The Headteacher Update Podcast

In this episode, three schools talk about the impact of the cost of living crisis and their work to support Pupil Premium and disadvantaged pupils.

Our guests identify their key tenets of effective Pupil Premium practice and talk about specific approaches they are using in their schools. We delve into a range of strategies and ideas for addressing the consequences of poverty in the primary school, including tips for success and lessons learned.

We hear about what is happening on the ground in our guests’ schools and the particular impacts they are seeing of the cost of living crisis and increasing levels of poverty.

We look at different aspects of school life through the lens of poverty, including the day-to-day running of the school, curriculum design, wider school systems, and more.

We discuss how to track Pupil Premium interventions and strategies, how to evaluate our spending, and the key ingredients of an effective, high-impact Pupil Premium Strategy.

Other topics under discussion include pupil voice, raising aspiration, attendance, quality first teaching and more.

This episode looks at the effective deployment of our teaching assistants in the primary school classroom, offering advice for whole-school practice and individual teaching and lessons.

We ask how teaching assistants can enhance pupils’ outcomes and support inclusion and how teachers and teaching assistants can communicate and work together effectively.

We discuss school systems and structures that can support their effective deployment. And we discuss the training and development that must be in place for our teaching assistants.

We consider how teaching assistants should and – vitally – should not be deployed, both in the classroom and when leading interventions.

We look at the role of school leaders in establishing the appropriate systems, structures and working practices that ensure consistent and effective deployment.

We also consider the merits of the DfE-funded Teaching Assistant Deployment Review Guide and consider other useful resources, including the Teaching Assistant Standards, the EEF teaching assistant research evidence and the MITA (maximising the impact of teaching of assistants) project.

And amid a cost of living crisis when many other jobs offer better remuneration, we discuss the recruitment and retention of teaching assistants.

This episode looks at using instructional coaching as part of your school’s approach to staff CPD and improving teaching and learning.

Three experts discuss what instructional is and its core principles. We ask how we can best launch and develop this approach in our schools and how it can be used to enhance teachers’ knowledge and understanding of pedagogy while complementing whole-school CPD.

We consider the discrete stages of instructional coaching and also hear case studies and examples from our guests of where instructional coaching approaches have worked well practice.

The podcast touches upon the use of deliberate practice as part of teacher development and we also discuss when instructional coaching should not be used in the school context.

Finally, we look at how instructional coaching should be separate to line management, quality assurance and performance management.

This episode looks at how primary schools can best support the education and development of pupils who use English as an additional language (EAL), including refugee children.

The podcast features three experts and opens with each guest offering their three tenets of best practice for EAL.

We discuss what primary school leaders can do to ensure effective whole-school provision for EAL pupils, including effective teaching and learning approaches.

We talk specifically about how to support refugee and asylum-seeking pupils given the arrival in recent years of children from Afghanistan, Ukraine and elsewhere.

The podcast discusses EAL pupils’ English language development, including what our panellists think about the use of phonics versus language immersion techniques? And how can we best assess early levels of English fluency and use assessment in general to understand progress?

And we also tackle the challenge of integrating mid-year arrivals (and their families) into the school and school life, especially in years 2 and 6 when SATs are looming – how can we best support pupils while also preparing them urgently for assessments.

The podcast includes expertise from The Bell Foundation and signposts to a number of free resources to support the work of schools.

This episode looks at best practice for delivering phonics programmes and teaching early reading in the primary school.

Two experts discuss how phonics supports early reading and what the high-quality teaching of early reading looks like in practice.

We ask what a high-quality phonics programme should offer schools and how we can ensure maximum impact with the scheme we are using.

How can we move pupils from learning to read to reading to learn and how can we instil and inspire a love of reading in our pupils to last a lifetime?

Elsewhere, we ask what Ofsted inspectors look for when they judge reading and phonics teaching in primary schools and dissect what an ambitious and enriching reading curriculum looks like.

Finally, we discuss how we can engage parents in the process of phonics and early reading and what kind of advice we can offer to families to help them support reading at home.

This episode offers crucial advice and lots of practical tips to help primary school headteachers – especially those new to post – to survive and thrive in the top job.

We speak with three experienced school leaders who draw on their experiences and the ups and downs of their careers to offer their tips, ideas, and advice to others.

We ask what our guests wish somebody had told them during the early months and years of their headships – a question that yields lots of quick wins as well as more in-depth, long-term advice.

Our guests also describe some of the challenges they have faced during their years in the hot seat and the – often inspiring – lessons learned from how they managed these challenges and overcame them.

We set out some specific wellbeing advice for school leaders and we discuss how we can ensure we survive and thrive both in the short-term – the early months of headship – but also the longer term.

We look at how we can build capacity in our teams – a key aspect of long-term survival – as well as building relationships with colleagues, the benefits of coaching, and where we can turn if we need further support.

This episode of the podcast considers how school leaders can successfully navigate difficult conversations that often need to take place with staff, parents and others.

We discuss common types of “difficult conversation”, some general principles for how to handle these discussions, and how we can best prepare ourselves and others for these conversations.

We discuss the crucial role that school and leadership culture plays in creating the right conditions and thus taking the sting out of these conversations.

We look specifically at handling difficult conversations with parents, including how school leaders can display empathy and build trusting relationships that pre-empt potential complaints and what we can do should relationships break down or become toxic.

We also look at conducting difficult conversations with staff, again offering general tips for handling these professionally and sensitively, especially for things like performance and capability.

Ultimately, we ask how school leaders can deliver a message that is clear and results in a positive outcome, no matter who the difficult conversation is with.

This episode discusses simple and effective ways of conducting high-impact self-evaluation in order to support and drive school improvement.

Three primary school leaders discuss their tenets of best practice for effective self-evaluation. We talk about the self-evaluation cycle, what it should look like, and how it fits into the wider process of school improvement.

The panel includes a practising Ofsted inspector and we discuss Ofsted’s view on self-evaluation and how we can meet Ofsted expectations for our self-evaluation practice. We also discuss how the Ofsted inspection handbook and framework can be used as a way of RAG-rating progress and impact.

Who should be involved in compiling the self-evaluation form (SEF) and what format should you use? Which formats are best? How can schools ensure the SEF is impact-focused rather than descriptive, and plays a key role in moving a school forward and raising standards? How do you ensure your SEF is a “live” document?

This episode advises primary schools on how to engage with the different statutory and non-statutory agencies working to support pupils, especially our most vulnerable.

From local authorities, safeguarding, mental health and Early Help services, to community out-reach, mentoring support and more, we consider the range of bodies that schools need to engage with.

We discuss how to create partnerships with positive reciprocal relationships and how to get the most out of key agencies at a time of stretched resources.

We begin with some general principles for engaging with external agencies and ensuring our schools and pupils get what they need from them, before discussing some of the most common agencies schools can expect to, would want to, or must legally engage with.

We talk about how primary schools might frame their Early Help offer to ensure it is effective and we discuss effective community out-reach, including how to access local funding streams and working with and engaging parents.

Our three guests give us lots of examples of how they engage with these agencies and of their own community out-reach work and partnerships.

This episode identifies key aspects of effective and purposeful curriculum assessment and evaluation in primary schools, including ensuring it is not onerous for teachers and meeting Ofsted expectations.

The discussion involves three experienced primary school leaders who offer us their tenets of best practice for how we can ensure our curriculum is high-quality and working for our pupils.

How do we achieve consistency across the primary school? How can we be sure that our curriculum caters for a broad ability range and also our most disadvantaged pupils? How do we monitor the effectiveness of teaching and its impact on learning and standards? How do we use pupil and parent voice?

And how do we evidence that we know our curriculum is high-quality and effective, not least for Ofsted. Our guests have recent experience of Ofsted and as part of the discussion we touch upon meeting inspection curriculum expectations.

How do we use what we learn when assessing our curriculum to identify and define next steps for improvement and development?

And finally, how is attainment and progress measured and monitored and how are staff expected to record, upload and review data?

This episode discusses how to be an effective school leader in challenging and difficult circumstances – both the expected and the unexpected.

Our experts consider how to lead and manage these situations, sharing their tenets of effective leadership under pressure, their own experiences, and lessons learnt.

We ask how leaders stay calm, decisive, and people-centred when times are tough. We also look at the particular challenge of handling a negative Ofsted inspection outcome.

We consider specific examples of challenging circumstances and the different types of challenges we may face as a school leader, handling angry parents, a death in your school community, a local incident, a serious safeguarding issue, staffing problems, Ofsted and others.

We try to outline a general principles of handling these situations and discuss a step-by-step guide for how to respond.

We discuss in particular Ofsted – perhaps the most common “challenging circumstance” – and how leaders can handle a negative outcome and the challenge of turning a school around.

This episode is packed full of advice, ideas, and tips for delivering effective and impactful outdoor learning in the primary school.

Our expert panel kick off by discussing nine tenets of best practice in delivering outdoor and nature-based learning in schools.

We also talk about the benefits that outdoor learning can bring, including the skills it can help pupils to develop.

With lots of ideas for activities and projects, we discuss how outdoor or nature-based learning can be set up in urban school settings or in schools with restricted space. We discuss ideas and tips for making outdoor learning work when it’s cold, wet, windy too.

Also, how can outdoor learning be used to break-down inequality and disadvantage and offer a more inclusive education? And how can it support pupil mental health and wellbeing?

Finally, we discuss how we can best integrate and plan outdoor learning into the wider curriculum.

This episode focuses on the use of coaching and mentoring approaches to support the development of teaching staff in schools.

Our experts discuss the differences between coaching and mentoring, with some examples of what each approach entails and sets out to achieve, as well as what they look like in practice.

We ask how headteachers can get started with introducing coaching or mentoring as part of CPD and professional learning for staff in their school.

We discuss the different models, important principles to keep in mind, tips and insights for how they can be applied, and ideas for coaching and mentoring conversations and activities.

We also consider how coaching and mentoring can develop your school’s leadership capacity, transform systems across the school, and create a resilient workforce. And we touch upon using coaching and mentoring to support pupils too.

This episode looks at how primary schools can boost pupil attendance, including tackling persistent absenteeism and supporting families.

Three experts discuss the current trends and challenges in primary school attendance, including the legacy of Covid.

We identify and discuss the main barriers to attendance – including anxiety, school avoidance, SEMH needs, problems with punctuality, poverty and school uniform – and offer strategies and tips for how they can best be overcome, including ideas for positive interventions.

We touch on Ofsted’s expectations and attitudes around attendance and discuss how to engage with parents and carers, including home visits.

How can we tackle persistent absences? What is the role of school procedures and policies, as well as tracking, monitoring and analysing attendance data?

We discuss how we can put caring and kindess at the heart of attendance work and how can we celebrate good attendance – are rewards the right way to go?

This podcast considers what effective middle leadership looks like in the primary school, including subject leadership, handling Ofsted's subject deep dives, and strategic middle leadership.

Our experts consider the traits of effective middle leaders and how we can support our staff to develop these skills.

We focus especially on subject leadership, including how middle leaders can ensure they are ready for Ofsted subject deep dives and how schools can support and empower subject leaders.

We ask what strategic middle leadership looks like and how it can be developed, with examples of good practices and initiatives. And we discuss supporting middle leaders to have those difficult conversations, give purposeful feedback, and navitgate challenging situations.

This episode considers how primary schools can balance their budgets, raise funds, and make the most of limited financial resources.

Two school finance experts discuss tips, ideas, and advice, including tenets of best practice in optimising your school’s budget and for effective financial management.

We discuss challenges including rising energy and National Insurance costs, and falling pupil rolls. We also offer a range of ideas for reducing expenditure and generating income.

We consider areas where schools can work together to achieve economies of scale and hold suppliers to account, and how school improvement and School Development Plans link to budgeting.

This podcast discusses effective appraisal and performance management practice in primary schools.

Three experienced school leaders discuss principles of effective appraisal systems, including elements of a successful appraisal and tips for setting objectives.

How can we place CPD at the heart of performance management and make the process collegiate/collaborative? How can we identify a teacher’s strengths? What can we do if a teacher is underperforming, especially to support new teachers?

Other topics include building trust, preparing for appraisals, school culture, getting feedback right, creating the conditions for professional learning, and how headteachers can demonstrate impact for their own appraisals.

This episode tackles Ofsted inspections, offering practical advice for primary schools to help you thrive when the inspectors call.

Two experienced headteachers offer tips and ideas, big and small, for handling Ofsted from start to finish.

We tackle subject deep dives, explaining how they are working in practice and how we can prepare without adding to workload, including tips for subject/middle leaders.

We discuss: Handling the emotions/pressure of inspection as a school leader, tactics for if things go wrong, the 90-minute phone call, things to prepare in advance, supporting colleagues & protecting staff wellbeing, useful tips and anecdotes.

This episode considers the consequences that poverty has for children and their education and offers practical ideas for how primary schools can address these.

We look at the national picture of child poverty, causes and impact, and the barriers it creates to education and school.

Our experts offer key principles for how we can work to counteract the impact of disadvantage in schools and a wealth of practical ideas – large and small – for supporting pupils.

We discuss family engagement, the curriculum, how the Pupil Premium can be used, boosting Pupil Premium registration, and pitfalls to avoid when allocating this funding.

This episode considers effective parent/carer engagement and asks how we can create parent-friendly schools.

Our experts offer principles for effective parental engagement and discuss how schools can get parents/carers on board, how we can build positive relationships, and tips for headteachers new in post.

We talk school gates, bacon sandwiches, and ideas for how we can make our schools more “parent-friendly”.

There are tips for getting parents to show an interest in learning at home and for handling difficult conversations and difficult parents.

Other topics include parent conferences, homework, websites, home communication, and working with the PTA.