"You can't afford not to!" Headteacher Kulvarn Atwal on the power of slice teams

In this short episode of the Rethinking Education podcast, James Mannion speaks with Dr Kulvarn Atwal – a highly respected headteacher leading not one, but two schools: Highlands Primary and Uphall Primary in East London. Kulvarn is the author of The Thinking School and The Thinking Teacher, and a long-time advocate of distributed leadership and research-informed practice. He shares insights into how his schools are developing cultures of continuous improvement through collaboration and genuine stakeholder engagement. This conversation focuses on the idea of slice teams – diverse, representative groups of staff, students, and other members of the school community who lead change initiatives together. Slice teams are a central feature of James's new book, Making Change Stick: A Practical Guide to Implementing School Improvement. Topics discussed include: What slice teams are and how they work in practice Why including pupils in these teams is so important How this approach can lead to more sustainable, system-wide change Whether you’re a school leader, a classroom teacher, or someone interested in education reform, this is a thought-provoking discussion on how we can rethink leadership and change in schools. LINKS Making Change Stick website - https://makingchangestick.co Making Change Stick book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Change-Stick-Implementing-Improvement/dp/1398387487 Outro track: ‘How it is and how it should be’ by Grit Control: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1ud69RIV1eOV9poMR7AORI SUPPORT THE RETHINKING ED PODCAST: Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/repod Buy James a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/repod