SecEd Podcast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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