SecEd Podcast Pete Henshaw

This episode considers what schools can do to spot vulnerable students at risk of suspension or exclusion and how we can intervene to pull them back from the brink.
Official figures show the number of suspensions and exclusions is increasing year-on-year, not least due to persistent disruptive behaviour.
Related factors seem to include unmet mental health and SEN needs, poverty, safeguarding issues, trauma, criminal exploitation, social media, and more.
In this episode, we chat to a secondary school headteacher and a virtual headteacher to find out what they are seeing on the ground.
We ask what preventative actions schools can take to keep students in school and what the signs are that we need to be alert to that a student is on a suspension/exclusion trajectory.
We discuss a graduated response to supporting students and the role of the school environment and climate for learning, including how routines and expectations can help and “teaching” behaviour.
We also touch upon potential interventions for students at risk, including pastoral support plans, unmet needs, a change of curriculum, family support workers and more.
We also ask how we can support students who have been suspended to help them reintegrate into school life successfully, including running reintegration meetings.

In this episode we discuss excellent Pupil Premium practice and offer practical tips and ideas for how schools and teachers can support their most disadvantaged pupils.
We explore the causes of disadvantage and why the attainment gap between rich and poor has remained stubbornly large.
We look at the tangible classroom consequences of disadvantage and what that means for teaching and learning. Specifically, we touch upon how we can improve the attendance of disadvantaged students as well as their language and vocabulary levels.
We look at how we can ensure the funding benefits all pupils living in disadvantage – and not just those eligible for free school meals – and we explore the Pupil Premium interventions that tend to work best in most settings.
We look at the common ingredients of an effective Pupil Premium strategy, including breaking down the five steps recommended by the EEF (diagnose pupil need, ensure strong evidence, implement, monitor, evaluate).
We look at the role and responsibilities of the Pupil Premium coordinator in schools and the part that must be played by senior leaders and governors. And we also discuss how to prepare for an inspection of your Pupil Premium practice.

This episode looks at how to be an effective line manager in the secondary school, offering practical advice, examples and strategies for middle and senior leaders who have line management responsibilities.
We chat with two experienced school leaders to discuss the golden rules and key skills required to be an effective line manager.
We look at the different type of line manage roles and identify the biggest challenges for line managers.
We focus specifically on appraisal – a key duty of line managers. We look at effective appraisal practice, supporting CPD, how to prepare for and have difficult conversations, and dos and don’ts for conducting lesson observations.
We also talk about effective quality assurance practice, including how line managers can act on the findings of QA processes.
And we discuss staff wellbeing, morale and workload – what can line managers do to protect staff wellbeing, build morale and to help keep workload under control and in check.

This episode looks at how school leaders can thrive and survive in their role, including wellbeing advice, tips for leading from the front, and advice for those new to leadership roles.
We interview two experienced school leaders to get their insights and practical advice.
We look at the hardest challenges of school leadership for those new to the role and tips to help you start off on the right foot.
We ask how school leaders can be visible in school and available while protecting their workload and work/life balance. We also ask how leaders can model good work/life balance and working practices, including delegation and distributed leadership.
And how can we lead from the front, and set ourselves up to- make good decisions and drive school improvement?
We consider how to have difficult conversations, dealing with conflict and tackling underperformance.
And how can we avoid becoming an isolated leader. How do we show vulnerability and humility as a school leader, how do we model learning from our mistakes and how do we remain resilient?

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.