Emma & Tom Talk Teaching

Emma Dooher & Tom Breeze
  • 4.8 (27)
  • Courses
  • Fortnightly series

We’re Emma (PGCE Secondary Drama) and Tom (PGCE Secondary Music) from Cardiff Metropolitan University. Welcome to our podcast, in which we muse about the joys of working with student teachers, the expressive arts, research, and teaching in general. Expect deep discussions, topical debates, celebrations of great practice, and things to steal for your own lessons! Our primary audience is student teachers and early-career teachers, but we hope there's something here for everyone who's involved in the world of education, whether you're new or experienced. Most of our episodes involve a main discussion (often with one or more guests), and two regular slots: something interesting and something to try. And when we hit the holidays, we bring out some weird and wonderful talking points from the internet and just have a chat. Podcast artwork by Beth Blandford (@blandoodles on Facebook and Instagram) Music by Cameron Stewart

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  1. 4 Sept

    Professional Learning in Wales with Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies

    Welcome back to the podcast for what is, unbelievably, our ninth season! For this first episode, Tom is out and about with his microphones, and has an interview with Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies, CEO of Dysgu. Dysgu was set up around a year ago to oversee the professional learning offering for people working in education in Wales. We wanted to find out how it sees its role, what its priorities are, and what would count as success for a nation still grappling with major educational challenges.  Thanks to Gwenllian for joining us.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recorded in Cathays Park, Cardiff on 7th July (interview) and in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 12th August (final discussion)

  2. 2 days ago

    SPECIAL REPORT: Wales's PISA results - where do we go from here?

    We interrupt your Friday off from our podcast to bring you a special episode about Wales’s PISA results! There’s been plenty of commentary about this already, and we wanted to contribute something that chews over the implications. Despite the results landing very inconveniently in the middle of our busiest teaching period of the year, we found a slot when we could both get in front of a microphone, and we’re doing our best to try and work out where we go from here without sugar coating the fact that these PISA results are really, really not good.  For those listeners new to these things, we take a brief run around what PISA actually is, then dive into Wales’s results, get a flavour of the commentary, and try to get a sense of where your new Plaid Cymru overlords want to take things next. Were they lucky to get this bombshell early in their tenure? Or are they already too late to avoid another bad news bomb in three years’ time?  Tom’s been sniffing around to get a sense of what’s going on behind closed doors in Welsh Government, and has a few things to report about some speedy announcements, and a curriculum review by the end of the year.  Thanks to Rhys Williams from ITV News for the clip that opens this episode. You can follow Rhys on X (and we recommend that you do!) at @rhyswilliamstv - his digging around the detail of data and inspection reports is doing a fine service to education journalism in Wales.  We’ll be revisiting plenty of the themes covered today over the course of the year. Normal service will be resumed next week! —————————— Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 10th September 2026

  3. Bonus

    Summer Bonus 2026

    First of all, welcome back to Emma! Although listeners may not have noticed (thanks to us imprisoning her in a studio for about a week last summer and then putting the episodes out slowly across the year), she has in fact just returned from a whole year away from the mic. In this bonus episode, we look back at season 8, and find out that Emma hasn't been keeping an eye on Tom while he was left to drive the podcast by himself - and it's a good thing he didn't realise or who knows what might have been published? We take a quick look forward to what's coming up in season 9, and invite you to make a date in your diary for the 4th September, when we release our first episode of the new academic year. -------------------------------- Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 10th August 2026

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About

We’re Emma (PGCE Secondary Drama) and Tom (PGCE Secondary Music) from Cardiff Metropolitan University. Welcome to our podcast, in which we muse about the joys of working with student teachers, the expressive arts, research, and teaching in general. Expect deep discussions, topical debates, celebrations of great practice, and things to steal for your own lessons! Our primary audience is student teachers and early-career teachers, but we hope there's something here for everyone who's involved in the world of education, whether you're new or experienced. Most of our episodes involve a main discussion (often with one or more guests), and two regular slots: something interesting and something to try. And when we hit the holidays, we bring out some weird and wonderful talking points from the internet and just have a chat. Podcast artwork by Beth Blandford (@blandoodles on Facebook and Instagram) Music by Cameron Stewart

Information

  • Creator
    Emma Dooher & Tom Breeze
  • Episodes
    236
  • Seasons
    9
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Emma & Tom Talk Teaching
  • Show Website
    Emma & Tom Talk Teaching

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