The SecEd Podcast: Subject reviews & deep dives

In this episode, three experienced teachers discuss how to start and end our lessons in the secondary school classroom – focusing on getting the first and last 10 minutes right.

We kick off with some “golden rules” and key ingredients for opening and closing our lessons.

We look at achieving calm lesson starts from a behaviour and classroom management point of view, including setting the right tone for behaviour, meeting and greeting, and dealing with students who are late or those who do not settle well.

We also consider ideas for getting into learning as quickly and smoothly as possible, including tips for starter activities, recapping previous learning, explaining learning objectives, and fostering student engagement and curiosity about the lesson.

When it comes to ending our lessons, we discuss ideas and techniques for bringing learning to a natural close and assessing whether the lesson has landed well with students. Also, how do we give students reflection time? Do we always need a plenary? And what makes for effective end-of-lesson learning routines?

And how can we end our lessons so that transition to the next lesson is calm from a behavioural point of view, including effective end of lesson behaviour routines.

Good questioning is at the heart of great teaching – as such this very practical episode looks at how teachers can plan and ask effective questions that support student participation, learning and progress.

Two experienced teachers discuss the different purposes of questioning in the classroom as well as the things teachers must consider when planning their questions and questioning techniques.

We detail some of the common challenges and how we can overcome them, such as getting the timing of questions right, encouraging student participation, dealing with “I don’t know” responses, improving oracy and the quality of student responses, creating a safe questioning culture in your classroom and more.

We look at the different types of questions, including hinge questions, Socratic questioning, discussions, metacognitive questions and more.

And we consider different techniques, including hot seating, think-pair-share, cold-calling, mini-whiteboards, entry and exit tickets, students asking the questions and more.

This episode of the podcast asks how classroom teachers and teaching staff can best support the learning, progress, and wellbeing of their neurodiverse students.

Our expert panel offer a range of advice, ideas, and tips based on their extensive experience within SEND education.

We define neurodiversity and discuss what makes a learner neurodiverse and the kinds of conditions the term covers while also busting some myths.

We discuss how we can support the wellbeing of these learners in our classroom, including examples of best practice and practical tips.

Likewise, we discuss general teaching tips and approaches to support the progress of neurodiverse learners, touching upon pedagogy, common adjustments, adaptive teaching, and the classroom environment.

We talk advice for supporting specific neurodiverse conditions and we also hear about one school’s Autism Resource Base and how that has been established and works in practice.

We finish with some recommendations for further reading, resources, and support for our work to support this cohort of students.

This episode looks at the role of the classroom teacher and teaching staff when it comes to effective safeguarding practice, offering insights, tips and practical dos and don’ts.

Classroom teachers and teaching staff are on the frontline when it comes to spotting students who are at risk or struggling due to safeguarding issues.

In the episode, three experts consider how we can spot the signs of safeguarding issues, what to do if we’re worried, and how to support and handle disclosures from students – including what to say and what not to say.

We discuss the key safeguarding duties of classroom staff, not least how teachers can engage effectively with the safeguarding documentation, including statutory guidance, and with training requirements.

We consider general rules for ensuring good safeguarding practice in your classroom, how we can challenge our own assumptions, and how we can promote a culture of safeguarding, including via our classroom environment and the curriculum.

Finally, we discuss some of the current safeguarding trends and offer tips and pointers for school staff.

This episode focuses on subject reviews or “deep dives” in the secondary school, asking what they are, how we can conduct them effectively without burdening staff, and what information we can and cannot expect to gather accurately.

Our expert panel asks what a subject review or deep dive is and looks like and why we need to carry them out – ultimately, what is their purpose?

We discuss how we can best conduct reviews/deep dives in order to ensure that we gather reliable and valid information that helps to inform our improvement planning.

And how can we do this while minimising the amount of stress that deep dives can cause to subject leader sand teachers, not least in terms of workload?

We ask what information we can gather with accuracy and confidence through subject review/deep dives, including the kind of questions we might ask. And, crucially, we ask what information we cannot gather with accuracy and confidence and what approaches we should avoid.

We also discuss the vital role of subject and middle leaders and the kind of CPD a school must have in place to support effective subject review processes.

Ofsted has of course placed subject deep dives at the heart of its Education Inspection Framework, and we touch upon how good practice in this area can stand a school in good stead for when inspectors do call.

In this episode, three experienced teachers discuss ideas, tips and advice for fostering student curiosity and motivation in the secondary school classroom.

We ask what curiosity and motivation look like in a classroom and discuss the key elements of the classroom environment and our teaching and pedagogy that can help to create curious and motivated students.

Not least, we ask how we can create a “culture of curiosity” that students buy into in our classrooms, including inclusive practice, building strong relationships with our students as well as the importance of effective classroom routines and teacher role-modelling (and how they can do this).

We discuss how we can motivate students who are struggling in their personal lives and as such arrive in our classrooms not ready for learning.

We focus on pedagogy and curriculum delivery. How can we plan learning so that we engage and retain students’ curiosity? How can we make learning relevant to students’ lives? We offer a range of ideas for using hooks and other devices to boost engagement.

We talk about the kind of tasks we set in lessons, how we can achieve desirable difficulty so that students are challenged but motivated, and the importance of chunking work and achieving a high-but-not-too-high success rate.

We talk about the role of teacher expectations and ideas for how we should respond when students “fail” or struggle with their learning.

And we touch upon metacognition and self-regulation, the importance of teaching students how to manage their own learning, and the role of autonomy and student choice in their learning.

This episode looks at how secondary schools can plan and implement flexible working practices to help boost teacher recruitment and retention.

Our panel of experts include headteachers who have placed flexible working at the heart of their recruitment and retention strategies as well as teachers who work flexibly themselves.

We discuss why schools should consider flexible working, the impact it can have, and the benefits for staff and students.

How can we be strategic about our approach to flexible working? What do we need to consider when designing flexible working roles? How can we ensure it has an impact on issues such as workload and staff wellbeing?

And it’s not all about part-time working – we consider the forms that flexible working can take and the types of flexible working approaches that are possible.

Our experts offer a range of practical tips and examples and discuss how schools and teachers can overcome common blocks or barriers to effective flexible working.

What is “calm leadership” and how can this philosophy help middle and senior leaders in schools to be effective and inspiring in their roles?

In this podcast, we chat to Patrick Cozier, the long-serving headteacher of Highgate Wood School in London, about his philosophy of calm leadership.

In a nine-article SecEd series last year, Patrick described his calm leadership approach, discussing what being a calm leader looks like in practice and the many elements involved, including empathy, listening, honesty, integrity, humility, trust, and so much more.

The series is now being turned into a new book and in this episode of the podcast we chat to Patrick to get practical insights into what calm leadership involves and how we can all aspire to be “calmer” in our leadership approaches in schools.

We discuss the challenges of leadership and how to deal with them in a calm and reasoned way, including the paranoia of leadership, imposter syndrome, when doubt sets in, handling difficult moments, and difficult conversations.

We also talk about how to keep calm in challenging situations, keeping a sense of perspective, staying optimistic, and working with colleagues to make good decisions.

We consider how to lead people effectively, including building trust, empowering colleagues, listening properly, and being kind. And we ask how we can nurture other key elements such as humility, empathy, integrity and more. And we discuss coping with the emotional rollercoaster that is school leadership.

This episode discusses how we can build strong connections and relationships with our students – especially those who are vulnerable – in order that they have the best chance of overcoming barriers and making progress in our classrooms.

Two experienced colleagues discuss why this is important and some key principles to building these relationships.

We ask how we can begin building connections with a new class of students and how we can foster strong relationships even when we might see hundreds of students every week.

We talk about building a culture of trust and respect in our classrooms and the common traits that teachers might display in order to build these connections. We also consider quick wins, including shaking hands, seating plans, corridor conversations, positive calls home, how to remember key details about students, role-modelling, and apologising when necessary.

We discuss strategies for building connections with individual vulnerable students – perhaps those who face the greatest barriers to learning and who are at the greatest risk of disengaging.

And we look at engaging with families and some whole-school strategies that might help teachers to build connections with their students.

In this episode we speak with Rachel W – an abuse survivor who disclosed to staff at school when aged 14 after suffering years of abuse.

Rachel talks powerfully about her story and the lessons schools and school staff can learn from it in order to improve safeguarding practice.

Interviewed by pastoral specialist and teacher Adele Bates, Rachel discusses the impact of the abuse, including on her education and behaviour in school. She talks about her attempts to disclose and how she was finally rescued from her abuser.

She discusses spotting the signs of abuse, the barriers to disclosure, how staff should handle disclosures – how we must respond – and what to do if you suspect a child is being abused or is at risk of harm.

We also talk about the behaviour of children who are living with trauma and what staff should be aware of.

Rachel has been writing about these themes in SecEd (https://bit.ly/seced-disclosure) and wanted to take part in this episode to help support school staff to know what to do in safeguarding situations.

The podcast makes for uncomfortable listening at times but is essential listening for all those working with children in schools.