Beyond Good

Matt and Femi speak to former student Lily about school and learning from the other side of the desk.  Their discussion ranges from the impact that a great teacher can have on a student's choices and life, through to accounting for students who are struggling with pastoral issues and even to the teacher recruitment crisis and questions of how to get intelligent people like Lily into the profe...

In this episode Matt and Femi discuss various means and considerations around checking for understanding.

Femi and I have been visiting a lot of schools over the last few months - some are incredible and get some of the best results in the country and others are not so good!  In this episode we share things we've each seen that we thought were effective, and things that we noticed that were not.

Matt Burnage is one of the founding senior leaders of Ark Soane Academy, History teacher, and assistant principal leading on curriculum and assessment.  In this episode we do a deep dive into the subject of booklets - what they are, how they encapsulate the curriculum, impact on learning, the ways they are used in lessons, implications for whole school routines, how they are made and developed, im...

Matt debriefs Femi on his visit to The Michaela Community School.  They discuss teaching and learning, students, staff, family lunch and yard time, curriculum, routines, culture and much more.

Join Matt and Femi for the second part of their interview with Barry, as they talk about his leadership style, teaching, developing teachers, SLT and much much more. Barry Smith was a founding Deputy of Michaela School, Wembley.  The kids’ amazing French and his unique approach to MFL teaching created huge buzz at Michaela.  He went on to become head of Great Yarmouth Charter School - the tenth he...

Join Matt and Femi as they talk to Barry Smith about his experience of taking over and turning around a failing school. Barry Smith was a founding Deputy of Michaela School, Wembley.  The kids’ amazing French and his unique approach to MFL teaching created huge buzz at Michaela.  He went on to become head of Great Yarmouth Charter School - the tenth head in 10 years, at a school that was rated ina...

In this episode Femi and Matt discuss what they've learnt and are discovering about coaching: how powerful it is, and how it's harder to do really well than it looks! In particular they dive into the ideas of sequencing/structuring teacher development, giving the coachee the opportunity to own and unpack what they've done well, and the importance of rehearsal, amongst other things....

Pritesh is a science teacher, head of science and assistant head in charge of teaching and learning at Ark Soane Academy.  Known as the best science teacher in the country because of his student’s outstanding results, Pritesh takes us through the what, why and how of his approach to classroom teaching, including direct instruction, rehearsal, participation, the three phases of questioning, indepen...

In this episode Matt talks to Femi about the things he has learnt from his visits to some of the highest-performing schools in the country and reflects on the ways he would change his teaching as a result. The pair talk about answering in full sentences, paired talk, choral response and rehearsal, amongst many other things. Get in touch with comments, questions and suggestions: @BeyondGoodPod on X

A short announcement from me to say that we have decided that the last published episode will be the final episode in Season 2, an announcement which simultaneously heralds the arrival of Season 3.  I’m excited to say that you can expect more guests on the show in the coming series – Our interviews with star science teacher Pritesh Raichura, and eminently sensible super head Barry Smith are both i...

Today Femi and Matt discuss their career changes, both recent (in Matt's case) and forthcoming (in Femi's) and how they are thinking about teaching and learning, and education going forward.  This context should throw some light onto some of the conversations they have had recently or that are coming up.  

The discussion today was prompted by a listener question about students being late to lessons, so Matt and Femi each give their take on that.  They discuss what they think the relevant psychology is and how they each handle this situation.  They talk about whole-school policies and dealing with a culture of lateness as middle and senior leaders – and different ways that schools approach the starts...

The topic of today’s discussion is Matt's visit to Ark Soane Academy, and in particular the impressive whole-school culture and the remarkable impact of that on student behaviours, attitudes and learning.  Femi and Matt talk about the best science lesson Matt has ever seen, and wider discussion about starting and running schools and embedding shared routines across the school. As always, all...

The topic of discussion this week is warning systems – so very much a behaviour-based episode rather than a maths one.   Matt and Femi cover a fair bit of ground: from classrooms with names written on the board and hundreds of warnings being issued each day through to classrooms with no warnings and students absorbed in their work.  And from supporting colleagues with behaviour issues through to t...

This week Femi and Matt debate the pros and cons of homework - a particularly slippery beast to nail down.  They get into some general principles and challenges of setting good homework, and what they have tried and each do now, among other things.   By all means let us know if you think you have this one cracked: @beyondgoodpod on X. 

In this episode Femi and Matt talk about modelling - in all it’s various forms from leading on behaviour through to explicit teaching strategies.  In particular they discuss pre-made teacher models and explanations vs modelling live, in real time, and explore some really interesting nooks and crannies of that facet. X: @BeyondGoodPod

In this episode Femi and Matt discuss setting, the term ‘bottom set’, attitudes towards, and working with students who have low prior attainment.   As you’ll hear both advocates of ensuring that those students get the highest possible quality education, that we meet them where they are, and that we work hard, carefully and mindfully as a community to ensure that we divorce that honest recognition...

In this episode Matt and Femi talk about Adam Boxer’s Book: How to Teach Secondary Science. In particular, they discuss Adam’s concept of ‘Directions of travel’, which provides a nice framework for characterising the way that we move through explanations.  Both feel that many teachers could spend more time thinking about and planning explanations than they tend to, so Adam's conceptualisation...

Today’s topic is Year 11 mock examinations.  Matt and Femi discuss: -          Holding 2 or 3 sets of mocks vs just 1. -          That mocks should not be the main means by which we discover what students can and cannot do. -          Conditions for students to learn and improve on knowledge gaps exposed by tests, the  implications for ‘going through’ the test in lessons, and why that is rarely ef...

Femi and Matt speak to Dave Taylor on the topic of the maths curriculum.  Dave is a maths specialist and lead practioner, well known in maths circles for his ‘increasingly difficult questions’ and ‘backward faded maths’.  Dave has thought long and hard about curriculum issues such as sequencing and mastery, and has experience of creating maths curricula, so the trio go deep on the considerations,...

Today’s discussion is prompted by the Bill Rogers interview that recently appeared in the TES titled: ‘Bill Rogers: Where we are going wrong on behaviour’. Matt and Femi discuss: -          The problem of COVID and re-victimising students -          Teacher’s being inclined to appease students rather than lead on behaviour. -          If you’re not in control it’s not a safe environment -         ...

‘Passive passengers!’ - students who are not especially engaged in lessons. Matt and Femi discuss some of the indicators and consequences of passive behaviours, how we might think about that as teachers in terms of tackling it vs accepting it, some causes of passivity, and how we might tackle it.

Today's guest is American Educator, Coach and Podcast host Dr Zach Groshell for a fascinating discussion about his work in US government funded schools and his drive for an increasingly evidence-based pedagogy. Matt and Femi talk to Zach about his role as an instructional coach, more and less directive coaching methodologies, the configuration of coaching within US public schools, characteris...

Today’s episode is prompted by a recent post on X which posed the following question:  “What do you do with your mathematics teachers while you do your whole school professional learning on literacy, reading or writing?” Femi and Matt discuss the two main failure modes for students on ‘worded’ maths questions – noting that the more common and critical failure mode is one that won’t be addressed in...