SecEd Podcast

This episode looks at how to be an effective SENCO – considering best practice in the role, key duties, and how we can carry these out to a high standard. Our experts discuss what a SENCO can and should do in order to be effective, and how we can overcome common challenges – including insufficient time for the role and high workload. We offer advice for someone who is new to the role and we discuss tips for engaging with (supporting & empowering) teaching staff, as well as handling difficult colleagues who expect too much. We also discuss parental engagement.

This episode looks at how middle and senior leaders should approach the first 100 days in any school leadership role with lots of advice and tips for school leaders new in post. We discuss: How to prepare for a new leadership role and identify early priorities; what a new leader should do and avoid doing in their first week; how we can engage effectively with new colleagues, including 'difficult' colleagues; how to build a culture of trust and bring colleagues with us; levels of leadership; what to do when something goes wrong; the traits of effective leadership and leaders & more...

This episode discusses effective parent/carer engagement work for schools, offering advice and ideas. We discuss a parental engagement timeline (when this work should begin and how it can be sustained), handling conflict with parents, how to engage with "hard-to-reach" parents, community out-reach, and protecting staff workload. We discuss best practice for your school website and how parental engagement has changed during the pandemic, including the future of parents' evenings (online and face-to-face). We discuss the importance of positive communication and how this can be done effectively, including proactive communication plans and online parental coaching.

In this episode, we catch up with Adele Bates, a behaviour specialist, ex-teacher and author of Miss I Don't Give a Sh*t: Engaging with challenging behaviour in schools. Our practical discussion looks at how we can deal with and prevent challenging behaviour, what challenging behaviour looks like, when it occurs and handling incidents. We ask how we can create safety, boundaries and routines, including seating plans, how we can "see the child, not the behaviour", including issues of punishment and shame, how to "check-in" with students, communication of unmet needs, "teaching" self-regulation, and building relationships (the PACE approach).

This episode looks at how digital learning in schools is evolving in the wake of the pandemic and what it will look like in the months to come. We discuss lessons learnt from Covid, how the pandemic experience has changed practice and use of technology – and where we go next. We offer ideas for edtech practices that free-up teachers to teach, including pedagogy, homework, assessment, blended learning, flexible working and CPD. We look at what we can do to close the digital divide. This podcast has been produced with Pearson and comes with a free guide to digital learning: https://bit.ly/seced-DL

Host Adele Bates leads a reflective and practical discussion on diversity and inclusion in the classroom – how we can achieve this and what it looks like. We touch upon representation, avoiding tokenism, evaluating the resources we use to deliver our curriculum, and ask how we can include all students and ensure everyone feels they belong. We discuss how we can connect with pupils from diverse backgrounds. Other themes include advocacy & allyship for diverse colleagues, BAME & LGBT+ representation, and the experiences of children in care in our classrooms. Adele's previous podcast considered diversity across school culture, curriculum & the workforce: https://bit.ly/3nMQQrj

This episode is published ahead of #AntiBullyingWeek 2021 (November 15-19) and looks at how schools can prevent and respond to bullying behaviours and incidents. We discuss core principles of anti-bullying work, including school structures, policies & culture, what whole-school approaches look like, effective anti-bullying policies, using student voice, effective school culture, LGBT­+ inclusion & more. We look at the role of education, including making children aware of what bullying behaviours are and supporting them to manage disagreements. We consider how to respond to incidents of bullying, including breaking down barriers to reporting and how to engage with perpetrators of bullying.

This episode offers advice to early career teachers (ECTs) to help you thrive during your first year/s of teaching. The discussion features two ECTs (one first year & one second year) as well as an experienced mentor. We discuss common challenges for new teachers and offer advice for ECTs across key areas including SEND, work/life balance, workload, lesson-planning, differentiation, self-care and wellbeing. We look at coaching and mentoring – what are the essentials to make this support effective and how can ECTs to get the most from their mentors? We end the podcast with recommendations for further reading/support.

Ofsted's inspection framework requires schools in England to focus on the intent, implementation and impact of their curriculum. Last year, Matt Bromley, author of School and College Curriculum Design, discussed his six-step process for curriculum intent (https://bit.ly/3cl68fY). Now we invite Matt back to focus on curriculum implementation and impact. Implementation: Translating curriculum into teaching and long-term learning; acquiring and applying learning; how pupils' memory works; effective learning environments; the right culture and systems; workload; collaboration; CPD... Impact: What is assessment? What are we assessing? How can we ensure assessment is effective? Improving marking/feedback and deciding upon your outcomes.

This episode looks at coaching and mentoring as part of effective CPD practice in schools. Our experts define coaching and mentoring, how one differs from the other, and how coaching and mentoring practices in schools have changed over the years, including different models and how to measure impact. We discuss the essentials that need to be in place in order to make coaching and mentoring effective, including managing expectations, questioning skills, listening skills, switching between coaching and mentoring, and accountability. We also discuss the challenges: What doesn't work well and why? What lessons have we learned?