/recyclable products, our ethical approach to creating a quality sustainable subscription box never wavered.Creating organic, precious, playful moments from Birth Day to Birthday.Discover our collection of beautifully packaged boxes, perfect for gifting or monthly subscriptions, that offer a touch of luxury.Feel free to email us with any questions or concerns. We’d love to hear from you.– Eric, Christine and the boys!Key Takeaways:"Even if you are in a great place of life, you should be seeing a counselor." – Heather Knight"We couldn’t have gotten through what we went through without our faith." – Eric Musick"Trust the journey." – Christine Musick"Nobody grows in the comfortable spaces." – Heather Knight"Everything you do is either propelling you in a positive way or a negative way." – Eric MusickEric & Christine Musick:https://louisandlea.com/https://www.instagram.com/officiallouisandlea/Sponsor:Surviving to Thriving is brought to you by Knight Protection Services. A veteran-owned and operated company, Knight Protection Services employs a diverse group of former law enforcement officers and military veterans of the highest integrity, with extensive experience in risk assessment and crime prevention. Find out more by visiting https://knightprotectionllc.com/.For More Information About Surviving To Thriving: http://tothriving.org/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Claire meets with Andrew Midgley, headteacher at Raynville Primary School and interim headteacher at Carlinghow Primary School. Andrew talks about how, initially, he had no interest in a teaching career after seeing how much work his parents, who were both teachers, had to do as he was growing up. However, this changed after he began helping his girlfriend’s son who was falling behind at school. This motivated Andrew to pursue a PGCE at Bradford University after which he ‘never looked back’. Andrew reflects on how difficult a start he had with his first teaching appointment: a year 6 class with 35 pupils, no teaching support assistant and whose previous class teacher was off ill for a long period of time. On top of this, Ofsted visited to inspect the school and judge it as inadequate in Andrew’s first week. However, from that turbulent beginning, Andrew talks about his journey moving from a class teacher role to deputy headship to being seconded to one of the most challenging and worst-performing schools in Calderdale. Here, he turned around the school achieving good with outstanding features and even receiving an award from the Department for Education recognising the school as one of the top 50 schools in the country for sustained improvement. From there, Andrew worked in a multi-academy trust followed by supporting leaders and working as a consultant, but eventually moved back to Leeds as a headteacher. With Claire, Andrew discusses the challenges he has faced in his varied leadership roles and shares his experiences of helping to turn around schools in difficult circumstances. Within these discussions, he talks about the different strategies he has implemented and shares his thoughts on what has been successful.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Being a new headteacher can be lonely. Leadership roles – particularly at the top – can be lonely jobs and, as a new headteacher, there can be very few options for support. Having a mentor or close links to other experienced headteachers can be vital giving you someone to discuss difficult situations or decisions with. Nobody, even at the top, has all of the answers all of the time. Always be looking to learn from others. This is something teachers generally do anyway, but can particularly useful for anyone aspiring to be a leader in the future. Take time to look at how the best leaders interact with others, what decisions and actions they take and why they take them. If a task isn’t beneficial, ask why it needs to be done. ‘Because we’ve always done it that way’ cannot be a reason to continue doing something that serves no purpose. Tasks done for this reason alone can unnecessarily take up teachers’ valuable time. Leaders can help improve workload by periodically reviewing what staff are asked to do and question the benefits of doing them. Look for opportunities to gain more experience. Where you can, look to gain experience of teaching in different year groups, particularly if you aspire to lead a school in the future. While you don’t have to work in all phases of a school, it can really help to have experienced teaching in at least several different year groups as you will learn about the differences in approaches and structures which can be valuable in understanding how schools work and for building your own vision for a school. Always look to make use of other people’s expertise. While having first-hand experience of teaching across a school is very useful, many teachers and leaders have not done this, and it isn’t essential. Few leaders would say that they are experts in all phases of education and the best leaders actively seek out others who are experts in their phase and make the most of their knowledge and skills. Trust and communication are key to a good life/work balance for staff. Communication between leaders and staff about key events and ongoing aspects of their lives outside of school can really help. Coupled with trust and an understanding that some people, for different reasons, might need to start and end days earlier or later than others, or might work in different ways that suit personal circumstances, can really boost morale and help everyone feel more valued and settled with how they work. But different schools work in different ways and what works in one environment might not work in another.   BEST MOMENTS “All new heads need some kind of stabilisers – like you do when you’re riding a bike – and that was vital to me because I was thirty-two and thrown into the most challenging school in the authority.” “One of the biggest helps was learning from some fantastic headteachers that I’ve worked for. I like to see myself as an amalgamation of a few different headteachers: the good points that I’ve picked up and put together.” “If I wouldn’t put my daughter in that room or with that teacher then I need to do something about it. First and foremost, what can I do to support the teacher to help the teacher to improve things?” “It’s about ‘eating the frog’. Which is, if you had to eat a frog every day for the rest of your life to survive, when would you eat it? Well the answer is first thing in the morning because otherwise it just grows and gets smellier and sweatier. You get on with it. These difficult jobs, you have to do them, just do them.” “The workload is always going to be of a particular level in a school, but it’s about making sure it’s appropriately manageable. Not having a meeting because on Thursday you always have a meeting. If there’s nothing to meet for that Thursday, do not have a meeting, because time is one of the most valuable commodities in a school.” “Sorting out that respect, attitude and behaviour is a key thing. I started as the interim head the week before we broke up for Christmas. I was kicked, punched, spat at, all sorts of things. Not because the children were like that, but because the children had been allowed to behave like that for a period of time.” “By valuing people, by acknowledging things, and by saying ‘I believe in you, what can you do for me, what can I do to help you?’ and letting them know that, hopefully helps the morale of the people there.” “I don’t want teachers spending hours marking, I want teachers being ace teachers. It’s that simple.” “Technology is great, but a lot of kids, even in my community, have got iPads, tablets, iPhones and whatever. I think real life experiences and people who can talk, getting these authors, getting these charities, getting these people into school … would give them so many wonderful experiences.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES 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.

In this episode, Claire interviews Suneta Bagri: a mindset coach. Suneta has over 20 years’ worth of experience in education including being in a headteacher role for four years. Together, they discuss how Suneta always felt that she was a spiritual person knowing that she wanted to be a teacher from a very early age. She gained an interest in personal development aged 18 and this is something that she carried with her throughout her career. She talks of overcoming adversity and regaining a passion for education at University through the support of her siblings. Suneta defines personal development as a commitment for self-improvement and states she has a solution-focused approach when she wants to achieve something. Her current work centres around developing a mindset towards what you want. What do I want? How do I get it? How am I going to make it happen? They discuss the signs and symptoms of burnout explaining that senior leadership teams must be aware of this to help the teacher retention crisis. She explains that many people are talking about the crisis but not doing anything about it. In 2018 she decided that the wellbeing of teachers had to be first and foremost and wanted to create a movement that puts a focus on the wellbeing of teachers. Claire and Suneta explore how mentalities and opinions towards stress and wellbeing have improved over time. Teachers are becoming more open-minded towards innovative approaches to improving wellbeing. Suneta’s workshops focus on self-care, burn out and indicators of stress: all key steps to developing mindset and improving wellbeing. She explains that senior leadership teams must see the value of coaching so that the whole staff make an investment into the concept. This opens a framework of discussion which will help to make a larger positive impact.    KEY TAKEAWAYS To improve teacher retention, staff should feel valued. Where a school is committed to your wellbeing, it will show in the way you are communicated with and respected. The headteacher must set the tone to have the biggest impact in school. Senior leadership teams should have a compassionate attitude towards staff. Teachers will go to the moon and back for them if they see that they are cared about. High levels of respect result in ‘buy in’ from staff. Stress can be difficult to identify. Teachers need the self-care tools to identify and manage stress. It might be shown is when marking and planning is not kept up to date or behaviour management becomes a struggle. Other indicators include having stomach ache and nausea or headaches and migraines. Remember that people are managing stress on a daily basis – both personal and in the classroom. Burnout factors. Causes of burnout include workload, a lack of control and a lack of reward. Lack of control could be both in personal life or at work. Lack of reward may be not feeling acknowledged which can dampen spirits. It may also include unfair acknowledgement of other staff members such as promotions, pay rises or other perks. Teachers may experience a conflict of values. Staff go into teaching because they love the children but are often told that the focus is achieving the data and the results. This can result in feeling conflicted with what’s important to the teachers and what’s important to the leaders. A clear understanding of wellbeing. Wellbeing is ‘feeling well consistently for the majority of your day’. It is about being able to bounce back from setback and knowing that you will be okay. It is important not to confuse kind gestures from senior leaders as ‘wellbeing’. Self-assessment is important. Asking yourself why am I doing this? What are you doing to nourish and care for yourself? Know yourself as a person and what wellbeing means to you. If you don’t have the balance, how are you going to get it? Enforce your boundaries: be firm with yourself and say ‘I’m not actually going to mark after 6pm’.   BEST MOMENTS “Commitment to self-improvement. That’s really what it is. It’s about having an evolving mindset which is going to make you better as a person.” “We’re people first and professionals second.” “There’s lots of different areas of personal development, but your starting point would be your health because your physical health and your mental health is really your sustenance. So everything that you eat, everything you drink, the way that you move, the way you look after your body – that is all personal development” “You need to have a very open and transparent nature in a school.” “What can be one of the most difficult things for even colleagues to realise is that people are managing stress on a daily basis and we all do and sometimes that stress can be adrenaline: it’s a healthy stress. Where it’s healthy, we can kind of feel nervous… maybe we’re delivering CPD or maybe we’re seeing parents.” “Hierarchy exists. We can’t shy away from it. But that hierarchy shouldn’t be felt. And I think that’s where you get the most success in schools from my experience.” “On a plane you put your own oxygen mask on first and, when you do that, you can look after your own children if you’ve got children. But, it’s no different for teachers.” “Outstanding teaching is when you let the teachers be the leaders of their own learning. And if you’re not in a position to do that, you’re constantly feeling a lack of control.” “Wellbeing is also different for different people. So I can’t tell you what wellbeing should look like for you. All I can say to you is that wellbeing is going to be that you feel good about your life the majority of the time.” “You are your most important responsibility. The most important relationship you have is with yourself.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Suneta’s Website: https://sunetabagri.com/ The Every Teacher Matters Network: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/every-teacher-matters-network-tickets-76824765943 Christina Maslach Burnout Inventory: https://maslach.socialpsychology.org/ Author of ‘You Can Heal Your Life’: https://www.louisehay.com/ 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.    

She's baaaack! Since February is love month, the hilarious author of Eat, Pray, #FML Gabrielle Stone returns to talk about love, relationships, and finally understanding what self-love truly means. She gives tips on forgiveness, not putting up walls, and truly seeing yourself so you are open and ready for new love to enter your life. She also discusses her new audio book, film projects, and her solo trip to Southeast Asia and why everyone needs to book that solo vacation pronto! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tomgirltv/support

In this episode, Claire meets with Jonathan Chippindall: a part-time teacher and computing specialist. During the episode, Jonathan talks about his passion for computing and technology as well as giving teachers tips and advice on how to deliver the computing curriculum. He explains how the new curriculum opened doors in terms of his interest in coding and engineering allowing him to get involved in developing resources for Barefoot Computing and pursuing his specialism. Jonathan reassures teachers that it is okay to have concerns and worries about the computing curriculum; it is a challenge. However, he explains that help and support is out there noting Barefoot and the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) as starting points. He suggests that schools should be committed to staff development to ensure they are skilled and confident in teaching this subject area. He also offers advice on how computing should be taught with a focus on computational thinking and creativity. Jonathan reinforces the idea that these skills can be taught through unplugged computing and can be delivered with limited technology and a small budget. The conversation also covers Jonathan’s favoured kit and tech where he explains that the best companies also offer resources to teachers as well as listening to the primary community. The most valuable companies are ones which evolve over time so that the technology doesn’t become irrelevant or redundant. Jonathan also suggests creative ways of getting technology into school such as teaming up with schools to create a ‘kit loan library’, researching computing hubs and empowering the strongest pupils to upskill other children and staff.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Computing is a challenge. Teachers have the right to be worried about coding as they are being asked to teach something that they may not necessarily have experience of. However, there are free resources out there such as Barefoot Computing and the NCCE to provide support and empower teachers. Barefoot provide free workshops for staff and NCCE provide online primary pedagogy courses. Schools could dedicate staff meetings to upskilling staff in these areas. Unplugged computing is just as important. Computing doesn’t just mean using the technology. The Barefoot model involves six skills that make up computational thinking which can all be taught through unplugged activities. Computational thinking should be at the root of all IT teaching. The opening line of the new computing curriculum doesn’t mention programming or coding - it mentions computational thinking. This means developing problem solving skills: what are the steps to solve it? How can I break this problem down? These skills should be the main focus in all computing teaching. Teachers should allow for creativity in computing lessons. Jonathan mentions the importance of trying not to have lessons that are too scaffolded. Copying code that children might have seen in a resource means that the children are just recreating. In these cases, programming is not being taught: the children themselves are being programmed. Creativity in lessons encourages children to be innovative and to be designers. The pupils themselves can support you. Get pupils supporting you. Some pupils are very confident with technology. These children could be ‘Computing Ambassadors’, supporting other pupils and yourself. Invest in high quality kit and training for teachers. Jonathan suggests that the best use of funding is ensuring that new kit bought is used and used well. In addition to this, taking the top 10-20% of any budget and putting it towards staff training can see greater returns in teachers’ knowledge and confidence. He explains to look for the companies that aren’t just providing the kit, but are also providing the support. Chip’s favourite tech. Jonathan recommends the ‘Crumble Controller’ for key stage 2 as it is an inexpensive tool which allows physical computing. The company behind this technology listens to teachers and is constantly evolving so the equipment doesn’t become outdated. He also recommends Sphero for programming in key stage 2. For key stage 1, he suggests Beebots which are ideal for teaching basic programming skills.   BEST MOMENTS “It is a fairly significant ask. We are asking teachers to teach something they haven’t had experience of themselves in their own education although that is going to change through time as people come up through the system. And then I think that it is then realising that there is a lot of support out there. “ “Computing and computer science is not all about going straight to the coding. There’s a lot of work you can do with unplugged activities where you’re teaching these concepts without technology.” “For people that are worrying, you’re not on your own. It is acknowledged that this is an area we need to offer support and there is support out there” “In my school, I use Sphero, Crumble for key stage 2 and Beebots in key stage 1 and that’s our main focus.” “I just think hobbies are really important. Particularly for teachers as well, we’re working with kids and the idea is we are inspiring them because we like doing stuff and learning stuff. So it’s nice to have hobbies that you can talk to them about” “I think sometimes we fall into the trap of trying to do a one-size-fits-all. If you are working longer hours but you are loving it and you are happy, you’re going to be less happy if I tell you ‘you can’t’. It’s about just empowering people to know what they are comfortable with and helping them to work towards that.” “It’s these problem-solving skills which are really valuable that we want to develop in pupils because technology changes … What we want to do is make great problem solvers. So computational thinking needs to be at the heart of what we’re doing.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Barefoot Computing: https://www.barefootcomputing.org/ NCCE National Centre for Computing Education: https://teachcomputing.org/ Microbit Website: https://microbit.org/ Sphero Website: https://www.sphero.com/ 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.

In this episode, Claire speaks with Kate Aspin, a former deputy headteacher and now a senior lecturer at the University of Huddersfield. Kate begins by explaining her teaching journey, how she progressed three times in three years from class teacher to deputy headteacher and subsequently acting headteacher. During this time, Kate supported several Newly Qualified Teachers – including some who were finding the year a challenge - in Calderdale. This led to an interest in further developing her role in teacher training. Kate talks in detail about the different routes into teaching, the benefits of each route and the suitability for prospective students. She highlights the importance of gaining experience in schools and selecting a route that is best for you. She also mentions the challenges trainee teachers face, getting behaviour management right, the role of a mentor and working towards a LIFE/work balance. She notes the introduction of the new Early Career Framework that is due to be trialled in some local authorities - including Bradford and Greater Manchester in September 2020. This will then be rolled out nationally in the following year. The framework aims to provide continued support for Recently Qualified Teachers to help tackle teacher retention issues. Her conversation with Claire also covers the new Ofsted Framework for Initial Teacher Training and how it now mirrors the framework used within schools including ‘Deep Dives’. Kate was pleased to find that students are no longer graded but explains that this creates a ‘grey area’ around what constitutes as a ‘good’ standard and how this can be rolled out across all age ranges.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Mentors are an invaluable resource. Mentors have a crucial role in a trainee teacher’s success. Trainee teachers need good mentors. Mentors should model good practice and verbalise how they got to a certain point and provide scaffolding for the trainee. Make the implicit explicit. Prepare for the NQT year. Trainees should use the final teaching placement to reflect on what worked well and what they would do in different situations throughout the year. For instance: queries with parents, changes with the curriculum etc. Think about organising the classroom to make it work for you and to make it your own. LIFE/work balance for trainee teachers and Newly Qualified Teachers. It is important to remember that Newly Qualified Teachers and Recently Qualified Teachers are still developing and still need support. Encourage trainees or NQTs to adapt resources for what they need and not reinvent the wheel. Good is good enough. They need space to reflect and think. Have regular meetings with induction tutors as NQTs and continue this support in the RQT year. Behaviour management is key. Children who are misbehaving are not learning. Therefore, new trainees must get on top on behaviour management from the outset. The first target for new trainees must relate to behaviour management. Trainees should become familiar with the strategies used in their placement schools and develop strategies that work for them. Be certain that it is the job for you. Get experience in a school to see ‘behind the scenes’. Understand the theory behind planning, get involved in meetings and understand that teaching is a full-on job. If you know what you are getting yourself into, the rest of it will come. If not, it can be a massive shock.   BEST MOMENTS “You have to be certain it is the job for you. It has to run through you like a stick of rock.” “I’m looking for passion, realism, resilience, understanding and awareness of the subject knowledge that is involved [in teaching].” “I am willing to fail somebody. Children don’t get a say in who teaches them. They are the only people who don’t get a say. I’m not putting somebody out there who isn’t fit to teach my children or anybody else’s kids. It’s not fair on the children or the person.” “[Trainees] see an amazing teacher but they don’t have the skills to unpick where that all comes from. They don’t know what that magic is until they see it.” “We should be continuously developing ourselves as professionals but we need space to do that: space to think [and] space to reflect. I think this is greatest gift you can give your NQTs, is that space to say, ‘What’s not working in here?’” “The joy of the NQT [year] is you get to shut the door and if you haven’t got a TA, then it’s just you and the children. If you do have a hideous lesson that is a disaster then you reflect on it, pick yourself up, dust yourself down and you do it better next time.” “I think you have to be optimistic when you work with children.” “All schools need good teachers.” “I am not a big fan of governors walking into school and doing lesson observations on teachers… people in industries and from all walks of life, they don’t know what they are looking for. We need to rely on the senior leadership team.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Get into Teaching website: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/explore-my-options 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.

Since February is the month of all things love we decided it would be fun to have our husbands back on the show. We talk about everything from what God taught has been teaching us about marriage to our thoughts on the enneagram to who initiates date night. It’s always such a joy to have these conversations with Jonathan and Taylor and we hope you enjoy listening in! Quotes: “The biggest thing God has taught me this year about marriage is to truly know your spouse and to be truly known by your spouse.” -Jonathan “Being open and honest about the bad things might feel like you’re taking steps backward at first, but in the end it’s always going to be what’s best for your marriage.” -Kacie “God has been teaching me to remember what a gift marriage is in each season.” -Erin “I think about how good God was to us over the year through all of the changes and all of our experiences.” -Taylor *The beautiful music heard on today’s episode is by Katie Cobbs*

In this episode, Claire talks to Kelly Ashley a former teacher and current Primary English Specialist and author. Kelly starts by explaining how she moved from America to the UK. She explains her experience of the American schooling system as a teenager and young adult. She also talks about her university journey and what options were available to her. After choosing various subjects including anthropology, sociology and child psychology, Kelly decided to choose teaching as her career. She completed a two-year teaching course in America and, after meeting her husband, made moved countries. After qualifying and moving to North Carolina, Kelly visited different schools to secure a teaching job. She successfully found work in a large 5-form entry school as a Grade 3 (Year 2) class teacher. As she gained experience within the school, Kelly didn’t shy away from leadership roles and climbed up the ladder relatively swiftly. However, she explains how she left the school, and America, after meeting her future husband and moved to the UK. After teaching for 6 years in America and halfway to completing her master’s degree, Kelly’s transition to the UK as a teacher was not as straight forward as she would have wished for. She was informed that she needed to requalify as a teacher to teach in the UK and she later requalified through the Graduate Teaching Programme. In this podcast, Kelly talks about her journey as a teacher in the US and UK. She talks about the transition from the different countries as a teacher and how she became an English specialist. Throughout the podcast, Kelly compares the different schooling systems and the cultures in America and the UK. She shares the various strategies she has established and refined over the years to support children with closing the vocabulary gap, as well as aiding them to ensure they are exposed to a well-rich and well-versed environment. She talks about her book and how it can support teachers in the classroom.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Reading and writing workshop in America In this workshop, the teacher models a piece of text and the children have the opportunity to craft a text of their own. The workshops focused on children writing about personal interests. The text is explored as a reader and writer and how language and the language features can be used to portray a certain message. The workshop did not have a text-focused approach due to the pressures of the curriculum. Improving the vocabulary of reluctant readers Finding a way to help children develop a love of reading can start with identifying their interests. Share stories to heighten children’s engagement. The more teachers do this, the more it will help to connect with children’s personal interests and their personal understanding. It is all about that motivation and understanding. Provide children with a range of texts and encourage them to read different texts based on their interest. Recommend different texts types and books to help children develop their vocabulary and engagement with different texts. Closing the word gap Talk, talk and talk. In order to close the gap for children that don’t have a wealth of language under the age of 3, it is essential to interact and communicate with them verbally. It is important to acknowledge the extent of word and text knowledge children have at the age of three. If they have not been exposed to nursery rhymes or stories, they will not have a wealth of vocabulary. Firstly, it is important to understand the amount of talk used with children. Secondly, how we can extend the talk to dialogical talk. Dialogical talk – clarifying or asking a follow up question to an answer given or link it to personal experience and have a back and forth conversation. Develop on children’s answers When children respond to answers, develop and ask questions about their answers with new vocabulary. Engage and keep children interacted with the dialogue and associate words to the experience to help them broaden their vocabulary. Drip feeding new language Find opportunities within the classroom setting to drip feed and introduce new language. This can be through play-based learning, role play, group discussions or other methods. Recharging: charge up the word by teaching them a new word in a variety of ways. It’s the importance of recharging that word and giving them something to do with that word later. Challenging children and giving them the vocabulary and exposing them to the rich language won’t do them any harm. Storing vocabulary Even after vocabulary is processed through the auditory and visual channels there is a further challenge of words coming out. There are two different types of language stores in our brain: Receptive store – something we receive. We receive language through reading, we receive it through listening to people talk. Expressive vocabulary store – how we express our ideas and vocabulary through writing and speaking. Word of the day approach Research shows, to be a fully functioning, literate adult we need to have a vocabulary store of 50,000 – 60,000 words at the age of 16. In order to achieve this, children need to be exposed to 2,000 – 3,000 words every year up to the age of 16. If a child enters the school setting at the age of 3 with a significant word gap, they are already considerably behind the average child. However, it does not mean children need to be taught 2,000 – 3,000 words a year, it means children need to be exposed to a language-rich environment as they will learn these words through talk. In addition to this is modelling and interacting through high-quality texts. Ashley’s approach is a contextual based approach. A contextual based approach – teaching words in context to make play more engaging and interesting. After the context has been disclosed, how can the words be recharged and linked to their experience? The context must be strong and solid to ensure the word is rechargeable. The word must have a worse purpose for the children. If it doesn’t, the validity is questionable. Orthography and Phonology Orthography – visual or spelling. Writing a word and identifying words that start with the same letter string, i.e. ‘swamp, swing, sweat, sweater.’ Children may make a visual connection of the different words or they may make a visual connection to the last phoneme ‘mp’ i.e. bump, lamp, chomp etc.’ Phonology – sounds of the words and words that are in our language. Repeat the words in different tones and pitches, segmenting the word and getting children to repeat the word. Activate the understand of the word i.e. ‘what would and wouldn’t you see in a swamp?’ Morphology Morphology – changing an aspect. Morpheme – smallest unit of meaning in a word. Swamp holds meaning. However ‘swamped’ has a different meaning and has two morphemes. If we get an understanding of the root word it will help children understand the different morphemes associated with that root word. This supports the concept of word families in the National Curriculum. Etymology Etymology – history of words in our language. Getting children to investigate how words have arrived in our language and how they have changed over time.     BEST MOMENTS “The American [schooling] system is really different from the UK system.” “As soon as a I got into [teaching] I was absolutely hooked.” “I just drove around to different primary schools with my resume and I just went into the office and said, ‘Are you looking for any teachers?’ This was literally two weeks before schools started.” “It was a massive culture shock, educational culture shock, personal culture shock, everything.” “I was seconded to support the North Yorkshire English team. That eventually landed to a position coming opened. I applied and then I was working as a National Strategy Consultant.” “At the heart of it, whether you have a single age class or a mixed age class you need to be catering for the needs of all of your leaners. I think the biggest challenge for me was getting to grips with the change in curriculum and the curriculum expectations. Whilst I was in America, I was very familiar with what children needed to know and when they needed to know it. That was the challenge: more getting to grips with the expectations and what they should be achieving when. But the basic principles of understanding what are children doing and what do they need to do next, it was still applicable even though I had a mixed age class. It was thinking about, ‘how can we ensure that that offer really challenges the children in the most appropriate way?’” “The approaches to teaching back then [in America], especially in terms of literacy were a lot more holistic. You saw a lot of things like readers’ and writers’ workshop which, really interestingly, are coming back now.” “Education swings in roundabouts. There are some core principles, we have this great way in education of renaming the same thing.” “I had to almost relearn how to spell certain things.” “You could, theoretically, walk into a classroom in the US and still feel quite at home. Even though the curriculum is still quite different to how we shape the curriculum in the UK.”  “Sharing stories to try and heighten that interest. The more that you can do to help children to connect what they are reading to their personal interests and their personal understanding. It is all about that motivation and understanding. What reading materials are they having access to? Giving them a choice.” “As an adult it means, you need to have a good knowledge and understanding of what’s out there. Who are the new authors? Who are the authors that have been out there?” “It’s about going and exploring books… help the child to see the connections that we can make.” “If you hook onto an author or style that the child’s is really into, it’s really exploiting that and thinking is there something I can do here to engage the talk, engage the love of language, get them to explore that technical vocabulary… that will just open up their interest a bit more. It is about finding books that match their interest but also finding books that broaden their interest.” “If we want to make that dialogic, we might say, ‘Oh blueberries, I really like blueberries. What’s your favourite part of your breakfast meal?’ We might ask them a follow up question or ask them to clarify or we might link them into to a personal experience. It’s that dialogue - back and forth conversation - that will help children to find themselves within language, but also to better articulate themselves.” “Repeating that word in a sentence is called recasting, helping them to get the structure of the language.” “Limiting vocabulary in any way is never really a good idea.” “The speaking and repetition are really key.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Kelly Ashley: https://kellyashleyconsultancy.wordpress.com/ Kelly Ashley Consultancy: https://kellyashleyconsultancy.wordpress.com/vocabulary-development/ Dinosaur Dig: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dinosaur-Dig-Penny-Dales-Dinosaurs/dp/0857630946 The Thirty Million Word Gap, (Hart Risley): http://www.wvearlychildhood.org/resources/C-13_Handout_1.pdf Bringing Words to Life, (Isabel Beck) : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bringing-Words-Life-Second-Instruction-ebook/dp/B00BHYG41M/ Oli Cav: https://www.olicav.com/ Details for the Giveaway: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ 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.

Since February is about all things love, Nikita brings to you an episode where she answers your questions about love and relationships. From learning how to navigate relationship anxiety, to putting your thoughts on trial, to learning to trust again, and recognizing red flags in relationships, this episode has it all! Happy Valentine's everyone! If you liked the episode, please don't forget to rate and subscribe! Ask A Therapist is a new podcast created by two psychotherapists who answer your questions about love, life, and health in each episode. If you have a question you'd like answered, you can: Email us at info@soutiencounselling.ca You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook! Instagram: @soutientherapy Facebook: Soutien Psychotherapy Email: info@soutiencounselling.ca Website: soutiencounselling.ca --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/askatherapist/message

In this episode, Claire speaks with Martin Cutting, a former primary Deputy Headteacher and now Product Manager at Classroom Secrets. Martin begins by explaining his teaching journey, how he progressed from a class teacher to key stage leader, then assistant headteacher and finally deputy headteacher. Martin had a keen interest in computing and coding but always aspired to become a teacher. Martin talks about the changes he witnessed whilst working as a senior leader in a primary school and how funding cuts led to redundancies; including his own voluntary redundancy. Martin speaks about how the education system has changed and the impact this has had on teachers’ LIFE/work balance. He also mentions the strategies his team implemented to help tackle teachers’ workload and how this had a positive impact on productivity. In the podcast, Martin talks in detail about the role of Ofsted and how increased accountability and high-stakes environments can put extra strain on all teachers, especially SLT.     KEY TAKEAWAYS Asking for help is not a weakness. Teachers are very committed to their jobs and keep going for as long as they can. Some see asking for help as a weakness – it isn’t. Use the support that is available to you and share your concerns with your colleagues or someone you trust. Take steps to get a healthy LIFE/work balance. Some teachers use their spare time to meticulously create and resource lessons that are all singing, all dancing. Sometimes good is good enough. Remember an exhausted teacher is not an effective teacher. Use your spare time to relax and spend time with loved ones. Workload is an issue for all teachers including SLT. Although it may seem that workload pressures are usually imposed by SLT, it is important to remember that senior leaders also have their own workload and pressures to deal with. You would hope that in most cases, SLT will try find strategies to improve teachers’ LIFE/work balance. Do something that makes you happy. If you are finding that you are struggling to have a good LIFE/work balance and feel disheartened in your current role, look at different options. There are many opportunities to work in education but outside of teaching. Find the job that is right for you. Value your team. Consider implementing strategies to help improve teachers’ LIFE/work balance. Find ways to reduce workload or marking, reward staff by giving them time back and encourage staff to work collaboratively to find solutions together.   BEST MOMENTS “If I’d carried on in education, I would have become even more jaded by it.” “There’s a very quick jump to blame SLT in schools because they are the visible face for why teachers are doing the jobs they’ve been asked to do.” “A massive problem in education is the accountability culture or the blame culture and Ofsted. They are a huge reason behind why SLT do what they do.” “I was almost terrified of being asked a question that I didn’t know the answer to straightaway because I would be the one who lets the school down and we’re going to get special measures because of me.” “Teachers generally are people who will keep going as long as they can. The overwhelming personality type amongst teachers is to not want to [ask for help]. They are so committed to their jobs and see that as a weakness and it’s not.” “Looking back, I probably missed out on time with my children that I will never get back.” “I was looking for little wins for teachers... If teachers were willing to run after-school clubs, they were paid back through a day for themselves and that was quite well received.” “Ofsted serves a valuable purpose but it’s almost gone too far now where it has made it high-stakes for SLT and headteachers. That influences the decisions that headteachers and MATs make that then impacts on teachers’ workload and the demands on teachers in school.” “Technology has been a huge change in education. If you have a bit of technical understanding, you become a go-to person in school.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES 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.

Josh welcomes Leigh-Ann Treece to the Theater! • Since February is LUUUUUUUUUUV month in the Theater, there’s no better way to kick off a month of celebrating and learning about love, than with this week’s guest: the human Josh loves most in the whole world: his wife, Leigh-Ann Treece! Master social worker, former co-host, and expert husband chooser, there’s really nothing that she can’t do. Leigh-Ann heads a team of people helping mentors maintain and grow their relationships with their mentees.   If you’d like to reach out to Leigh-Ann to ask a question, you can reach her at the show’s emailL therapisttheater@gmail.com. • The book that inspired Leigh-Ann to go after social work: https://www.amazon.com/Shame-Nation-Restoration-Apartheid-Schooling/dp/1400052459/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+shame+of+the+nation&qid=1580936280&sr=8-1 • Time Codes! Get to know Leigh-Ann - 02:36 Movie Talk - 23:59 What have you learned from your clients? - 01:52:02 What’s something you do to take care of yourself? - 01:54:36 The Wrap Up - 01:58:24 • If you live in Tennessee and are interested in seeing Josh as a client, you can find him at www.mountsperocounseling.com. • Find Therapist Theater at: email: therapisttheater@gmail.com Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/therapistTHTR Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therapisttheater Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TherapyTheater  Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkh8_YV0CHyhbkYDfCzOMiA • • • • • • • • • Music from https://filmmusic.io “Screensaver” by Kevin Macleod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) • Music from https://filmmusic.io “Scheming Weasel (faster version)” by Kevin Macleod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

In this episode, Claire meets with Christina Gabbitas: an author, publisher and honorary member of the NSPCC council. Throughout the episode, Christina talks about how she uses her writing as an opportunity to open up conversations about hard-hitting concepts such as abuse and knife crime. She discusses her shyness as a child and how she overcame this, channelling those childhood fears into her writing. Christina talks in detail about the research she carried out in preparation for writing her book ‘Share Some Secrets’ which involves speaking up about abuse. She discusses the impact this book has had in making children feel comfortable and able to share troublesome secrets: having calls from Norway, Singapore, Australia and Switzerland to thank her for providing this resource. The conversation also covers knife crime and how she was approached by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office to write a story to explore the effects of this issue. Talking openly, Christina describes real-life stories of victims of knife crime, as well as discussing the choices and consequences children face. Christina offers advice and reassurance on developing teachers’ knowledge of safeguarding, concentrating on how research through conversations can broaden perspectives on what is such a difficult part of the job.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Stories can open up a conversation with the children. Creating a dialogue may make children feel more comfortable and willing to share ‘secrets’ or any troubles that they may be facing. Exposing the children to honest and frank conversations can prepare them and make them feel like they are not alone. Speaking to people can broaden safeguarding horizons. Through research where she has spoken to children, victims and other members of the public, Christina has become aware of a whole host of issues people face as well as recognising warning signs people may exhibit. There are lots of these signs, and it can be hard to identify which are a cry for help. You may think a child is okay because they seem ‘happy go lucky’ but this might not be the case. Teach the children the difference between good secrets and bad secrets. It is important for children to know the difference between good and troublesome secrets which is a difficult concept for them to understand. This links to common news articles stating how children have been abused and carry it through adulthood without speaking out about it. If they are taught this critical difference earlier on in life, would they feel more confident to speak up? Deal with hard-hitting issues in a non-scary way. Stories can present difficult topics in a way that everyone can relate to. Christina’s aim is to prevent children from feeling scared and through offering them a support network. Books can make this accessible through use of imagery and rhyme. Benefits of reading aloud. Reading aloud and interactive sessions can have a hugely positive impact on the children. It gets them involved and engaged in high-quality texts. Incentives such as World Read Aloud Day (on 5th February) can be used to promote this practice. Educating teachers about knife crime. Knife crime is on the rise and is not just an issue in London. It is moving to other cities and towns across the country. It is important that educators understand how children get involved in knife crime. It is also crucial to let the children know: these are your choices, these are your consequences.   BEST MOMENTS “Writing for me is therapy, but is helping other children.” “If you never try, you never know. Better to try and fail than not try at all.” “Sometimes we don’t know what we want to do. We take opportunities, we take those opportunities, we make the best of them and learn from them.” “It’s the power of media; the online media is quite amazing. But the most important thing to me is actually it is helping. I know now that it is helping children to speak out. So that’s one of my greatest achievements in life I would say.” “I think if you can educate children from a young age without it being too scary but just kind of giving them the idea. Prevention is always better than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards, isn’t it?” “Children are carrying knives because they think it’s going to protect them, but statistics are if they are carrying a knife, they are more likely to get stabbed with a knife or harmed with a knife.” “Again it’s educating children and the wider society about what’s happening.” “You’ve got to be everything: you’ve got to be a teacher, you’ve got to be a social worker, you know, you’ve got to be a counsellor. And it’s really hard and I do think that teachers should get more help within schools, I really do.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Christina’s Website: https://www.christinagabbitas.com/ Reach Out, Speak Out Abuse of Power Safeguarding Conference – 12th March 2020 (Use code C20 at checkout for 20% off ticket price): https://allevents.in/mobile/amp-event.php?event_id=1000066099634787 World Read Aloud Day website: https://www.litworld.org/worldreadaloudday Share Some Secrets Book: https://shop.nspcc.org.uk/products/share-some-secrets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeIO4v9c9RU Ineqe Safeguarding Group: https://ineqe.com/ No More Knife Crime Website: http://nomoreknifecrime.com/ 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.

Since February is always associated with love, we thought it was the perfect month to take a deep dive into relationships! In Part I of this topic, we include the 1 key thing to remember about all of your relationships and we humorously break down the most important element that holds every great relationship together…

In this episode, Claire speaks with Aaron Stevens, a former primary school teacher and now Product Manager at Classroom Secrets. Aaron begins by explaining how he studied Law at university but decided to pursue a career as a teacher through the Teach First route: an employment-based route for top-performing graduates. Graduates are placed in challenging schools: over half of the pupils come from the poorest 30% of families according to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index. Aaron talks about the strategies he employed during his training and, once he was qualified, how he helped maintain a healthy LIFE/work balance. Similarly, he speaks about the support he received from Teach First whilst training. He notes how he developed a great bond with his mentor within his school and how that gave Aaron confidence to confide in him when necessary. In the podcast, Aaron gives advice for prospective teachers to ensure that they are fully equipped for the world of teaching. He notes that gaining experience is crucial: candidates need to see the whole picture and gather information to have the best mindset for teaching.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Develop strategies that work for you. Be self-disciplined and set a cut-off time for work. Remember not everything on the list can be ticked off so prioritise the main tasks. Find ways of working smarter, not harder. Gain experience where you can. See what being a teacher is all about: sit in on meetings, arrive and leave with the other teachers, ask about workload and additional tasks and go in with the mentality that it will be hard work. Have the confidence to speak out. If you are struggling to have a good LIFE/work balance, it is important to open up to someone. This might be a colleague, friend, family member or someone you trust. It is also essential that someone in school is aware of this situation so they can put strategies in place to support you. Use the support that is available to you. First, we must accept that we do not know everything and we may never know everything. It is ok to ask for help. Invest in time: take the time to think about what you are struggling with, take the time to ask for support and take the time to figure out a solution. Try not to compare yourself to others. You may find yourself asking ‘how do they get everything done during the working week?’ or ‘why don’t they take work home?’ There are so many variables that can determine your LIFE/work balance: family life, different settings, different years groups, your workload, demands from the school etc. Therefore, it is very tricky to compare one teacher to another and we should avoid doing this. Prioritise your LIFE/work balance and do what works for you.   BEST MOMENTS “That initial link with the school was priceless for me… I already knew my mentor was not only going to be a professional mentor, but he was going to be quite a personal one too. He turned out to be a very good friend of mine.” “There’s always more things to do than there’s time to do them.” “Two thirds of teachers feel constantly or often overworked. A third of those surveyed, said that they would work over 51 hours every week.” “It’s quite frankly criminal, the amount of people leaving due to workload.” “You must invest time to get time back.” “Get experience: go out there and see what being a teacher is all about. Work experience to build a mindset is crucial.” “There is something inherently wrong with the system and change needs to happen.” “An exhausted teacher is an ineffective teacher. I didn’t want to do them a disservice.”  “It’s not about working harder to get it done; it’s about working smarter and coming up with strategies for you to get it done more efficiently.” “Could I wave my magic wand and give every teacher a magic wand? Now we’ve all got wands, we can educate children through our wands and through magic!”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Teach First website: http://www.teachfirst.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.