In this episode, Claire meets with Nathan Ashman, who is a Lead Teacher for New Technologies at St Wilfrid’s Church of England Academy in Blackburn. Despite having a secondary background, Nathan was delivering a session aimed at the primary-age range at the Lead Learn Lancs 2019 conference, which was where Claire met with him. Nathan didn’t originally plan to go into teaching (an action hero was his dream occupation as a child!). After studying Theatre, Film and TV at university, and coaching ru...
Nov 10, 2019•36 min•Ep. 22
In this Teachers’ Podcast episode, Claire meets with Gemma Sanchez a former teacher, SENDCO and now co-founder of Grow Your Mindset. Gemma discusses the importance of growth mindset for teachers, pupils and schools. She explains her teaching journey as well as how she developed her passion of learning about growth mindset with her colleague Liz. Gemma suggests some strategies that teachers can implement within the classroom. Furthermore, she explains the importance of teachers reflecting upon th...
Nov 03, 2019•35 min•Season 1Ep. 21
In this episode, Claire interviews Anna Lucas at the Lead, Learn, Lancs conference. Anna is an Early Years specialist who is committed to supporting practitioners and improving outcomes for young children. She has also worked extensively as a phonics consultant with managers in local authorities, schools and settings to embed good practice. Alongside this, she is also a children’s author following the publication of her first book ‘Sir Undercracker’. Anna talks passionately about the value of co...
Oct 26, 2019•58 min•Season 1Ep. 20
In this episode, Claire interviews Karl Duke at the One Education Literacy Conference. Growing up in Barnsley in a working-class family, a wealth of books were not readily available to Karl as a child but he credits his parents for always encouraging him to read. After initially training as an illustrator in the early 90s, Karl has worked in primary education for almost 20 years. In his first position at a rural school in Lincolnshire, he became the Literacy lead then successfully applied for a ...
Oct 19, 2019•41 min•Season 1Ep. 19
In this episode, Claire interviews Vashti Hardy at the One Education Literacy Conference. Vashti is a children’s author from Sussex who is well-known for her novels ‘Brightstorm’ and ‘WildSpark’. Before becoming a writer, Vashti worked as a primary school teacher for several years specialising in English. Vashti has always been passionate about reading and writing. During her BA at Chichester University, her dissertation research project investigated how free-writing sessions impact children’s e...
Oct 12, 2019•40 min•Season 1Ep. 18
In this episode, Claire interviews Jade Raynor who is one of our very own proofreaders at Classroom Secrets. Before joining our team, Jade taught in primary schools in both the UK and Thailand leaving her with many interesting insights into teaching internationally. In Thailand, Jade taught all subjects across the primary phase, other than those taught by specialists in Music, PE, Swimming, MFL and Thai. Although the workload was similar in both countries, teachers were given much more non-conta...
Oct 06, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 17
In this episode, Claire meets Beth Southern, an experienced EAL Consultant and a Specialist Leader of Education for EAL. Beth has taught extensively in both primary and secondary schools, and she is the creator of EAL HUB which provides a range of resources to support EAL learners in the mainstream classroom. Many teachers also use her resources for non-EAL children with limited vocabulary. Since a significant number of schools in the UK have a high number of EAL pupils, Beth believes that train...
Sep 28, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 16
In this episode, Claire meets with the popular children’s author Tom Palmer. Currently, Tom is the author of forty-nine published books, including three Puffin football children’s series (‘Football Academy’, ‘Foul Play’ and ‘The Squad’) and a wide range of books published by Barrington Stoke. During his own school days, Tom struggled with reading, so his mum used his love of football to encourage him to read about his favourite sport in match reports, newspapers, magazines and books. This sparke...
Sep 22, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 15
In this episode, Claire meets with John Murray, a British author for educational material and former teacher. John is a reading enthusiast and novelist. He discusses the work he has done to support schools with developing the love of reading within children. John explains the importance of reading and the pedagogy of reading for children. He describes the different techniques of how the love of reading can be promoted within children. He also explains the different opportunities children need in...
Sep 14, 2019•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 14
In this episode, Claire meets with Sian Stebbings, a former teacher and now Production Manager at Classroom Secrets as well as a Chair of Governors for a local academy school that is part of a multi-academy trust (MAT). Sian explains how she started her teaching journey, to becoming a Production Manager, a school governor and now Chair of Governor for a MAT. She discusses the challenges she faced and explains her vision moving forward. Sian also explains how her current and previous experience h...
Sep 07, 2019•24 min•Season 1Ep. 13
In this episode, Claire meets with Heather Wright, a former teacher and founder of Reading Rocks, a project designed to develop the love of reading in children. Heather talks about her teaching career and the opportunities she’s had, with the support of her school, to promote the love of reading. She explains the different strategies she has established within her school to assist parents and children develop this. Heather shares some advice on how teachers, schools and parents can develop the l...
Sep 01, 2019•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 12
In this episode, Claire meets with Simon Hunt, a Year 4 teacher at Tottington Primary School in Bury. Alongside his teaching, Simon has developed his own website ‘Mr Hunt from the front’, and built online social media feeds, from where he offers advice, resources and CPD for teachers and schools. Although arriving in teaching slightly later than normal, Simon has taught across all phases of Primary Education, and has worked in a variety of schools as a supply teacher and a permanent member of st...
Aug 24, 2019•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 11
In this episode, Claire meets with Lee Parkinson also known as Mr P, a part-time teacher, entrepreneur, technology guru and trainer. Mr P starts by explaining how he started his teaching journey as well as juggling his home life with triplets and a stepson! Mr P and Claire explore the importance of technology within education today. He discusses how schools can embed and incorporate technology within their curriculum and how this can support to reduce teacher’s workload. They discuss the challen...
Aug 17, 2019•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 10
In this episode, Claire meets with Alison Philipson, an independent literacy consultant who works predominantly in Yorkshire and the North West of England. Alison discusses how she supports schools and teachers with their English teaching focusing on strategies to develop reading and writing - in particular, how schools can help children to improve with their spelling. Claire talks with Alison about how she moved from working in a wide variety of different jobs - such as telephone sales, finance...
Aug 10, 2019•40 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In this episode, Claire meets with James Holmes, owner and developer of MarkMate: a software-based marking system that enables teachers to significantly reduce the time they spend marking by enabling them to quickly give high-quality feedback on their pupils’ work. Claire talks with James about his journey from starting out as a Year 1 teacher, through to working in Key Stages 2 and 3, and how the excessive demands on time for marking prompted James to develop his new system. James discusses how...
Aug 03, 2019•57 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In this Teachers’ Podcast episode, Claire meets with Becky Lambton, the present Commercial Director at iTCHYROBOT. Becky’s background and experience lies within strategic marketing; having graduated in marketing and spending several years in the commercial world honing her skills, she later joined iTCHYROBOT in 2014 where she was tasked with helping grow and develop the business. iTCHYROBOT’s main goal at this point was to help businesses improve their processes or efficiencies by utilising thei...
Jul 27, 2019•26 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In this episode, Claire chats with Elizabeth Davison, Headteacher at Thornton Primary School in Bradford, about her journey through education and teaching, and the challenges of leading a large primary school in a time of austerity and financial pressure. School leaders and teachers across the country are regularly reporting how they are finding it increasingly difficult to run their schools and classrooms effectively with dwindling budgets, but also alongside ever-increasing accountability. Eli...
Jul 26, 2019•54 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In this episode, Claire meets with Laura Lodge, a former teacher and now a Literacy/English Consultant for One Education. She explains her experience with leading Literacy and supporting schools within her cluster. As a consultant, Laura continues to support schools predominantly around the North West as well as other areas of the country. Laura discusses her passion for reading and helping schools with English and Reading. Laura and Claire discuss the importance of understanding the different m...
Jul 24, 2019•38 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In this episode, Claire meets with Mungo Sheppard, Headteacher at Ash Green Primary School in Halifax and a National Leader of Education. Mungo talks about how his career has developed from volunteering at a local primary school to qualifying as a teacher and then getting a job at Ash Green where he has remained ever since. As well as overseeing the growth of Ash Green Primary School, which now involves leading two split-sites, Mungo has also been a National Leader of Education and is a firm bel...
Jul 19, 2019•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 4
In this episode, Claire meets with Heather McAvan, a former teacher and now founder and director of Mrs Mactivity, a website full of creative, original and uniquely designed learning resources. Heather talks about her journey to becoming a teacher and, beyond that, the events in her life which led her to enter the field of business culminating in her building her own educational resource company. Having worked in schools both in England and abroad, Heather discusses how attitudes and approaches ...
Jul 18, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 3
In this episode, Claire meets with Lee Peckover, a former primary school teacher and now Proofreading Manager at Classroom Secrets. Lee discusses how he started his teaching journey, coaching Muay Thai boxing as a teenager, which ignited his interest in helping children learn. From that, he volunteered at a local primary school before gaining his teaching qualification and gaining experience from working in schools. Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, Lee made the decision to move out ...
Jul 18, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 2
In our first ‘live’ Teachers’ Podcast episode, Claire meets with Mitch Hudson, Assistant Headteacher, Head of English, and founder of ‘Grammarsaurus’, an online resource-bank offering a wide range of learning materials for teachers and schools. Mitch talks about how early in his career, he was able to utilise his grammatical skills and knowledge at a time of increased government focus on this aspect of English. Mitch shares his reflections on how his expertise came to be in demand and how this h...
Jul 18, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 1
In this introduction, Claire explains that the podcast is for all educators and that there will be elements of CPD, elements of entertainment and also elements of relatable experiences so that you are not alone. VALUABLE RESOURCES 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.u...
Jul 12, 2019•5 min
