The Headteacher Update Podcast

In this episode we ask two experienced school leaders one simple question – What makes a great headteacher? – and see where the conversation goes. Our two guests enjoy a wide-ranging discussion about what a great headteacher looks like from the perspective of each of the key stakeholders in the school community – pupils, staff, parents and others. The pupil lens: We talk kindness and honesty, but also the importance of holding children to high standards. The staff lens: We talk trust, integrity, and leading by example. The parent/carers lens: We talk being visible, communicating clearly, and listening well. The governor lens: We talk respect and relationships. We also consider Ofsted and how we can maintain our values as a great headteacher while also meeting inspectors' expectations. Ultimately, we consider the characteristics, skills, traits and experiences that combine to make brilliant headteachers.

In this episode we discuss how we can improve the quality of teaching across the primary school, with practical advice and insights for school leaders. We begin by discussing the role of the curriculum in improving teaching quality, including the importance of inclusion and oracy. We focus too on the importance of planning teaching and learning – both short-term action planning and longer-term planning. Our panel also discusses effective approaches to teacher CPD, including coaching and mentoring and we consider why a people-focused, collegiate approach to the monitoring of teaching and learning is crucial – and what this can look like in practice. Finally, we discuss how we can hold teachers to account in positive and supporting ways and offer a few top tips.

In the midst of a teacher retention crisis, this episode asks how primary schools can keep hold of their teaching staff, especially their early career teachers. With more than 114,000 teachers having quit teaching for reasons other than retirement in the last three years, our expert panel discuss general principles for creating a school environment that encourages teachers to want to stay. We talk about pay, equity of opportunity, creating belonging and psychological safety across our workforces, the vital role of CPD and support for career progression, and much more. We ask what effective school leadership for retention looks like, including the support we must offer and how to build trust and those vital relationships. We discuss strategies to address workload, a key driver of teacher retention, including flexible working, and how schools can help teachers to achieve a better work/life balance. We focus in particular on strategies to support early career teachers, a third of whom are likely to quit after their first five years. Ultimately, we ask how headteachers can make their school a place where teachers want to work and feel they belong.

This episode considers what an inclusive primary school looks like and how we can create a culture of inclusion that enables every pupil to thrive regardless of starting points. We interview two experienced educators and discuss how we can support all learners, no matter their background and barriers to learning. We talk about how to create the right ethos and culture of belonging and family in our schools, including and how we can overcome barriers to pupil wellbeing. We discuss how we can address equity and equality of opportunity and we hear a number of real-life examples of inclusive practice. The conversation also touches upon how to use external and additional expertise to deliver true inclusive practice.

In this episode, we discuss how primary schools can maximise the impact of our staff team to deliver excellent SEND provision, with our panel offering a range of innovative ideas and approaches. Our three experienced guests begin their discussion with nine quick ideas and go on to develop these during the podcast, considering how the impact of our SEND staffing can be optimised to ensure we support our most vulnerable pupils. We ask how we can work within incredibly tight budgets to maximise the staffing of SEND – what approaches have been shown to be effective. We talk about ideas for the effective and efficient deployment of staff and we consider how we can get CPD right for all our colleagues who work to support SEND children, especially our teachers and teaching staff. We discuss the challenging role of the SENCO and how they can be supported by school leadership to oversee and lead SEND staffing and provision in the school. We talk about provision mapping and discuss how we can keep our practice and our SEND pupils central to our planning and at the heart of our inclusive school culture.

This episode dissects the revised Ofsted inspection framework, setting out actions that school leaders can take now to prepare and offering expert insights and tips. Our panel has extensive experience of Ofsted inspection, and they break down the key changes that schools should be focused on and how best we can respond. We highlight key aspects of the revised framework, including the implications of the new evaluation areas and grading points. We interrogate the new "secure fit" model of inspection and Ofsted's new "expected standard". We delve into the inclusion thread that runs throughout the framework and will dominant inspections from now on and we discuss the new focus on school context, asking how school leaders can best communicate this information during inspection. We offer top tips for the Monday phone call, tips for identifying strengths/weaknesses, touch upon the new role of the "nominee" and the case sampling of pupils. Finally, we list actions that schools should be taking now to set themselves in good stead for inspection under the new regime.

This episode offers advice for school leaders on how they can handle parental complaints, including de-escalation tips and dealing with vexatious complaints. With NAHT research showing a rise in parental complaints and vexatious complaints, this episode is packed full of useful tips and practical advice for school leaders. Our three experienced panellists describe what they are seeing on the ground in terms of rising complaints and discuss the reasons why more parents are complaining. We ask how we can best respond to complaints, including the steps we should take to take and how best to communicate with parents throughout the process. We discuss ways to de-escalate complaints and how we can protect ourselves personally and professionally during what can be a very stressful time. We discuss the nature of vexatious complaints and how we should handle these, including how we can response to parents who refer their complaints directly to bodies such as Ofsted or the DfE.

This episode looks at environmental work across the primary school, including how we can reduce our carbon emissions and integrate climate education into the curriculum. We look at where school leaders can begin when it comes to reducing carbon emissions across the primary school, including creating a Climate Action Plan and ideas for some quick wins. Our guests include experts from the National Education Nature Park and Let's Go Zero as well as a primary school doing amazing work in this area. We look at how we can engage pupils in this work without worrying or scaring them about the dangers of climate change. We ask how we can create an effective and engaging climate education. We also discuss ways to mitigate the impact of climate change in our schools. Throughout the episode our guests signpost to useful resources, initiatives and tools that schools can tap into to support this work, including educational resources. We also ask what support, grants and resources are out there for schools.

This episode looks at a range of routines, systems and protocols that can help you to create a calm and efficient primary school environment – with lots of practical ideas to adapt and adopt. Our panel of school leaders discuss a range of evidence-based ideas for useful school routines that help the school day to run smoothly – whether that be in the classroom, corridors or playground. We look specifically at consistent classroom routines across the school, including how to give teachers appropriate freedom and agency within a teaching and learning framework. We look at leadership routines, including effective headteacher practices and we ask: where do you stand during your day as a headteacher in order to be visible, to gauge how your school is doing, and to engage positively with parents, staff and students? We look at lunch-time routines and useful ideas for structuring the beginning and end of the school day. The also discuss the power of the timetable. We also ask what quick wins are available for new headteachers or those beginning in a new school when it comes to establishing effective routines.

This podcast discusses the retirement choices open to school leaders and headteachers, tips for effective pension planning as well as the implications of early and phased retirement options. We speak with two experts from Wesleyan Financial Services to discuss principles of effective retirement planning and what headteachers need to think about and plan for. We focus on the provisions within the Teachers' Pension Scheme including how benefits are calculated under the 80th Final Salary, 60th Final Salary, and Career Average schemes. We explain the McCloud judgement and how it is likely to affect headteachers who have been in service a long time. We advise how headteachers can set about working out how much income they might need at different stages of retirement and what action they need to take to achieve this. We also consider tax-planning for higher earners. A large part of the discussion focuses on understanding the available retirement options, including early retirement and phased retirement and the implications for headteachers' pensions and planning. This episode has been produced in partnership with our friends at Wesleyan Financial Services. Visit www.wesleyan.co.uk/teachers

This episode offers advice, ideas and examples for effective library provision in the primary school, including tips for whole-school literacy support. We meet with two primary school professionals and an expert from the National Literacy Trust to get their view of what makes for excellent primary school library provision. We discuss how to create a thriving school library provision when space and budgets are limited – including advice for schools that do not have a dedicated library space. We also look particularly at how school library provisions can support literacy and reading outcomes, including reading for pleasure, as well as offering support for all curriculum subjects. Our panel – which includes the school librarian from the School Library Association School Library of the Year – offer a lot of practical, tried and tested ideas for school library provision and library initiatives, including numerous ideas to help pupils develop their reading skills and love of reading.

This episode describes ideas and advice for identifying and supporting pupils with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in the primary school classroom. SLCN are now the most common need for the 1.2 million pupils who are on SEN Support in England's schools – and the evidence tells us that there will be many more who are going undiagnosed. The podcast features two SENCOs and a speech and language therapist who offer advice for school leadership teams (especially SENCOs) and classroom teachers. We consider the prevalence and impact of SLCN on pupil outcomes and the extent to which these needs fly under the radar. We look at common signs for SLCN and how SENCOs and teachers can work together to pick these up. We also discuss the overlap between SLCN and other common issues, including SEMH, the impact on friendships and social interaction, challenging behaviours, poor attendance and more.   And we discuss lots of in-class techniques and interventions to support these pupils, as well as wider support and intervetions, and other examples of good practice from our guests' schools.   This episode has been produced in partnership with our friends at Speech and Language Link. Visit https://speechandlanguage.link/ 

In this episode we discuss leadership succession planning and how primary schools can spot, develop and nurture the school leaders (and headteachers) of tomorrow. Across two halves, the podcast speaks to four school leaders to find out how they spot, encourage and develop potential leaders in their schools and trusts. We ask how we can talent-spot these leaders – what kind of leadership traits and characteristics are we looking out for in our teachers and school staff? Then, once we have identified these potential leaders, how do we support them to hone their leadership skills and what processes and CPD should schools have in place to encourage and inspire them? How do you nurture leaders pastorally to keep them energised? And what makes for an inspirational mentor or coach who might inspire the potential school leaders of the future? We discuss all this alongside lots of good examples and ideas from our guests' schools and trusts.

With the numbers of pupils with SEN rising year-on-year, this episode offers advice for primary school leadership teams (especially SENCOs) about the effective management of SEN across the primary school. Our expert panel begin by offering their principles of best practice for managing SEN. We then discuss how can school leaders can best support their SENCOs and what SENCO need in order to be effective in their role. We focus too on how SENCOs can best support teaching staff – what will empower teaching staff to identify and support pupils with SEN and where do the responsibilities of SEN lie between the duties of the SENCO and the duties of teaching staff? We talk about who should be on the SEN Register and how this is best managed and we focus on the management of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), discussing some basic principles of good practice. We finish the podcast with a focus on the most common SEN – namely autism and speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). This episode has been kindly supported by our friends at Speech and Language Link.

In this episode we discuss how to deliver excellent and high-quality school food on a budget in your primary school. We chat with two headteachers and the founder of the Chefs in Schools charity to explore ideas and options for how schools can deliver quality food experiences for pupils. We ask how we can work with families to improve packed lunches and also discuss how we can raise money via our food growing and education initiatives. We talk about what we can do to improve the take-up of free school meals, and we offer advice how we can deliver high-quality breakfast clubs that make a difference. We discuss food education. What should we be teaching about food and how? What does a good food curriculum look like? And we consider the impact that high-quality school food can have for children and their attainment and wellbeing.

In this episode we take a deep dive into the different roles and models of executive school leadership, looking at best practice and how executive leaders can best support individual schools. Our panel of experts ask what different executive leadership roles exist and what purpose they serve; we consider the different structures and models of executive leadership, too. We discuss how executive leaders can effectively support the individual school leadership teams within each of the schools they oversee. We also detail the the main responsibilities for executive headteachers and their deputies and ask what processes and elements are required for executive leadership to thrive. We ask what skills make a good executive leader and hear examples of good practice and effective models from the experience of our three experts, including some of the challenges they have faced as executive leaders.

In this episode we look at the recruitment and retention of teachers in the primary school, including how to attract the best teachers and ideas and tips for how to keep hold of them. The podcast features three experienced school leaders who begin their discussion by each offering their three core principles of best practice for effective recruitment and retention. We then consider how we might go about finding the best teaching staff, including how we recruit effectively for specific roles, and what kind of things might attract high-quality candidates to want to work in your school. We also discuss what an effective recruitment process looks like. When it comes to retention, our panel considers in depth how to build a school culture that is "difficult to leave", including how we integrate new staff, mentoring, professional development and support, systems of appraisal, and more. And we talk about effective systems of induction for new staff as well to ensure they can hit the ground running when they begin.

This episode focuses on how we can teach oracy and speaking skills in the primary school, with practical tips, ideas, resources and advice. Our expert panel discuss what oracy is, why it matters, and the impact we have seen on pupils' speaking skills since Covid. We look at how we can teach oracy in the classroom and across the curriculum, including practical activities for the explicit teaching of oracy as well as ideas for authentic opportunities to encourage talk. We consider the role of vocabulary teaching, ask what high expectations for classroom talk look like, and hear examples of practice from two primary schools. And we address the important differences between "learning to talk" and "learning through talk" and the vital role of developing listening as well as speaking skills. We discuss whole-school strategies, including creating a culture where pupils feel able to speak-up, cross-curriculum planning for oracy, how to ensure consistent approaches, staff CPD, the role of extra-curricular clubs, and more. And we look at how we can engage parents in this work while also considering how we can best assess and monitor our pupils' progress in terms of oracy. This podcast has been produced in partnership with Pearson. Visit www.pearsonprimary.co.uk/podcast

In this episode three school leaders discuss effective behaviour management strategies and approaches in the primary school. We ask how we can build a culture that supports consistent behaviour management across the school. Furthermore, what does an impactful behaviour policy look like and how should it be applied in practice to ensure consistency in classrooms, corridors and playgrounds? The panel also discusses what support and CPD school staff need in order to ensure consistent and good behaviour management across the school. We also tackle how we can work well with our families to help support good behaviour, and how our behaviour policy should be adjusted as required to meet the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND. We offer a range of practical strategies with examples and lessons learned from our panellists' schools.

In this episode we discuss how headteachers can "market" their primary schools effectively – not least to prospective parents and their wider communities. Pupil rolls are due to fall notably in the coming years, meaning that promoting our school's ethos, culture and educational track record will become ever more important – especially for small primary schools. But how do we go about doing this well? We speak to two experienced headteachers of small primary schools and ask why marketing our schools is essential and get their insights, ideas, and tips. We discuss general principles of good practice and proactive marketing work as well as some "quick wins" for schools. We talk both short-term and long-term marketing strategies, how to make tight marketing budgets stretch, and how to ensure you capture and communication clearly and effectively your school's unique selling points and ethos. We talk about how we can "compete" for pupils from our local communities in the right way and touch upon involving our pupils in promoting the school as well.

This episode looks at how schools and school leaders can lead change and make sure new approaches, interventions or improvement practices have the biggest possible impact. Inspired by the publication of the Education Endowment Foundation's updated implementation guidance – Putting Evidence to Work – the podcast features advice, examples, and ideas from three experienced school leaders. The EEF's new guidance distils the latest research into effective implementation and is aimed at helping schools to ensure new approaches, interventions and practices are successful. Our episode kicks off with some general tenets of good practice when leading and implementing new approaches and we discuss how school leaders can structure and implement new initiatives. We ask how the new EEF guidance can be woven into school practices, not least to ensure our interventions are meeting the needs of our most disadvantaged pupils. We also ask what we need to do when interventions are not working. We also ask how we can respond if members of school staff are reluctant about the changes we are proposing. Finally, our guests share case studies of successful implementation along with lessons learnt and top tips/takeaways.

In this episode we discuss a range of ideas and strategies for how primary schools can support the good mental health and wellbeing of their pupils. We chat to three guests who work in three different schools. We hear their tenets of good practice when it comes to supporting good pupil wellbeing in school before discussing what wellbeing challenges they are seeing on the ground and at the chalkface in their schools. We delve into some of the work taking place in our guests' three schools and hear anonymised case studies of successful interventions they have had with pupils who have struggled. We talk extensively about their approaches to mental health and wellbeing education – within PSHE but also more generally across the curriculum and in the classroom with lots of ideas big and small. We look in particular at what we can do to support our pupils, including while they are waiting for CAMHS referrals, and we discuss what support we can access via other outside agencies. Elsewhere, we discuss how we can build positive relationships with pupils and families so that we can better recognise the warning signs of emerging problems and intervene quickly.

In this episode we discuss tips, ideas, and strategies for protecting the wellbeing of headteachers – and other school staff – during Ofsted inspections. Our guest is Paul K Ainsworth, who has held director of school improvement roles in four multi-academy trusts in the last nine years and in that time has experienced more than 40 Ofsted inspections. We get Paul's practical insights – both small ideas and more substantial advice – about how we can protect our mental health and wellbeing, and that of our school team, during inspection. We get lots of tips for reducing and managing anxiety and hear useful anecdotes from Paul's experience of inspection. We hear about what inspection has been like this year in light of changes brought in after the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry. Ofsted has brought in a number of reforms, including new complaints procedures, mental health training for inspectors and better support – we find out what this looks like on the ground and ask what headteachers can expect to see when they get inspected in 2024. Paul offers insights for how we can prepare for inspection in such a way that will build resilience and confidence, including how best to prepare for the pre-inspection phone call. Other topics include where headteachers can turn to for support during inspection, how to challenge inspectors effectively, and how to handle the emotional rollercoaster and exhausting nature of inspection.

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.

This episode looks at supporting pupils as they make the transition from primary to secondary school. We chat with two secondary schools and two feeder primaries about common transition challenges and solutions. We look at when transition work should begin, what the process looks like, engaging with parents, identifying pupils who may struggle, and supporting vulnerable pupils. We discuss tried and tested ideas for transition interventions, activities and taster days. Other topics include curriculum consistency, academic support, year 7 transition activities, open evenings, year 7 pupil ambassadors working with year 6 pupils, and the impact of Covid on transition.

This episode takes a practical look at how primary schools can support vulnerable pupils, including looked after children and those living with trauma and adverse childhood experiences. We ask what form ACEs and trauma can take, what impact they have, and what being a trauma-informed school involves. We consider therapeutic approaches and how to create calming classroom environments. We discuss: making behaviour management more effective and less reactive; the common mistakes schools make and how can we avoid them; responding to emotionally based school-based avoidance; and helping vulnerable children to successfully manage their emotions at key times of the day.

What is the best way to teach pupils to read and how can teachers ensure every child leaves primary school a fluent reader? This episode considers the components of effective whole-school reading (and literacy) strategies. The podcast is packed with teaching tips and techniques as well as whole-school ideas to engage pupils and boost reading skills. We discuss: early years & early reading work, reading aloud, improving fluency, using the school library, fostering reading for pleasure, the kinds of books that will spark a love of reading for life, the DfE's 2021 Reading Framework, common challenges, and engaging reluctant readers.

This episode considers what outstanding governance looks like in the primary school, how to be a great governor, and how school leaders and governors can work together effectively. We ask how headteachers can foster strong, professional relationships with governors, and vice-versa. We advise new headteachers how they might begin to build working relationships with governors, including questions to ask during your first meeting, and we advise governors how to build relationships with new heads. We consider governor workload, how heads can handle 'difficult' governors, what we can do when the relationship breaks down, and what lessons Covid has taught us.

This two-part episode offers advice and tips for good safeguarding practice and how we can keep children safe. In part two, we chat to three colleagues working in primary schools about their safeguarding work, examples of best practice, and useful ideas. They discuss current trends, effective safeguarding principles, and how to ensure a culture of "it could happen here". Themes include SEND, Covid, spotting the patterns, effective communication, empowering staff to question narratives, supporting volunteer staff, peer-on-peer abuse, online safety, attendance, domestic abuse, and referring to social care. Part 1 featuring safeguarding expert Elizabeth Rose is still available via https://bit.ly/htu-podcastsafe

This two-part episode offers advice/tips for good safeguarding practice in schools. In part one, safeguarding expert Elizabeth Rose speaks about current safeguarding trends and how schools can respond. Themes include the consequences of Covid-19 for safeguarding, safety of children outside school, the growing trend of online safety challenges at primary level – including peer-on-peer incidents, social media, cyberbullying, online abuse & self-generated images, and online gaming. Elizabeth advises on making successful referrals, applying thresholds of need, and information-sharing. Other topics include Early Help, parental communication, pupil voice, and staff training. Don't miss part two of this podcast on February 16.

This episode asks what great school improvement practice and processes look like and how to ensure self-evaluation work in schools is effective. We discuss the key tenets of school improvement, including change management, culture and ethos. We ask what a cycle of improvement should look like and how headteachers new in post might begin this work, including building relationships, winning hearts and minds, and listening to and involving all stakeholders. We discuss common traits of effective improvement practice, key challenges or barriers (and how we might overcome them), and how we can ensure that improvement work is maintained.