In this episode Matt and Femi discuss how they approach cover lessons. They cover etiquette for leaving cover, running cover lessons in your own subject and running cover lessons outside of your specialism. What emerges are a wide variety of useful tips and tricks that teachers can use to take the pain out of cover lessons and achieve better outcomes for all involved!
Femi and Matt are excited to be back after the summer break and kicking off season 2 with an interview with Phil Naylor. Phil was the long-standing host of the most excellent Naylor’s Natter podcast and he has recently relinquished his seat behind the microphone in order to make time to pursue his writing and his work – he is a full time deputy head in blackpool. His first book, also called Naylor’s natter, brings this wisdom to the page using a cleverly blended format whereby QR codes throughou...
In the final episode of season 1 of the podcast, Femi and Matt interview Patrick Ottley-O’Connor. At the time of recording Patrick was just a few days into his retirement from a fascinating and diverse career in education spanning over 35 years, and including roles from classroom teacher all the way to head and CEO. His experience encompasses primary, secondary and special educational settings as well as a whopping 21 Ofsted inspections! Patrick was kind enough to share his experience of educati...
This is part 2 of Matt and Femi's interview with Amelia, in which she gives a student perspective on school. If you haven’t yet listened to the previous episode it is recommended that you start there. In this episode the trio discuss meta-cognitive strategies, the nature of revision as an individualised process, resilience, fear of failure, making mistakes, paired work and partnering, how teachers help students when they are stuck (and how they sometimes don’t!) Verbal and written feedback,...
In this episode Matt and Femi speak to former pupil Amelia. Although Amelia has just finished her A-levels, they mainly discuss secondary school, and are broadly inclusive of all subjects and not just maths. As you will hear, Amelia is extremely qualified for this role – in addition to being incredibly intelligent, both her parents are in education and so she enjoys, and is well versed in, discussing school matters. The discussion is presented in two parts, with the second featuring in Episode 2...
With thoughts inevitably turning to September and planning the return to the classroom, Femi and Matt discuss some of the key aims for the first few lessons of a new academic year and delve into the approaches one might use in order to achieve them. In particular, thinking of the first week or two with a new group as being all about creating the classroom culture that you want for the rest of the year, and about training students to become very effective learners. I.e. this period is about ‘lear...
In this episode of the podcast Matt and Femi speak with Sam Strickland. Sam has had a long and interesting teaching career – he is currently the principal of Duston school where GCSE results have gone from the bottom 20% nationally to the top 20% under his tenure. Sam is also the author of 3 fantastic books: education exposed, education exposed 2 and his latest work “The behaviour manual”. In this interview Sam discusses visible leadership, data, teacher workload, centralised behaviour systems, ...
On this episode of Beyond Good Matt and Femi talk to Sonia Gill - author of the books ‘Journey to outstanding’ and ‘successful difficult conversations in school’, the latter of which is the primary focus of this episode. Topics covered in this episode include attitudes towards difficult conversations, why we should have them and who loses out when we don’t, structuring the conversation, scripting the opening sentence, reframing, the two worlds technique, outcome vs solution and some other common...
In this episode Femi and Matt pick up where they left off last week with the theme of taking on a new leadership role. In a more discursive conversation than last time they cover the importance of getting out and about, introducing yourself to students and contacting parents, carefully planning initial team meetings, understanding SLT and working with and not against your line manager. Femi gives some sound advice regarding talking about your previous achievements, colleague’s loyalty and inerti...
With the summer nearly upon us, many colleagues will be turning their attention from teaching students towards planning and organising for the next academic year. That will especially be the case for anyone who has taken on a role with increased responsibility for next year, whether within their current school, or pastures new, and so in this episode Femi and Matt reflect on what that process is like and each give their top tips for those new to middle leadership. Some of this advice has been ha...
In this episode Femi and Matt dive into assessment – specifically how they use short but frequent class tests to inform planning and teaching, and to maximally support student progress. They compare their different approaches and see how these arise from having slightly different objectives. They discuss some guiding principles of testing – what they consider to be good and bad practise, including a few words on question level analysis, debate the pros and cons of teacher marking vs self-checkin...
In this episode Matt and Femi chat to pastoral legend Helen Sydenham. Helen is head of year at an inner city school and is known for her skill, tenacity and passion for working with students who often have particularly challenging circumstances and behaviours. They talk about how Helen tackled an out of control year group that she took on, how she works with parents, managing parental meetings, dealing with teachers who don’t always get it right, and what she thinks are the most important charac...
In this episode of the podcast Femi and Matt explore the topic of ‘discussion in the classroom’. They try to tease apart nuances such as the difference between pupils having to explain the work to each other because the teacher’s explanation was not good enough versus pupils engaged in a rich discussion that extends thinking from an existing strong foundation of knowledge. They examine the pros and cons of classroom discussion along with possible traps and pitfalls, teachers asking for silence v...
In this episode of the podcast Femi and Matt are joined by Amy Green - an English teacher and head of English who has honed her craft in tough inner-city schools. Amy talks about using ‘silent and solo’ with knowledge recall questions to create powerful starts to English lessons, giving students more concrete structures for answering questions than the traditional PEE paragraphs, and how effective English teachers use pause points throughout lessons. The trio discuss the importance of ‘reading t...
In this episode Femi and Matt are again joined by guest Simon King as they explore the claim that the very best A-level teachers are also, in fact, the teachers achieving the best outcomes with bottom set Year 9, or middle-ability Year 7 students, for example. Simon provides valuable insight into the differences and similarities between sixth-form teaching and the teaching of younger and less able students, and the trio try to articulate why the elements of teaching that make lessons go well low...
In this episode Femi and Matt discuss lesson observations and lesson visits - the process Femi calls 'walking the shop floor'. They touch on the bizarre phenomenon of teachers doing something other than 'business as usual' when being observed, the questionable practice of once-per-year observations or departmental reviews, feeding back after lesson visits and the importance of triangulation: looking at books and talking to students. They talk about 'the 3 Bs' and ot...
Femi and Matt are joined by special guest Simon King to discuss teaching strategies and differentiation for those very top end students that we all occasionally come across. While the conversation is focussed on extending the top end students, the principles for teaching and differentiation that Simon describes are applicable to all classes.
The themes of Matt and Femi's discussion for this episode are 'starters' and 'the starts of lessons'. The conversation is equal parts philosophical and pragmatic, and many aspects of starters are covered in great depth. The conversation covers the importance of starters, their utility for orientating students towards this subject as they arrive from elsewhere around the school, as a device for recap, building confidence, to facilitate a calm and effective start to the le...
In this episode of Beyond Good, Femi and Matt return to the Blue Memo to discuss the final three points. The central themes of these points are 'challenge', 'practise' and 'sequencing'. If you haven't already listened to the Blue Memo parts 1 and 2, it may be worth listening to episodes 3 and 4, in which the Blue Memo is introduced and the first 7 points are discussed.
In this episode Femi and Matt discuss the characteristics of a good department, visions and values, and achieving consensus within a team about what matters and why we are here. They discuss the impact of formal 'meetings' vs informal interactions between teachers and the value of rich discussions around teaching and learning. The conversation then pivots to the skills and attributes they each wanted to have in place before taking on head of department roles, as well as the opportunity...
This is the second of the three-part series on ‘The Blue Memo’ in which Femi and Matt cover points 4-7. They discuss the importance of engaging all students, ensuring that no one student takes up a disproportionate amount of time at the expense of others, explanations and feedback. Part 3 can be heard in episode 6, and you can download your own copy of the blue memo from our twitter account, or from our website.
This is the first of a three-part series on 'The Blue Memo'. In this episode Femi introduces the blue memo, explains what it is and where it came from and then we dive deep into the first three points. These cover the starts of lessons, the importance of revisiting taught material and what he means by 'getting out into the classroom and experiencing the learning'. The discussion of the blue memo continues in Episode 4 and then again in Episode 6. Download your own copy of the...
In this episode of the podcast Matt and Femi discuss mentors and some of the key things they took from their mentors that have shaped them as teachers. They discuss the idea of 'golden rules' and 'non-essential essentials', the tremendous importance of the first lesson of the year with a new group and laying the foundations for strong relationships with students for the rest of the year.
In this (inaugural) episode of the podcast, Matt and Femi set out what the podcast is and isn’t about, how they each came to teaching and why they’re so passionate about it. They discuss what makes for good ‘raw materials’ in teaching, and how their own natural dispositions may have shaped their areas of interest, and what they each look for in new teachers. They discuss the fundamental importance of liking and being able to engage with teenagers, the degree to which experience gained as a priva...
