Episode 5 of Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations, a series of live-streamed, group conversations with people who want to rethink and reform education so as to bring about a more harmonious, less hair-raising state of world affairs. Today's conversation features: Naomi Fisher - author of Changing Our Minds: How children can take control of their own learning - https://twitter.com/naomicfisher Amelia Peterson - co-author of Thrive: The purpose of schools in a changing world - https://twitt...
Jun 19, 2021•1 hr 26 min
Welcome to this special, shorter than usual episode of the Rethinking Education podcast featuring my recent conversation with two previous guests - Tom Sherrington and Adam Boxer. As with so many things these days, this episode came about because of a Twitter exchange I was involved in, in which Adam wrote: “as you know, I accept that there are many "prog" methods that can be excellent. the discussion though is about how easy it is to implement those, and whilst I have seen trad done bad, that's...
Jun 18, 2021•1 hr 16 min
In this episode I am joined by Fran Morgan and Ellie Costello from Square Peg, a social enterprise that was set up in 2019 to shine a light on the plight of the many young people who struggle to attend school for various reasons. Fran and Ellie were inspired to set up Square Peg following their own experiences as parents of young people who have struggled to attend mainstream. As Fran points out in the conversation, one day her daughter refused to go to school, and it was like being plunged into...
Jun 11, 2021•3 hr 4 min
Episode 4 of Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations, a series of live-streamed, group conversations with people who want to rethink and reform education so as to bring about a more harmonious, less hair-raising state of world affairs. Today, Dr James Mannion, Kate McAllister, Kath Pratt and Natalie Rothwell-Warn are joined by three young people from Pupil Power - Sephora, 18, Yumna, 16, and Zoya, who is in Year 10. This is a powerful conversation in which we discuss, among other things: why...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 23 min
Tom Sherrington is one of those guests who probably needs no introduction, but in case his prolific output has somehow passed you by these last few years, here’s a quick one. A former teacher and school leader for over 30 years, more recently Tom has become a hugely popular blogger, author and training provider. His blog (teacherhead.com) has had approaching 7 million hits, and his recent books Rosenshine’s Principles in Action and the Teaching Walkthru series, co-authored with Oliver Caviglioli...
May 31, 2021•3 hr
Episode 3 of Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations, a series of live-streamed, group conversations with people who want to rethink and reform education so as to bring about a more harmonious, less hair-raising state of world affairs. Today's episode features a conversation between James Mannion, Kate McAllister, Aliyah York, Lottie Cooke, Grace McAllister, Lox, Andreas, Olivia, Marcos, Sam and Eddie. To view the video version, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7iOUZRqZWE. To view the...
May 22, 2021•1 hr 18 min
Today’s show features a conversation with four inspirational women who have taken matters into their own hands and set up alternative schools in recent years - 3 in the UK and one in the Dominican Republic. Avid listeners of the Rethinking Education podcast will probably know that the one in the DR is my good friend, co-author and Learning to Learn copilot Kate McAllister, who featured in Episode 9. My other 3 guests today are people that I have come to know only very recently, as a result of ha...
May 21, 2021•2 hr 29 min
Episode 2 of Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations, a series of live-streamed, group conversations with people who want to rethink and reform education so as to bring about a more harmonious, less hair-raising state of world affairs. Today's episode features a conversation between James Mannion, Kate McAllister, Kath Pratt, Sarah Fraser, Natalie Rothwell-Warn, and two special guests: Lottie Cooke, a member of Pupil Power, a community of young people who are working together to rethink educ...
May 08, 2021•1 hr 15 min
Naheeda Maharasingam is the headteacher at Rathfern Primary School in London, the Leader of Rathfern Teacher Research Network, and a local leader of education. In this conversation, Naheeda outlines her homespun framework for school improvement - the 3 Ms - metacognition, malleable intelligence and moral purpose - and outlines how the curriculum at Rathfern is underpinned by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). LINKS Naheeda's talk to the Chartered College of Teaching on diversifying and...
May 06, 2021•2 hr 34 min
Episode 1 of the Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations. A series of fortnightly fireside chats spontaneous, unplanned group conversations to run alongside the podcast. Today's episode features a conversation between James Mannion, Kate McAllister, Kath Pratt, Sarah Fraser, Grace McAllister and Natalie Rothwell-Warn. To view the video, visit: https://youtu.be/13Isyk_MzgA To join the Rethinking Education Mighty Network, visit: https://rethinking-education.mn.co/feed
Apr 24, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Professor Guy Claxton is a hugely influential academic, thinker and author of over 30 books on learning, intelligence and creativity, including Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, Wise Up, What’s the point of school, Intelligence in the flesh, Educating Ruby and The Learning Power Approach. Guy previously appeared on the Rethinking Education podcast, an episode you can access here: https://soundcloud.com/rethinking-ed-podcast/re07-guy-claxton. Guy’s latest book, The future of teaching and the myths that ...
Apr 18, 2021•2 hr 26 min
Kath Murdoch is a well known and hugely popular teacher, writer, university lecturer and consultant who has worked for many years with teachers and students in schools all over the planet. The author of 15 books and numerous articles for teachers – including the best selling ‘The Power of Inquiry’ (2015) - Kath is widely respected for her work in the field of inquiry-based learning in which she has taught, researched and published for well over 30 years. In fact, so popular is Kath’s work in the...
Apr 12, 2021•3 hr 10 min
Rachel Macfarlane is the Director of Education Services at Herts for Learning, providing the strategic lead for all education services to schools across all phases. Prior to joining Herts for Learning, Rachel was the Principal of Isaac Newton Academy in Ilford, in the London borough of Redbridge. She opened this non-selective all-through academy for 4-18 year olds in 2012, the school was rated Outstanding by Ofsted when inspected in 2014, and when they received their first set of results in 2017...
Mar 19, 2021•2 hr 41 min
Ian Gilbert is a globally renowned educational thinker, innovator, entrepreneur, speaker and award-winning editor and writer, who was listed by the IB magazine as one of their top 15 ‘educational visionaries’. Ian has authored many brilliant books including the Little Book of Thunks, Independent Thinking and Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google? - all three of which we discuss in this conversation. He is also a skilled editor and has curated and edited many more excellent tomes, includin...
Mar 09, 2021•2 hr 57 min
Adam Boxer is Head of Science at what he describes as a “great” secondary comprehensive school in North London, and a prolific tweeter and blogger. His blog, A Chemical Orthodoxy, recently tipped over a million readers, and considering Adam only joined the fold of bloggers fairly recently, that’s really quite impressive. As you will hear, this is the thin end of the wedge of Adam’s prodigious output, and he is a rare example of someone who has been able to have a significant impact on the school...
Feb 24, 2021•3 hr
Ross McGill really needs no introduction. Through his alter ego Teacher Toolkit, Ross is something of a publishing powerhouse, with a quarter of a million followers on Twitter - by far the biggest following of anyone in education. A teacher and school leader with decades of experience, Ross now works as a consultant and has worked in over 200 schools, colleges and universities across the UK and around the world. Ross also has one the most influential education blogs on the planet, with around 12...
Feb 12, 2021•2 hr 26 min
Tim Taylor is a writer and freelance teacher who works on promoting and developing innovative practices in primary schools. He is also the author of 'A Beginner's Guide to Mantle of the Expert', an approach to teaching and learning that involves engaging the children in a process of what Tim describes as ‘imaginative enquiry’. Working with Luke Abbott and others, Tim has helped grow a sizeable community of practice around the approach in recent years, and it’s well worth a visit to the Mantle of...
Feb 04, 2021•2 hr 34 min
Kate McAllister is a force of nature, and a dear friend of the Rethinking Education podcast. Kate worked as a French teacher for 14 years, and has over 10 years’ experience in school leadership roles. She first worked on creating a Learning to Learn curriculum in 2005, with the aim of helping pupils develop the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the often-difficult transition from primary to secondary school. She then spent the next 15 years refining and improving both the methodology an...
Jan 30, 2021•2 hr 42 min
Priya Lakhani, OBE, is the founder and CEO of Century Tech, an award-winning Artificial Intelligence Ed Tech company. Century is the global leader in AI-powered learning tools for schools and families, working in dozens of countries across the world. She is also the author of a book called INADEQUATE: THE SYSTEM FAILING OUR TEACHERS AND YOUR CHILDREN, recently published by John Catt. Reviewing the book, Sir Anthony Seldon wrote: “Priya Lakhani is a visionary thinker. Yesterday, her words seemed ...
Jan 11, 2021•1 hr 33 min
Professor Guy Claxton is a hugely influential academic, thinker and author of over 30 books on learning, intelligence and creativity, including Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, Wise Up, What’s the point of school, Intelligence in the flesh, Educating Ruby and the Learning Power Approach. Guy’s latest book, The future of teaching and the myths that hold it back, is a blistering critique of what is increasingly a neotraditional orthodoxy. It is scheduled for release in Spring 2021, and Guy has very kind...
Jan 01, 2021•2 hr 26 min
Kulvarn Atwal is the headteacher - or rather, head learning leader - of two schools in Essex, and the author of The Thinking School. Kulvarn completed his doctorate in 2016, His thesis focuses on the factors that impact upon teacher engagement in professional learning activities, with a particular focus on action research - a topic close to my heart that we barely even touch upon in this conversation. His research draws on theories of workplace learning to provide a practical, powerful, proven f...
Dec 26, 2020•2 hr 28 min
The first part of James's interview with Ross McGill, aka @TeacherToolkit. Ross has worked in over 200 schools, colleges and universities across the UK, including schools in Belarus, Canada, Cyprus, China, Germany, Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland and the UAE. Known online as @TeacherToolkit, the ‘most followed educator on social media in the UK’, Ross has built one the most influential education websites on the planet, sharing resources with 11+ million readers across the world. He has also sold ov...
Dec 18, 2020•28 min
Dr Ian Cunningham has published seven books and over 120 articles and papers on topics relating to education, learning, leadership and organisational change. His latest book is ‘Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm’ (2020, Routledge). Ian is the founder, and chair of governors, of the Self Managed Learning College in Brighton, a democratic educational community for young people aged 9 to 16. His most recent academic post has been as Visiting Professor in Organisational Learning...
Dec 18, 2020•2 hr 16 min
In this episode, James shares two excerpts from 'On becoming a person' by the pioneer of person-centred psychotherapy, Carl Rogers. The first is a definition of 'significant learning', a concept at the heart of the Rethinking Education podcast, and the second is an explosive speech Rogers gave at Harvard University in 1952, entitled 'Personal thoughts on teaching and learning'. A transcript of this talk can be found here: http://www.rawfoodsupport.com/read.php?11,178404. The Rethinking Education...
Dec 18, 2020•21 min
Dr Ian Cunningham has published seven books and over 120 articles and papers on topics relating to education, learning, leadership and organisational change. His latest book is ‘Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm’ (2020, Routledge). Ian is the founder, and chair of governors, of the Self Managed Learning College in Brighton, a democratic educational community for young people aged 9 to 16. His most recent academic post has been as Visiting Professor in Organisational Learning...
Dec 14, 2020•2 hr 9 min
Dr Debra Kidd is an experienced educator and a truly original thinker with some fascinating insights into what great education looks like, where things are going wrong currently, and how teachers and school leaders can work together to create a more hopeful, equitable future. She has taught in a range of settings across the sector, from primary schools to universities, for almost three decades. She now works with schools in the UK and internationally to develop innovative approaches to curriculu...
Nov 27, 2020•2 hr 15 min
