Thinking Deeply about Primary Education
Kieran Mackle
Welcome to Thinking Deeply about Primary Education, the podcast that gives you a peek inside the minds of some truly inspirational primary teachers. Whether you're new to the profession or a school leader with tons of experience this podcast is a must listen. For references, links and extended cut video episodes head over to www.thinkingdeeply.info
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 19, 2026 • 1h 25min
What does great teaching look like?
Learn more about The Story of Maths and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference EdinburghMaths PD Dublin, Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow - https://alta-education.com/cpd-tour-26-27/For show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterEpisode 310: What does great teaching actually look like when you strip away the slogans, initiatives and performative “wow” moments?In the opening episode of Season 7, Kieran is joined by primary teacher Tom Langlois for a wide-ranging conversation about the decisions, routines and professional thinking that sit behind effective classroom practice.Tom shares how his teaching has changed across 14 years in the classroom, including the development of booklet-based guided reading, the use of modelling, retrieval practice, cold calling, mini whiteboards and backwards faded practice, and why strong systems can create the conditions for teachers to focus on what matters most.The conversation also moves beyond individual techniques. Kieran and Tom explore how teachers get better over time, the importance of professional conversations with colleagues, what meaningful feedback for teachers might look like, how schools can understand pupils’ starting points, and why continually testing, refining and sometimes abandoning ideas is such an important part of the job.It is a conversation about teaching as a craft: not finding the next big thing, but getting increasingly good at making the small decisions that shape what pupils experience every day.
Sep 12, 2026 • 53min
How Does Curriculum Become Classroom Practice?
Learn more about The Story of Maths and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference EdinburghFor show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterEpisode 309: If a school wants to improve its curriculum, where should leaders begin?In the final episode of our curriculum mini-series, we move from curriculum design and classroom practice to the strategic decisions that sit behind long-term improvement. A panel of school leaders joins us to explore how curriculum change is prioritised, supported and sustained.We discuss how leaders decide what to focus on rather than trying to change everything at once, what needs to be in place if curriculum work is going to reach the classroom, and why some changes may need to wait until stronger foundations have been established. The result is a conversation about curriculum improvement as a long-term process rather than a sequence of isolated initiatives.
Sep 5, 2026 • 57min
Where Should Schools Start With Curriculum?
Learn more about The Story of Maths and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference EdinburghFor show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterEpisode 308: A curriculum may be carefully designed, but what does it take for it to work in the hands of teachers?In the second episode of our curriculum mini-series, we shift from curriculum design to classroom practice. A panel of teachers joins us to explore what curriculum looks like from the perspective of those responsible for enacting it every day.We discuss the aspects of curriculum that make the greatest difference to teaching and learning, the knowledge and judgement teachers need in order to work with a curriculum well, and what happens when teachers need to adapt while still protecting the ambition and coherence of what has been designed. We also consider what allows curriculum change to become embedded rather than simply becoming the next initiative.
Aug 29, 2026 • 57min
What Makes a Curriculum Coherent?
Learn more about The Story of Maths and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference EdinburghFor show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterEpisode 307: What does it take to turn curriculum thinking into something coherent, teachable and genuinely useful in the classroom?In the first episode of our curriculum mini-series, Reid Smith joins us to explore the decisions that sit behind curriculum and resource design. We discuss where the process begins, how choices are made about content, sequencing and revisiting, and how curriculum designers think about the relationship between coherence and teacher adaptation.The conversation also considers what happens when curriculum thinking moves beyond documents and frameworks and has to become something that teachers can actually use with pupils. It is a discussion about the decisions behind the curriculum before we turn, later in the series, to what happens when that curriculum reaches schools and classrooms.
Aug 22, 2026 • 59min
Five ways to promote positive behaviour for learning
Learn more about The Story of Maths and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference EdinburghFor show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterEpisode 306: Good behaviour cannot depend on which teacher happens to be standing at the front of the room.In the final episode of the mini-series, Kieran is joined by Elliot Heade and Jack Pattison from St Peter’s Primary School in Cardiff. Together, they unpack five principles that have helped create calm, purposeful classrooms across the school.Elliot and Jack explain how routines are modelled and rehearsed, how corrections can remain calm and respectful, and why warmth and strictness are not opposites. They also discuss the professional learning, coaching and shared language needed to make strong behaviour for learning extend beyond individual classrooms.This episode shows what becomes possible when expectations are predictable, adults act consistently and every pupil is expected to participate. Good behaviour becomes more than the work of exceptional teachers. It becomes normal.
Aug 15, 2026 • 43min
When should teachers call for help?
Learn more about The Story of Maths and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference EdinburghFor show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterEpisode 305: Teachers should not feel abandoned when behaviour becomes unsafe, but neither should asking for support leave them feeling that they have surrendered responsibility for their classroom.In this episode, Kieran is joined by Shannen Doherty and headteacher Becky Leeves to explore the 3Ds: a simple shared language for deciding when additional support is needed. Shannen and Becky explain how the approach has reduced emotion and ambiguity, improved communication over school radios and helped leaders prioritise their response. Crucially, it has also protected teachers’ professional judgement. The 3Ds are not a rigid checklist or an automatic route to removing a pupil. They provide a common language through which staff can ask for another pair of hands without judgement.The conversation offers a thoughtful model for balancing teacher agency with collective responsibility, while keeping the dignity, safety and needs of pupils at the centre of every response.
Aug 8, 2026 • 50min
Behaviour is taught, not managed
Learn more about The Story of Maths and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference EdinburghFor show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterEpisode 304: What changes when schools stop treating behaviour as something to manage and begin teaching it as deliberately as any other part of the curriculum?Kieran is joined by Australian educator Brendan Lee to explore the close relationship between behaviour, attention, curriculum and instruction. Brendan explains why calm, focused classrooms are a prerequisite for learning and why teachers must assume nothing when establishing routines and expectations.The discussion moves from classroom entry routines and behaviour-specific praise to the antecedents and consequences that can create either positive or negative patterns of behaviour. Brendan also explains why routines need to be modelled, practised, revisited and strengthened over time, rather than introduced once and then assumed to be secure.This is a practical exploration of how teachers can create classrooms in which pupils know what success looks like, experience it regularly and become increasingly able to participate in learning. The central argument is clear: good behaviour does not appear by accident. It is taught.
Aug 1, 2026 • 45min
Why behaviour feels harder than ever
Learn more about The Story of Maths and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference EdinburghFor show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterEpisode 303: When teachers say that behaviour is getting worse, what do they actually mean?In the opening episode of this four-part mini-series, Kieran is joined by Charles Benkowitz to explore why behaviour has become such a pressing and emotionally charged issue for schools. They consider the subjectivity of challenging behaviour, the relationship between attention and learning, and the profound effect that difficult classrooms can have on teachers’ confidence, wellbeing and willingness to remain in the profession.The conversation also examines how much control teachers can reasonably expect to have, whether behaviour policies create clarity or merely shift responsibility, and why apparently minor disruption can become so draining over time.Rather than offering one simple explanation, this episode establishes the questions that run throughout the series. Has behaviour changed, or have our expectations changed? What belongs to the classroom teacher, what belongs to school leaders, and what can genuinely help when teaching begins to feel overwhelming?
Jul 25, 2026 • 1h
The Leadership Lessons You Learn the Hard Way
Learn more about The Story of Maths and ACEL Pro - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference OnlineFor show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterEpisode 302: What does a year in school leadership actually teach you?Adam Smith and Shannen Doherty return to reflect on the decisions, mistakes and moments that shaped their year. They discuss why leaders cannot solve every problem, what poor communication often reveals, when to hold your nerve and how to admit that a carefully constructed plan simply has not worked.Along the way, we explore behaviour, suspensions, school improvement, instructional coaching, pointless assessment systems and the ghosts of decisions that nobody remembers making but everybody is still expected to follow.An honest, funny and unusually practical conversation about becoming a better leader.
Jul 18, 2026 • 36min
The Difficult Questions About Teaching Reading
Get your tickets for the TDaPE Conference OnlineFor show notes, links, and a summary episode, sign up for the Hey! What You Reading For newsletter. Mondays at 7am BST - https://tdape.beehiiv.com/subscribeAI For Teachers newsletterFor maths curriculum questions contact us here or via [email protected] Learn more about The Story of Maths - www.alta-education.com/tsom-overview and https://www.acel.proEpisode 301: What should teachers do when a child is still struggling to decode in Year 5? How much should reading intervention take priority over the wider curriculum? What can a reading age genuinely tell us, and when should teachers adapt a phonics programme rather than follow it exactly?In this episode, Christopher Such returns to answer some of the most difficult questions about teaching reading.We discuss phonics in mixed Year 1 and Year 2 classes, the compromises involved in supporting older struggling readers, the limits of reading ages, the meaning of fidelity and whether audiobooks can develop the language and knowledge needed for comprehension.A practical and thoughtful conversation about diagnosis, intervention and making better decisions for pupils who find reading difficult.
