This week I chat with Gemma Drinkall, an education wellbeing coach. Gemma talks to me about the importance of creating and protecting boundaries as a teacher. We also discuss tokenistic wellbeing practices and attitudes towards teachers and their wellbeing. In this episode, Gemma shares: - What an education wellbeing coach is and what they do. - Why she is so passionate about the wellbeing of teachers. - Tips for creating those boundaries and sticking to your non-negotiables.   If you’d like to learn more about Gemma and HeadSphere, you can visit: https://linktr.ee/GemmaDrinkall See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Teachers' Podcast

Creating boundaries to protect teacher wellbeing: Gemma Drinkall, founder of HeadSphere

In this episode I talk with Andy Taylor. Andy is a teacher himself, who has worked with the DfE, Chartered College and TES to support NQTs/ECTs. His Twitter page (Mr Ts NQTs) is full of advice for teachers starting their career. Andy talks with me about when he took on the role of NQT mentor and how he came across a lot of NQTs and RQTs who had experienced a patchy induction. He also shares his thoughts on the Early Careers Framework and the role out of training for ECT mentors and induction tutors. In this episode, Andy shares: - Why it’s important for ECTs to have access the Early Careers Framework. - The distinction between an ECT mentor and ECT induction tutors. - Why he is so passionate about helping ECTs. - Why building relationships with other colleagues can be so beneficial. If you’d like to find out more about Andy, how he supports ECTs, or find the documents Andy mentioned in the podcast, you can visit: https://twitter.com/MrTs_NQTs https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/mr-ts-10-top-tips-for-your-first-term/ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/induction-for-early-career-teachers-england https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-career-framework-reforms-overview/early-career-framework-reforms-overview See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Supporting ECTs in their teaching journey: Andy Taylor (Mr T’s NQTs)

Education on Fire: Mark Taylor, presenter of Education on Fire podcast This week, I chat with Mark Taylor, presenter of Education on Fire podcast. Mark has taught music in multiple schools and has seen for himself the wonderful things teachers for their pupils. Realising that the teaching profession needed a lift in the media, he launched his podcast in order to allow educators to share their knowledge far and wide. In this episode, Mark shares: - What he believes the foundations for learning are (FIRE) and why. - Why these foundations apply to both teachers and pupils, and why it’s important for teachers to put themselves first. - Reasons why educators might feel isolated but also how they can learn from each other and create teaching communities.   If you’d like to learn more about Mark and Education on Fire, you can visit: educationonfire.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Education on Fire Mark Taylor - presenter of Education on Fire podcast

The 5 Steps to Wellbeing and How to Implement Them: Karen Gibb, director of Mind Marvels This week I chat with Karen Gibb, founder and director of Mind Marvels, a company that supports young people with their mental health in schools, nurseries and online. Karen talks to me about the NHS 5 Steps to Wellbeing, what they mean to her, and how they can be implemented within the classroom. In this episode, Karen shares: - What the NHS 5 Steps to Wellbeing are. - Why she is so passionate about giving people the tools they need to manage their wellbeing. - Some tips on implementing the 5 steps in the classroom but also how you can implement these steps into your life.   If you’d like to learn more about Mind Marvels, you can visit: https://mindmarvels.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/mindmarvels https://twitter.com/mindmarvels https://www.instagram.com/mindmarvels/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mskarengibb/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 5 Steps to Wellbeing and How to Implement Them: Karen Gibb, director of Mind Marvels

In the opening episode of the season, I chat with Karen McGuigan, founder of The Maths Mum and creator of Maths for Life. Karen is incredibly passionate about maths and her ambition is to ensure all children, regardless of their ability or any additional needs they may have, leave school armed with the mathematical life skills they will need in the future.  In this episode, Karen shares: - Why she is so passionate about maths and ensuring all children can pick up those life skills. - Her journey to becoming The Maths Mum and where the inspiration for Maths for Life came from. - Ideas for breaking down the objectives for those pupils who need extra support to get true understanding. If you’d like to learn more about The Maths Mum and Maths for Life, you can visit: https://www.mathsforlife.com/ https://www.facebook.com/TheMathsMum https://twitter.com/themathsmum https://www.instagram.com/themathsmum/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maths for Life – a differentiated approach: Karen McGuigan, founder of The Maths Mum and creator of Maths for Life

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Grace Francis: Founder of DramEd, a company that delivers creative educational experiences in pre-schools and primary schools. With a background in acting on both stage and television, Grace has a passion for making performing arts accessible to all children. Having experienced her own challenges with childhood poverty and taking unfulfilling work as a young mother in between acting jobs, Grace says what drives her is helping all children access high quality performing arts experiences. Grace cites her month-long stint at a famous theatre school while she was 11 years old as being a key time that inspired her, developed her imagination, and nurtured her confidence. This is something she feels still motivates her to help all children, irrespective of their background and their experience the performing arts.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Bring learning to life. DramEd’s sessions enrich the learning that takes place in educational settings. At the core of its practice is ensuring the arts feature in the curriculum and make the topics children are learning about an experience involving drama, music and dance. Families and pre-schools. Grace is passionate about giving young children the opportunity to experience performing arts. DramEd also provide creative experiences for families and children. The team of performers plan (with artistic licence) bespoke workshops. More details can be found on their website: www.dramed.co.uk The Batman Effect. If children have been asked to complete a task and are lacking in confidence or experiencing difficulties, they could be encouraged to pretend to be their favourite superhero. For example, Batman. Adults then encourage children to consider the characteristics of the alter ego: ‘How would we do that if we were Batman?’   BEST MOMENTS “We use drama - or role-play should I say - in everyday life to prepare ourselves for certain decisions, certain challenges, a new job or a new role. Role-playing that out in our day-to-day life, even as grown-ups, and building our confidence and the public speaking and everything that performing arts brings is just necessary for children.” “I feel what I do is not separating performing arts as a stand-alone topic. Even though it’s really good for that, it’s using the elements of what performing arts can do for children - the benefits of performing arts - bringing that into the classroom and integrating it into the curriculum where possible.” “Performing arts develops a range of skills in children: it encourages their development of creative problem-solving skills; it improves their language and social skills; it fosters their decision making, their risk taking and inventiveness; it boosts their critical thinking and increases confidence. It’s a subject that has a lot of benefits for a holistic approach to living life.” “Encourage the children to stand up and role-play. But that’s only going to work if you’re confident as a teacher to do that yourselves. So, stand up, take on a role and don’t be afraid of looking silly.” “It’s literally just testing out situations. ‘What would happen if I do this?’ and playing that out. ‘What happens if it goes this way?’ and playing that out. It’s just building on that with children. That’s what I feel we do with drama and I’m really passionate about enriching children from their earliest years.” “I don’t think that performing arts is necessarily in school just for those [disadvantaged] students, but I also feel like it should be in the curriculum somewhere for all children to be able to access, regardless of their background.” “It’s not all about drama. We’re thinking about music and dance as well. Ask the children what they enjoy. Find out what they are watching and what they’re listening to.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Website: https://dramed.co.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Drameduk Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/dramedUK Instagram: www.instagram.com/dramed_uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-francis-dramedltd/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Performing arts in the curriculum: Grace Francis, founder of DramEd

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Tim Ealing: Founder of Time Capsule Education. During his time as a primary teacher, Tim was a subject leader for English. In 2016, he set up his own business: Time Capsule Education. Tim refers to himself and his business partner as ‘historical interpreters’ working in the heritage industry for clients such as English Heritage. Tim also works as a creative writing consultant in schools across the country.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Make contexts for writing relevant to help children build connections It is important to ensure children have a level of understanding of the subject they are writing about. Children need to feel connected to the context. The quality of what children produce - across a range of abilities - can be greatly improved when they have experienced the context first-hand. Scaffolding Relevant and meaningful experiences mean writing is purposeful to children. If they can build on what they already know, it allows for more creativity to develop. Children pick up on teachers’ interest in the writing context Children are intuitive. They will detect if teachers are not invested in the teaching content. To encourage quality writing, teachers need to be enthusiastic about what they’re asking their children to write about.   BEST MOMENTS “I worry greatly that all the joy and fun in writing has been sucked out of it because we still have an awful lot of people who are bothered about whether they are using the dreaded ‘fronted adverbials’.” “I would certainly like to see more emphasis on drama activities, storytelling and building stories with older kids. I’m a key stage two specialist more than anything else and I think, over the years, because of time constraints and the pressures of curriculum and all sorts of other things, that we’ve ended up not letting big kids play.” “At the end of the day, my first love in school and outside of school is teaching history. As a historian I could extol the virtues of teaching history and why we should teach history but, actually, what it boils down to is that schools are judged mostly on the teaching of English and of mathematics and writing.” “You can’t write a historical story, you can’t write a story set in Tudor times, unless you understand a little bit about Tudor times. You need the language, you need to know what people wore and ate, what they did and various other things.” “I want to be able to facilitate and help teachers make their writing experience that bit more interesting, engaging and relevant to the kids. And it should be fun.” “We’re always going to be needing to have our kids improving their writing; and the one thing that is really important about this is that you get terrible writing if there’s no experience. You get pretty awful, ordinary writing if you focus on just the technical things.” “I like primary school to be the place where kids get lots and lots of different experiences to find that ‘thing’ that really gets them going. Whether it’s sport or music or dance or drama or art or history or whatever.” “As a primary teacher, it’s impossible to keep up that level of excitement and passion in every single subject you teach. I fell into English teaching… and I just have so much fun doing it. I’m a frustrated writer. My hook to most kids when we give them stories to start is, ‘I started writing this story and I don’t know how to finish it, so I need you to finish it for me.’”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Website: https://timecapsule.education/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timecapsuleed Twitter: https://twitter.com/TimeCapsuleEd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timecapsuleed/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Making writing meaningful: Tim Eagling, founder of Time Capsule Education

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Rezina Kelly: former primary school teacher, safeguarding adviser and now education consultant. Rezina discusses the importance of safeguarding and how, in her varied roles over the years, safeguarding has been at the core of all of them. From being an educational trainer to a member of the youth offending team in a prison, Rezina believes that building trust and developing positive relationships is crucial to safeguarding children and young people.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Be curious, get to know your students well. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. If we get to know our children really well, it helps us to notice times when they might be struggling or when things might not be quite right for them. Knowing our children well means that we can identify any subtle changes or indicators and, subsequently, support them. Beware of getting used to it. The time to walk away and consider working in a different field is when cases of safeguarding no longer shock and upset us. We should be affected; to not be suggestions an element of becoming detached. Our emotions, and wanting what is best for children, means we care and drives us to want to implement change. Coping strategies. Children and young people who experience academic challenges will still be taught. They won’t be reprimanded for not having acquired that knowledge yet. The same should apply for emotions and behaviour. We want children to operate in school as future adults in society and handle their emotions appropriately. Sometimes children present with emotional and behavioural needs because they don’t have the skills to regulate their own emotions yet. They need to be taught coping strategies and appropriate ways of responding. BEST MOMENTS “You are sometimes the person who sees that child more than anybody else so you are more likely to be able to spot those little indicators that something is not okay.” “The last year has taught us more than ever that we need to be curious. We need to be interested in what’s going on for children and that’s how we will start to get a grasp of who they are, where they are and what’s going on for them.” “Every interaction is an intervention.” “Especially in the world of education, and the job that we do in schools, we have such a responsibility. It’s actually just common sense to say, ‘I need to be in a good place because then I can help these children be in a good place too.’” “It’s taking that time to go ‘School is a safe place. It’s the place where, actually, we’re here to make sure you learn and you’re educated but also we give you an opportunity to be happy, to be safe and feel like you can be you and that somebody’s got your back’, I think that’s a really important aspect of safeguarding.” “I think we forget sometimes that even the quietest children, or the children who present with the most challenging behaviours, they’re the ones we need to champion the most.” “If you’re an adult who isn’t emotionally regulated because you’re exhausted or you’re overwhelmed, or you’re tired and you just haven’t done that stuff that makes you feel okay, you aren’t in a position to have a positive relationship with that child who is struggling either.” “That ‘meet and greet’ - that really simple step - for those children who find school a place of anxiety, it’s reassuring them that I’ve been noticed. Somebody knows I’m here. Somebody would notice if I wasn’t here.” “Some children will be really looking forward to holidays and some children approach them with nothing but dread because school is their safe place where they feel most comfortable. They don’t want to be at home 24/7. Holidays are a really key point for safeguarding to just have an eye on your children.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Rezina Kelly Consulting: https://www.rezinakellyconsulting.co.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RezinaKellyConsulting/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RezinaKelly LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rezina-kelly-7ab1a1139/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Safeguarding: Rezina Kelly, education consultant

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Arnav Rawat: Founder of the Books2All charity. After graduating from the University of Cambridge and returning home, Arnav came across a vast collection of books from his childhood. His fond memories of being transported to worlds that exist only in books, along with the appreciation that books helped him on his path to achieving his academic goals, prompted Arnav to donate his books to schools and to children who needed them. However, due to the pandemic and lockdown restrictions, this was challenging; so Arnav founded Books2All and created an app-based scheme where book donors and schools are linked and then set about further developing this modern, more efficient process.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Educational inequality Arnav views inequality as being a difference in the number, or quality, of the opportunities an individual receives due to their background, their income and other factors that aren’t necessarily, as he says, ‘their fault’. In terms of education, whether that be having the right resources to prepare for an exam, having access to the right materials to find the job you want, Arnav considers there to be instances of educational inequality right across the UK. Reading reduces loneliness One in five readers find reading books reduces loneliness. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when social contact has been so limited, reading can support children in feeling less alone. Make the app work for you Arnav encourages listeners to get in touch via the website www.books2all.co.uk  and share any further ideas. Arnav and the team are passionate about helping schools increase children’s accessibility to books as much as they possibly can. BEST MOMENTS “A child from a disadvantaged background is typically 18 months behind their peers when they sit their GCSEs. So, at the age of 15, you’re already one and a half years behind. That’s 10% of your life.” “Books2All is a very new charity. We were founded in June last year and our aim is to reduce educational inequality in the UK through the provision of books. The way we want to do this is to revolutionise the book donation process to schools.” “For us, we don’t see our app as a way for a school to get hundreds of books. We see it as getting 10, 15 or 20 books that actually really matter and will really be used heavily at that school.” “Because 1 in 8 schools don’t have a library, those students at those schools don’t get that opportunity to either read for pleasure or research and find things they’re interested in.” “I remember when I was growing up, it wasn’t necessarily the first book I opened and suddenly fell in love with reading. It took me a while. Then, all of a sudden, I found the genre, the style of writing, that really suited me.” “I’d go onto the app, I’d log in, I’d say where I am and how far I’m willing to travel… And then I’d scan in the barcode of each book and those books would automatically be uploaded onto our database. On top of that, I’d also send in a photo just of the front cover so that the school gets a bit of an idea about the condition as well before they receive it.” “Some schools have libraries with a certain amount of books that are plentiful, but other sorts of genres and other writing styles that aren’t so plentiful. Essentially, what the librarian can do is go through the app and select exactly which books they want.” “On our blog we also have authors doing some Q and As and giving their insights into how they got into writing and reading and how you can use their ideas in the classroom.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Website: https://books2all.co.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Books2All Twitter: https://twitter.com/Books2All Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/books2all/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/books2all/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnav-rawat-853aba149/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Revolutionising access to books: Arnav Rawat, founder of Books2All

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Victoria Bagnall who is a director and one of three founders of Connections in Mind: a company that provides coaching in executive functions. Victoria left teaching in 2011 and, after tutoring students who had additional needs, she turned her focus to neuro-education and executive functions. Victoria discusses the importance of executive functions are and how they are the skills of self-management that allow people to live a healthy and fulfilling life. She also talks about how Connections in Mind works with and supports students, adults and teaching professionals and shares some thoughts and advice about how to develop confidence and encourage sustainable success not only in education but also as a part of our professional and daily lives.   KEY TAKEAWAYS What are they and why do they matter? Executive functions are in the part of our brains that helps us to regulate our emotions, to manage our time, and to organise ourselves. It’s the part of our brain that, from an evolutionary aspect, is the most developed. Essentially, it is the bit of our brains that helps us to be part of society and to accomplish tasks. As the name suggests, these executive functions are about executing tasks and getting things done. Identify and praise adopted strategies. For students who experience difficulties focusing on tasks, or for those who are disorganised in terms of their belongings and might be experiencing problems with emotional regulation, working on executive functions can be instrumental in their progress. Talking about the strategies and normalising them for everyone can really impact positively on the culture within the classroom. It is always useful to remember that anyone can have these challenges, not just students with ADHD or dyslexia. Identifying strategies that students are using and giving feedback draws attention to the behaviour and reinforces it for others. Having this self-awareness and a set of strategies that work for us can be the key for everyone reaching their potential. Verbal vs written. A lot of young people with executive function challenges have no issues with their verbal skills and can actually excel with this. They can talk at length about a range of subjects but, when it comes to writing answers or longer pieces of text, can find that they experience difficulties. This discrepancy between verbal and written performance can be a real indicator that there is something going on around the executive functions.   BEST MOMENTS “What a wonderful set of skills to leave school with: to know how we best get started on tasks; what to do if we’re struggling because the task is not particularly motivating or interesting for us.” “Executive functions play into so many different areas of life.” “The executive functions are the brain processes that enable self-regulated learning to take place. When we understand these brain functions as teachers, we can help young people to develop the skills that sit alongside these executive functions so that they can become self-regulated learners.” “Often we’re asking children to do quite cognitively advanced tasks at school and we need to scaffold those for young people.” “If children are struggling to get started on tasks, or if they’re really struggling to answer the question that’s set, what’s going on for them? What’s getting in the way of their learning? What’s the bottleneck?” “Remember that working memory, being able to hold information in our head, is something that we, as adults, take for granted.” “Often, I feel like the school system is set up to reward those people who are abnormally strong in their executive functions and, actually, neurotypical or average brains really struggle because of the developmental process of this.” “The things we often examine in assessments – you need to be able to sit still and concentrate; you need to be able to do your revision; you need to be able to memorise what the question was – all these things are executive functions. But we don’t spend that much time working on those specific skills.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Connections in Mind: https://cimlearning.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connectionsinmind/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/@ConninMind Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectionsinmind/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connections-in-mind-ltd Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Executive functions in education: Victoria Bagnall, director of Connections in Mind

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Noureen Lakhani, a trainee Educational Psychologist to discuss the impact of trauma on children’s learning. For over three years, Noureen has explored her interest in child psychology: in particular looking at how children’s brains develop and investigating the barriers which might impact on learning and education. Noureen discusses the effects of trauma on children and young people’s lives and how professionals can better understand these experiences.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Trauma: a reaction to an event outside the range of usual human experiences. If a person reacts to an event in a way that is unusual to other people, or the individual is very distressed, then they have experienced trauma. It may be just one distressing event that an individual encounters, but the effects of that can be vast and could influence many areas of that person’s life. The traumatic experience might occur in childhood but a person might not see the effects of it until later in life. The importance of building relationships with children and young people. Invest time to allow children to become more comfortable and confident with engaging in conversations, and repeat these experiences. Over time, children will understand that their teacher cares about them, notices them, is interested in hearing what they have to say, and this will hopefully lead to them feeling safe and secure enough to talk about their experiences. Have your say in a national research study. Noureen is currently carrying out a research project exploring teachers’ views on working with children who have experienced trauma. Anybody working in a UK state-funded nursery, primary or secondary school can participate. The ten-minute survey can be completed online and the link can be found below or via Noureen’s Twitter page: @noureen_lakhani BEST MOMENTS “At the tip of the iceberg you might see someone whose behaviour is confusing or someone who is not progressing at the expected rate of learning. However, when you get underneath the surface of the iceberg, you will see there might be a whole range of unmet needs or gaps in the foundations as a result of the early experiences of trauma.” “Every behaviour that a child is using is a form of communication to us as the adults, as the teachers; and it’s really our ‘in’ to see if we can find out what they are trying to communicate to us.” “Be aware of your own thoughts, your own views, your own biases towards trauma, towards systems, your own beliefs, your own privileges, your own responses to things. All of these are incredibly important.” “It’s so important to know that you cannot pour from an empty cup. As teachers, we need to be reflective and introspective and look after our own needs especially if we’re working with children who have experienced trauma.” “[Trauma is] a very emotional wound. It comes from a very shocking event, repeated life threats, or frightening experiences that might cause very negative, long-lasting effects. It can start from childhood and it can have such huge impacts on your academic functioning, your emotional relationships and the way you respond to everyday situations.” “What’s important to realise is that not everyone who experiences adversity or a difficult situation will experience trauma. The reason why something is traumatic is whether you are supported by an attuned or caring other [person] through the adversity and the experiences that you’ve had.” “What’s important to remember is that traumatic events can lead to difficulties with our education and with our learning. It’s really important that our teachers, our educators and our education professionals have an awareness of trauma so that they can adopt strategies to support children in the classroom.” “Make time to talk in the classroom. Whether it’s small conversations when walking in the corridors or longer times such as having a dedicated space in the day. Maybe just after registration in the morning or in the afternoon where you can have these emotional conversations and make it really well known to your pupils and to your children that there is a safe and brave environment in the classroom for discussing things that might be worrying.” “Trauma is not something that’s going to go away overnight. It’s something that so many young people have. It’s such an important part of the government’s work at the moment to really make sure mental health is at the forefront of so much of our work. If we can make sure our teachers are part of the solution then we’ve really done our bit.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Noureen Lakhani – Twitter: https://twitter.com/noureen_lakhani Noureen Lakhani – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noureenlakhani/ Children’s trauma research: opinio.ucl.ac.uk/s?s=70548 Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Understanding trauma in the classroom: Noureen Lakhani, trainee Educational Psychologist

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Darryl Walsh and Dr Martin Yelling, founders of Stormbreak: a registered charity promoting movement and physical activity to improve mental health in primary schools. Despite their quite different backgrounds, Martin and Darryl came together with a shared interest in using movement to equip children with sustainable, transferable skills and coping strategies that can be drawn upon to promote good mental health into adult life. The result was Stormbreak which works with schools, children and staff to deliver training and coaching programmes to up-skill teachers and equip children with a variety of useful strategies and inclusive approaches. Martin and Darryl discuss how important movement and physical activity within schools is and how useful it can be for the development of good mental health for both children and adults. They share some great tips and advice including addressing some of the misconceptions around movement in education and how some activities in school might be adapted or further developed.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Little and often is best for long-term gains. Rather than just having mental health focus weeks, or infrequent wellbeing activities or days, building in discussions about mental health within day-to-day teaching and normalising conversations on these topics can have real long-term benefits. Too often, mental health and wellbeing can get lost, forgotten or be inadvertently treated as an ‘add on’. The key is considering what needs to be in place to achieve sustainable improvements rather than have a ‘sticking plaster’ approach. Get teachers to be confident with movement. There can be a perception that you need to be ‘good’ at sport or physical activity to be able to bring movement into your teaching or routines more generally and beyond the elements found within PE. However, there is no such thing as being ‘good’ with movement, especially in regards to introducing it as something that can benefit mental health. It should be something that all teachers can feel confident with doing at any point.   BEST MOMENTS "It was really clear to me that that teachers get very little or no training on mental health at all in their in their training. Yet the prevalence of need for children within schools was quite high." "For me, there needed to be something different. Something sustainable. Something that looked at prevention at scale. Something that looked at supporting children and giving them a toolkit: skills and knowledge to be able to support themselves with their mental health as they work their way through childhood to adulthood." "We work with five different mental health concepts: Self-worth, self-care, resilience, relationships, and hope and optimism. And you can't work with those concepts with the children, talking about those things with the children, without reflecting on them for yourself." "What we see when we do our programmes with teachers is they say to us, 'I need this so much for my own wellbeing.'" "Why do we wait until we are grownups to realise that [movement] is a benefit? If we see movement through the right lenses, and we're helped to understand how it can support us in so many different ways, then we can build it in to our life." "As adults, we often rediscover that movement is something that is helpful to support our mental health. But why should we have to wait until we're adults to be able to know that?" "What we see is that when you place wellbeing at the heart of the life of the school, other things really flow as well." "A really important thing about moving is there's no need to be good. What is good? There shouldn't be an elitism around movement. You don't need to be 'good'. You just need to do it." "I don't care how fast you run a mile. I don't care if you keep going or not. What we care about is 'what's the quality of the conversation you're able to have with your friends around you?'" "Teachers are under intense pressure at the moment. Teachers' lives are busy and children are coming full of uncertainty and anxiety. The emotional feeling in the classroom is charged in a way it's not been charged before. One thing a teacher can do is just allow themselves the opportunity in that day to have a small window of time to listen."   VALUABLE RESOURCES Stormbreak website: https://stormbreak.org.uk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/hellostormbreak Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellostormbreak LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/darryl-walsh-5a29b32b Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mental health and movement: Darryl Walsh and Dr Martin Yelling, founders of Stormbreak

Shahana Knight - EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Shahana Knight: founder and director of Therapeutic Teaching. Shahana is at the heart of this mental health and wellbeing service supporting children all over the UK with both complex and lower-level needs. Shahana discusses the importance of helping children to recognise their emotions and shares some tips and advice for teachers and school staff on how they can support this by making conscious yet subtle changes in their approaches with all of their pupils.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Focus on feelings Changing our language and how we speak to children can make a significant difference in how they learn to deal with their emotions. It’s a skill educators should practise with all children - not just for those who might be struggling - and involves picking out feelings, identifying them and reflecting on the situation. The dialogue supports children in recognising what is going on for them and why they are feeling this way. If we avoid going into the automatic ‘teacher response’, for example highlighting what has occurred and the consequence that will follow, and instead reflect back on how the child feels, it makes all the difference. Language such as ‘you were really anxious’, ‘you’re feeling overwhelmed’ and ‘I can see this is really heard for you’ is really powerful. Influences on learning Many children come into school dealing with a range of challenges. These may be related to abuse or neglect, families being separated, or even associated with spending too much time on technology and social media: all of which can affect children’s ability to learn. Become more aware of, and acknowledge, the science We may be aware of children who experience difficulties with friendships or who may be distracted in the classroom and not be able to maintain attention. We possibly know of children who become angry, disrupt the environment and leave the room. We, as educators, are missing the point if we purely focus on academic outcomes. There is so much more we need to do surrounding emotional intelligence. Encouraging children to explore and understand feelings and behaviours helps them to learn how to self-regulate and helps them to understand their triggers. Practitioners acknowledging children’s feelings and explaining why they reacted in a certain way helps them to develop an awareness of themselves and goes a long way in shaping adults of the future. BEST MOMENTS “We’re seeing a rise in difficult behaviour, or a rise in anxiety in children, or hyperactivity in children, or really emotional children and we’re not skilled enough yet to really be able to approach that and guide them through that.” “We’re still in a society, we’re still in a pattern, where we often don’t give children the skills and awareness about their own mental health and wellbeing and insight into their feelings and why some of their experiences might be affecting their behaviour and their thoughts.” “When children have been through any type of trauma, low-level or high-level, or they’re struggling with anything emotionally, they cannot actually physically learn. It shuts down the learning part of the brain and it fires up the survival part of the brain.” “Let’s try and stop rejecting children for having difficult feelings. I think we’re so stuck in this pattern where we send them out, or we give them time out, or we ask them to write down what’s happened, or they get told they’ve got to go the headteacher’s room, or whatever our strategies are. That’s all about rejection and what children need is connection.” “We have to start teaching children that we’re there to guide them through what’s hard for them. Not punish them for having difficult feelings because that’s part of being human.” “Trauma comes in all shapes and sizes and I think we cannot forget the impact of children’s experiences as they’re growing and how much they need to be guided through those.” “I just think we’re getting it wrong in education. I really do. And I think we are so lucky. We’re in such a wonderful position. We have children coming to the classroom every single day for most of the year. Those children find solace in that classroom because a lot of them are struggling at home and we’re not giving them the experiences that we could be. We are so diverted because of the outcomes and because of what Ofsted asks us to do [that] we’re missing real opportunities just to teach.” “We don’t want kids to swallow down their feelings because they think they’re going to get told off for them. Because then we’re just creating a culture where people hide what’s really going on for them.” “You know you’ve done something wrong. So if you get that validation, at least you know that person is going to guide you through it rather than tell you off for it. Similarly, we all have feelings and the reasons we behave in a certain way is because of that. Let’s inform the children and teach the children so they’ve got that awareness.” “Look at your environments. Often we have children coming into school who are overwhelmed. They’re overwhelmed with technology. They’re overwhelmed with experiences that have gone on outside of school. Often, they’re tired because they’ve been gaming all night [or] watching TV all night.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES TPC Therapy: https://www.tpctherapy.co.uk Shahana Knight – Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shahana_tpc Shahana Knight – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahana-knight2020/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Therapeutic teaching: Shahana Knight, director of TPC Therapy

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with returning guest Dr Victoria Carr: Headteacher of Woodlands Primary School. Victoria’s school was recently inspected remotely by Ofsted and she talks about how their preparations stood the school in good stead for their monitoring visit. The school had previously focused on improving attainment in maths and English so, when Victoria became headteacher, she led the staff in creating a whole new foundation curriculum. A lot of time and effort was invested in planning a thematic approach which provided enjoyable experiences for children and ensured they were happy and engaged in their learning. This overhaul of the curriculum, which began in 2019, ensured coverage and progress in all subjects. Leaders created progressive statements of expectation within the theme-based provision and these were transferred onto the school’s tracking system to assess pupil attainment. Once she had received ‘The Call’, Victoria briefed her staff over Zoom and provided an opportunity for everyone to remind themselves what they had done, as a school, since the last inspection. This realisation of how much work had already been completed allowed staff to feel more prepared for the inspection.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Ofsted will access a school’s website prior to making initial contact. During the initial telephone call with Ofsted, the school’s website formed a key part of the discussion. Here, Victoria talks about schools needing to have their remote learning provision outlined on their website. Ofsted may well, and are very likely to, peruse a school’s website long before they notify leaders about the inspection. “If you train hard, then you fight easy.” Victoria knew that, unfortunately, the monitoring visit would not change the school’s Ofsted grading. Whilst this was disappointing, she realised the benefit of this ‘dress rehearsal’ and that the work involved over the next four days, both in preparing for the inspection and the inspection itself, would be worthwhile. The importance of preparation. Victoria discusses how being prepared beforehand - in terms of being able to retrieve saved work to send to inspectors, or by pulling together evidence - was instrumental in avoiding additional stress following the notification of an imminent inspection.   BEST MOMENTS “You can’t buy a real Ofsted experience. People can come and do ‘mock-steds’ until the cows come home but it’s not relevant until you feel that level of pressure and manage that really in a sensible way.” “The inspector explained to me they wouldn’t be in in person unless they had any specific safeguarding concerns, which thankfully they didn’t. Everything was conducted remotely.” “It wasn’t a deep dive where Ofsted dictated to us who they wanted to talk to; they were very pragmatic and very understanding of some of the constraints that we had.” “These remote inspections are limited, naturally, because they’re not able to just pick things up in a classroom or wander around school.” “It was quite hectic, that first bubble closure, because it was quite a shock to everybody. But we managed it, which then informed us for how we would do it in January when we actually locked down as a whole school.” “Our art teacher was actually off school with Covid and not teaching at all. I thought a nice way of involving her in the process was to submit to the inspectors her overview of the subject, the progression statements that were on our tracking system for art and some of the exemplar of the work that had been created as a result of her curriculum plan.” “I wanted to show our school off in the best possible light. I wanted to give people a chance to talk [to the inspectors] and go through that experience as a coaching experience.” “We were already quite far on in our journey, despite Covid [and] despite the lockdown.” “The staff said they’ve never felt more ready. Which is great because they’ve said that in the last two inspections I’ve done with them.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES School website: http://www.woodlands.cheshire.sch.uk Dr Victoria Carr – Twitter: https://twitter.com/HappyHead74 Dr Victoria Carr – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-victoria-carr-0190157b/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Remote Ofsted inspections: Dr Victoria Carr, Headteacher at Woodlands Primary School

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Paul McGee, founder of the SUMO principles about what the SUMO approach is and how anyone can use it as a tool to achieve better results in life. Paul talks about how his background in behavioural and social psychology led him to running training seminars and coaching courses. It was an audience heckle during one of these sessions that introduced him to the acronym SUMO which he has since adapted and developed into a way of helping to get the best out of ourselves, the best from others and the best from life. Paul shares and discusses some great ideas linked to the SUMO principles including ‘checking your chatter’, being aware of avoiding ‘passive moaning’ to improve your mental diet, and always looking to invest in yourself.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Look after yourself to be able to help others. While we do need be resilient with facing challenges – an inevitable aspect of life – it can be very easy to unintentionally dismiss or side-line the negative and debilitating effects of stress. You are your number one priority. It is also easy to overlook that wellbeing leads to welldoing and, if we are not ‘right’, we won’t be inspiring and anywhere near as effective as we should be with those we teach. Invest in yourself. As teachers, we can all too easily focus our attention on the development of others without thinking about developing ourselves. Being inspired by others is a great way to motivate us to be inspiring. As a part of self-development, consider time to reflect. It is great to have a degree of distraction built into our days - such as audio books or exercise - but it is also good to have reflection time to focus on yourself.   BEST MOMENTS “In 2007 we banned smoking in public places because of the effects of passive smoking. Well I think we need to be mindful of the effects of passive moaning.” “This phrase I use, 'to be at your best, you need to rest'; that doesn't mean work yourself crazy until the next half-term. It's building in a little bit of rest time even during the day or in the evenings. Rest is not the opposite of work; it's work's partner.” “A metaphor I use in life is, 'sometimes life is like a game of snakes and ladders'. If you want to win the game, the likelihood is you might land on a snake. But that's not a time to quit. It's a time to roll the dice, go again and keep looking for the ladders.” “Who's the most important person you can talk to? It's actually yourself.” “Sumo is a word in Latin. So, not as an acronym, but as a word, means 'to choose'. Drew Povey, a leadership speaker and former headteacher, says 'every day is a choose-day'.” “That phrase 'manage your mental diet'. We think about the word 'diet' and we think about food, but I just think it's really important what we feed our minds with.” “If you want to help the kids, you've got to help yourself. “Teachers are obviously in the world of education; in the world of learning. But I think it's really important that we don't just think, 'well we're trying to teach kids'. We're also trying to teach ourselves.” “For me, the number one priority is actually about investing in yourself.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Website: https://www.thesumoguy.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSumoGuy YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUn8r9hCk8ewTXHapv1-Ngg Books: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paul-McGee/e/B001JOWPYU/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesumoguy Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/ Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/ LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/   ABOUT THE HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The SUMO approach: Paul McGee, founder of the SUMO principles

The Teachers' Podcast provides additional support to teachers. Whether it's ideas to be used in the classroom, listening to the perspective of someone else in school or just being able to relate to the challenges other educators face, each episode delves into a key topic within education with a guest. Developed in association with Classroom Secrets and hosted by Classroom Secrets’ MD, Claire Riley, the podcast is also available on YouTube.

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The Teachers' Podcast

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