The Leading Learning Podcast

How many of the dollars and hours spent on professional learning this year actually changed what happens in classrooms?  As schools refresh strategic plans and set budgets for 2027, this episode makes the case for choosing less, treating school improvement as an infinite game, and swapping the “cut flowers” of a pupil-free day for the slow, steady watering that makes learning stick.  Get ready for...

When your phonics screening check results make your stomach drop, what do you actually do next?  In this return episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast, Jocelyn treats the check like a blood pressure reading: it tells you whether to look closer, and the score sheets tell you where. She explains how to tell students who know the code but stumbled on the format (special hint: alien names) from th...

"Ask more questions, tell less" is coaching gospel - but what if it's setting your least experienced teachers up to fail?  In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, Jocelyn challenges the one-size-fits-all approach to instructional coaching, arguing that asking someone to generate their own solutions only works if they already have the experience to recognise a good one. Usin...

Ever wonder why a teacher can run a flawless, tightly-structured literacy block in the morning, then deliver a chaotic, worksheet-heavy science lesson by the afternoon? In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, Jocelyn unpacks the real reason strong instructional practice so often fails to transfer across the curriculum - and it's not inconsistency or a lack of care. Drawing on the dif...

Every school is drowning in a checklist of "evidence-based" boxes to tick (phonics programs, screeners, daily review, engagement norms) and still seeing no movement in student outcomes. Why? In this episode, Jocelyn unpacks the gap between doing the tasks and achieving the outcome, and why systems end up rewarding the countable stuff (a program exists, a norm is displayed) instead of the...

Systems are pushing hard on explicit teaching and the science of reading - but a directive can change what a school looks like without ever touching what happens once the classroom door closes.  In this episode, Jocelyn unpacks the real cost of leading change through compliance and tone alone, and what it actually takes to build teacher capability that lasts. If you've ever felt the tension b...

This is the season two premiere of the Leading Learning Podcast, hosted by Jocelyn Seamer. The episode opens with a real classroom story: a teacher, new to implementing a spelling program, quietly turned a discussion-based lesson segment into a written worksheet, spending unpaid personal time to do so. Jocelyn uses this as a springboard to explore why capable, well-intentioned teachers reach for f...

In this episode, Jocelyn looks back at an episode from her other show, the Structured Literacy Podcast. We challenge the assumption that whole-class phonics with a little extra is the most effective route and explore why targeted Tier 1 grouping often delivers stronger gains. Using cognitive load theory and intervention research, we show how matched content can raise progress without creating wait...

In this episode, Jocelyn unpacks a question school leaders increasingly face: should we build our own curriculum program instead of buying one?  Using the distinction between price and cost, Jocelyn shows how "free" homegrown programs often carry hidden costs: lost coaching time, leader burnout, and knowledge that vanishes when the person who built it leaves. Drawing on a real coaching e...

In this episode, Jocelyn tackles one important question: Do your students have the prerequisite knowledge for this learning? The spread of answers reveals whether a school is focused on delivering content or ensuring students actually learn. Key points include: Introducing content does not equal learning it. Overload drives behaviour issues. Reframing the teacher's role, from "deliverer...

In this episode, Jocelyn explores why new teaching practices often fail to take hold after professional learning sessions, and how giving teachers one clear, concrete starting point - rather than open-ended freedom - better supports beginners in building consistent, effective habits.

In this episode, Jocelyn explores how to close the gap between assessment data and classroom instruction. She argues that diagnostic and formative assessment need to be built directly into school-wide systems, not treated as separate from planning, and offers three practical questions and simple tools to help leaders and teachers make data actually drive what happens in classrooms.

Jocelyn reflects on what happens when a well-built instructional program stops providing answers, and what leadership teams must do next. This episode explores the difference between building a minimum viable system and the deeper, more demanding work of continuous improvement, offering practical frameworks for diagnosing why a subset of students isn't progressing and how to design targeted r...

In this episode, Jocelyn explores why instructional initiatives lose consistency during implementation, and offers a practical five-step framework to reset and strengthen practice across a school.

Today's episode forcuses on school leadership, exploring who truly holds decision-making power in school improvement... and why it matters. Jocelyn unpacks how even capable leaders accidentally hand over authority through outsourcing to consultants, blindly following system guidance, or over-delegating to staff. 

In this second episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, Jocelyn explores how school leaders can avoid the trap of chasing every new initiative and instead make strategic, high-impact decisions.  Drawing on Jim Collins' Hedgehog Principle from Good to Great , she introduces the NICE framework a practical four-part test to help leaders evaluate new work before committing to it.  Whether you&apo...

 What does it actually take to lead school improvement that sticks? In this first episode, Jocelyn introduces the Leading Learning Podcast by sharing the leadership journey that shaped everything she now believes about what schools need. From corporate training rooms to a remote Northern Territory classroom, to leading small and complex schools as a full-time teaching principal — and later a schoo...