Well, this isn’t quite what we expected when we set up the podcast in summer 2018... shortly after the release of episode 16, in which our lovely students discussed a talk by the education minister, we received a message from the minister’s office suggesting that we might be able to get an interview with Kirsty Williams herself! It’s a big moment for Welsh education, as the draft curriculum has been published and opened up for feedback from the education world at large. As part of launching the ...
May 17, 2019•Season 1Ep. 19
Emma and Tom are joined by Sally Bethell, Senior Lecturer in PGCE Secondary PE, to discuss the five recommendations at the end of Lucy Crehan's book Cleverlands , in which the intrepid author gets on a plane to find out what lessons can be learned from five countries whose education systems are routinely held up as examples of excellent practice. The final chapter of the book distils everything Crehan learned on her travels into five principles that she feels underly excellent and equitable syst...
May 03, 2019•Season 1Ep. 18
It's the middle of the Easter holidays, and Emma and Tom enjoyed recording the last holiday special for Christmas so much that they've decided to do another one! This time there's a bit more of an educational theme, but a change to the format: Emma and Tom both bring a blog post, a tweet and a story about a teacher into the studio, and neither of them is letting the other have any advance warning of the content... Emma has an uplifting blog post, a tweet that's a perfect summation of an accounta...
Apr 19, 2019•Season 1Ep. 17
It's a cosy recording session in Emma's office this time, as we manage to squeeze four student teachers around the table with us to discuss the future of education, focusing particularly on the curriculum reforms here in Wales. After attending a talk by the Welsh Education MInister, Kirsty Williams, all four students felt they wanted to share their thoughts on the way things are moving, and the part they have to play as new members of the teaching profession. With four guests, we get plenty of m...
Apr 05, 2019•Season 1Ep. 16
Emma and Tom return to their roots with a podcast episode featuring just the two of them - it's been a while! Tom's also relieved to be back in the land of the living after recording the last three episodes back-to-back while suffering from terrible man-flu. With a two-weekly release cycle, that's over a month he's been missing in action on the podcast, occasionally croaking an intervention and then subsiding behind the controls and quaffing Lemsip... now he's sounding much perkier and ready to ...
Mar 22, 2019•Season 1Ep. 15
In this small but perfectly formed episode, Emma and Tom are joined by two guests: Rachel George and Rhodri Jones from Ysgol Maes y Coed, a school for pupils with additional learning needs. Fresh from delivering a session with the PGCE students, Rachel and Rhodri talk about how the expressive arts form a central part of the learning experience for their pupils, whose additional learning needs (ALN) range from autism to physical health issues requiring specialist care and equipment. Rachel and Rh...
Mar 08, 2019•Season 1Ep. 14
It's time for another book review! Emma and Tom are joined again by Dr Judith Kneen to look at Tom Sherrington's 'The Learning Rainforest', a book that Judith rightly describes as 'a thing' in the education community right now. What will Emma, Tom and Judith make of this book which promises to tell us about 'great teaching in real classrooms'? After that. Judith brings her wellbeing tip, shoutout and idea to try - we hope you find them useful. If you want to read more from Tom Sherrington, his b...
Feb 22, 2019•36 min•Season 1Ep. 13
For episode 12 of the podcast, we're joined by Fiona Heath-Diffey, Programme Leader for PGCE Secondary PE at Cardiff Met. Fiona is doing her PhD research on the concept of physical literacy, and has come in to talk to us about how we can transform the way people think about being physically active, their motivation and the way they view the interface between mind and body through physical literacy. This has big implications for the way subjects such as PE are delivered in school in order to have...
Feb 08, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 12
It's episode 11 of the podcast, and Emma and Tom are joined by June Hurcom, senior lecturer in early years education, for her first podcasting experience! This episode is for anyone who's ever felt that they might like to embark on the journey to becoming a teacher, and is full of great advice for things to do (and not to do!) when preparing to apply for a programme that will get you that all-important teaching qualification. From the different routes into the profession to what to do when you g...
Jan 25, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Happy new year! The podcast is back with an extended episode featuring not one, but two special guests. Emma and Tom are joined by Dr Judith Kneen who runs the PGCE Secondary English course, and Sharne Watkins, Deputy Head of Initial Teacher Education, PGCE Primary literacy specialist... and Tom's line manager - gulp! Emma, Tom, Judith and Sharne bring us a meaty 57 minutes in which they review a fairly controversial publication: Daisy Christodoulou's 'Seven Myths about Education' - a book that ...
Jan 11, 2019•57 min•Season 1Ep. 10
It’s that weird bit between Christmas and New Year, and it’s time for a bumper PGCE podcast special! Emma and Tom are here with a 68-minute epic that contains the absolute bare minimum of wholesome educational content, and an enormous number of self-indulgent treats. In place of the usual slots, we recommend a few of our favourite podcasts, and Tom tells the story of how the PGCE Podcast came to be. We welcome our special guests, Becky and Amy from ‘And Then What? - the podcast all about stories...
Dec 28, 2018•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Emma and Tom have taken the PGCE Podcast on the road again (and are hankering after their own PGCE tour bus) - this time to the brand new Ysgol Nantgwyn in Tonypandy. Nantgwyn is a 3-16 school that's a hotbed of innovation for the new curriculum in Wales. Its Head of Expressive Arts is Kath Lewis, a curriculum pioneer who's spent the last few years co-developing the new expressive arts Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE) for the new curriculum here in Wales. Kath talks to Emma and Tom about w...
Dec 14, 2018•41 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Emma and Tom are joined by Dr. Kate North to discuss creative writing: its place as a creative art, its interdisciplinary nature, and the fact that everyone has the right to write! Kate tells us how creative writing can be used as an innovative way of collecting research data, and how in the process of doing so it can gently break down language barriers, throw light on competing priorities and level the playing field between powerful professions and the public they serve. In the wellbeing slot, ...
Nov 30, 2018•41 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In their longest episode yet (a massive 51 minutes, so settle in!) Emma and Tom discuss the work of Australian educationalist John Hattie, and look into his famous 'visible learning' ranking of factors affecting pupils' learning and progress. The main focus of the discussion is 'jigsaw technique' - a highly-ranked strategy for pupil-led learning of content. The wellbeing slot takes a turn for the slightly bizarre, with an excellent tip from the world of outdoor survival that involves hot beverag...
Nov 16, 2018•51 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Episode 5 is all about the joys of working in a cross-curricular (or interdisciplinary) way. Tom makes his way upstairs from his decidedly humble ground-floor room to Emma's glorious penthouse corner office, and proceeds to be rude about the view from the window... With that small misunderstanding ironed out, Emma and Tom describe a project they have been working on to bring drama and music together, and discuss how the proposed new education system in Wales encourages a breaking-down of the tra...
Nov 02, 2018•43 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Emma and Tom tackle all things digital in episode 4! The introduction of the Digital Competence Framework in Wales, and the rise of digital technology in general, means that teachers need to be able to use a variety of techie tools with confidence and panache. Where do we stand on the debate about technology in the classroom, and how should we approach the arguments on both sides? The wellbeing slot takes a look at using social media to build a support community while on placement (though it wor...
Oct 19, 2018•34 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Emma and Tom are joined this week by guest contributor Sally Bethell, Senior Lecturer in PGCE PE at Cardiff Met. Sally's research specialism is the relationships between student teachers and their mentors on placement, so she has plenty of good advice for student teachers about how to make the best impression, as well as tips for school mentors about how to ensure the student/mentor relationship is a productive and happy one. One of Sally's many claims to fame is that she teaches an enormous coh...
Oct 05, 2018•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Emma and Tom try to get to the bottom of the difference between coaching and mentoring, and what's best for student teachers at different times in their course. The regular wellbeing slot explores an idea from David Allen's famous book 'Getting Things Done', we shout out to a multi-talented drama PGCE student from the 2017-18 cohort, and Tom finds a good use for an hour-long countdown timer in his lessons. Join us again in a fortnight, when we'll have a guest with us to put the theory into pract...
Sep 21, 2018•36 min•Season 1Ep. 2
In their first attempt at a podcast all about the wonderful world of the PGCE, Emma and Tom sit in a boiling hot hotel room in Bolton musing on the BESA2018 conference we have attended. There were talks on everything from equity in international education to school improvement strategies. The wellbeing slot is all about taking the time to do something to enhance your own work life, we shout out to a performance poet from the 2016-17 PGCE drama cohort, and Emma's calorie-free takeout (!) is calle...
Sep 07, 2018•35 min•Season 1Ep. 1
The second trailer for Emma & Tom's PGCE Podcast. Join us on September 7th for the very first episode.
Aug 31, 2018•47 sec
Emma and Tom are coming soon with their brand-new podcast! Subscribe on iTunes or anywhere else you get your podcast fix. We're on twitter - @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze
Aug 08, 2018•3 min
