Frank and Stan Chats

The joy of our weekly chats lies in the contributions made by our amazing guests. This week is no exception as we are joined by a former HMI, Mathematics subject lead and specialist adviser, Steve Wren. Steve has been keeping a keen eye on Ofsted's new inspection framework and has shared his insights on social media. Today he focuses on the problems around attendance and behaviour. Stan gets thing...

The SPOTLIGHT editions of the Frank and Stan Chat provide us with a chance to meet colleagues with one topic of conversation. The 30th edition is with Sian Hampton and Alice Gregson. They have created a System Leadership programme that is focused on a range of partners delivering services for children and families. It brings educators together with those from health, social care, housing and other...

It is always a joy to have John Malynn back as a guest on the chat. He is the only senior civil servant we know of to lead on accountability for the DfE, including its relationship with Ofsted, and also be invited to join the inspectorate as a key policy adviser. A rather unique set of experiences. With so much happening in politics this week we focus on the important work of the Education Select...

It was a pleasure to welcome Jill Munday to the Frank and Stan Chat. Jill has had a varied and interesting career and met Frank when they were Assistant Divisional Managers working on local authority inspections with Ofsted. Since retiring Jill has been a passionate supporter of The Malagiri School in Nepal. This Spotlight chat covers how she got involved, how she currently supports their work and...

Part 2 of the chat due to a power cut during the recording. Stan is away this week so Frank had the chance to chat with Dave Smith, a former colleague in the Coop Group Press and Media team, someone Frank worked with frequently when he was the CEO of the Coop Academies Trust. Our relaxed chat covers how best to use the media, including social media, for the benefit of the school and how it is real...

Part 1 due to a power cut during the recording: Part 2 follows. Stan is away this week so Frank had the chance to chat with Dave Smith, a former colleague in the Coop Group Press and Media team, someone Frank worked with frequently when he was the CEO of the Coop Academies Trust. Our relaxed chat covers how best to use the media, including social media, for the benefit of the school and how it is...

Both of us look forward to Aelwyn's annual visit to the Frank and Stan Chat. Always well prepared, challenging and at times controversial Aelwyn is, as my wife says, a proper HMI. After over 20 years of working for Ofsted in various roles, he retired a few years ago, but he remains committed to his desire for all children and young people to succeed. Stan gets things rolling as he considers a coup...

Frank began working with Alice when she invited him to be the co-leader of a leadership programme with her for Forum Strategy. They struck it off straight away and enjoyed a few years collaborating and sharing connections to improve the impact of their leadership work. Alice is driven by a desire to share and listen to others and her relaxed approach comes across very strongly in this week’s chat....

An absolute privilege to be joined by Malcolm Greenhalgh, a former Primary school teacher who went on to lead one of England's largest independent inspection companies contracted to Ofsted and is now leading Incyte, a school improvement consultancy. Malcolm provided us with a helpful steer on what he was going to discuss and Ive copied it here. Inclusive Flexibility Like most I chat to about famil...

It is a privilege to have the chance to chat colleagues who have had impressive careers and are now making a difference through their support for others on their leadership journey. Today, we chatted to Glyn Potts, a former Headteacher who has been a guest while a headteacher on our weekly chat. He was joined by Neil Jurd, the former military senior officer and author of The Leadership Book and a...

This is a special edition of the Frank and Stan Chat SPOTLIGHT edition because we are joined by someone who we have both worked with. Joshua Mangas is a senior education and governance leader with over 15 years' experience across schools, training providers, and public sector partnerships. He currently leads governance development and strategy for over 500 schools across Lancashire at Lancashire C...

It's quite rare for a guest to have to drop out of a planned visit to the Frank and Stan Chat but that happened recently so we used the World Wide Web to ask for volunteers. We’re pleased to report that a few people responded. We were then presented with a problem. How do you select which one? We decided to choose the first person who'd replied and that was Joe Pardoe. Joe has a fascinating back s...

Our guests this week are Alan Braven and Anthony Benedict. Anthony is CEO of Ambition Community Trust and Executive Head Teacher of Tameside Pupil Referral Service, with 27 years of experience in education. Alan is a recently retired Executive Headteacher of Endeavour Federation, which provides specialist SEMH (Social, Emotional, and Mental Health) provision in Manchester. They are co-authors of t...

In May 2025, Frank met Ellen Mukwewa at a conference, and they followed this up with a virtual chat or two. During one the chats Ellen explained that she and her good friend Michelle Baker had created a new organisation bringing together those involved in the non-association independent school sector. As this was an issue the Frank and Stan Chat had not covered on a regular basis it seemed a good...

It is always a pleasure to have a previous guest return to our chat so that we can develop further some key points from the initial chat. Cathal Lynch joined us in March 2025 and received some of the highest viewing and listening figures in recent times. He's an engaging and deeply committed colleague who has focused on wellbeing in schools in recent years. The Wellbeing Quality Mark is well worth...

Rebecca Leek, poet, musician, former Headteacher of three schools, broadcaster and author of The School-Ready Governor returns to the chat. She was a guest in March 2025 and made a very favourable impression, bringing a wide range of insights on education and leadership. It's a timely chat with World Book Day on Thursday 5th March. Rebecca explains how her life has changed in some respects since o...

Frank has known Mel since 2013, has observed her teaching, leading staff training and contributing strongly to developments in a number of schools. She's an energetic, gifted and committed colleague. When Frank and Stan realised she had published a book, we thought it was a good time to invite her and her co-author Andy Buck, to sit down and explain why they felt a focus on supply teachers and cov...

Six months ago, Frank and Stan met Steve Kirkpatrick in a rather nice hotel in Worsley, Gt Manchester. Frank had become aware of an application Steve and a colleague had developed that supports school self-evaluation. It appears to take some of the back-breaking and tedious work undertaken by senior leaders in developing a robust self-evaluation statement. Since we met, Steve has further improved...

When we started the Frank and Stan Chat in May 2020, we thought it would last a week or two. It was a way for the two friends to keep in touch during the various Covid lockdowns. Astonishingly, the chats have now reached the 250 mark. We never planned to have a certain guest for this special edition. To be honest, we don't work in that way. Setting up the chats relies on a number of diaries coming...

When we started the Frank and Stan Chat in May 2020, we thought it would last a week or two. It was a way for the two friends to keep in touch during the various Covid lockdowns. Astonishingly, the chats have now reached the 250 mark. We never planned to have a certain guest for this special edition. To be honest, we don't work in that way. Setting up the chats relies on a number of diaries coming...

A fascinating chat this week with Richard Ronksley, CEO of Altus Education Partnership based in and around Rochdale. The multi-academy trust was established in April 2017 by the governing body of Rochdale Sixth Form College, an outstanding A level provider established in 2010. In 2019, the Trust opened a new free school - Edgar Wood Academy - which serves the local community in Middleton and Heywo...

Mel Ainscow is an eminent academic and practitioner who is particularly interested in the universal challenge of developing forms of education that make a difference for all children and young people, no matter their characteristics or backgrounds. Drawing on his extensive work in the UK and overseas, Mel explains the six critical aspects that need to be embraced as part of a more effective approa...

It is always a pleasure to welcome a guest onto the Frank and Stan Chat who actually watches our weekly chats regularly. Laura McPhee is Director of Education at the University Schools Trust in London. She's a former Headteacher who is committed to social justice and also lectures at the South Bank University. She's currently finalising her second book before it goes to publication later this year...

It has taken a little while to agree on a slot but, at last Adrian Bethune, founder of Teachappy, part-time Primary School teacher, Lead author for Oxford University Press' International Wellbeing Curriculum, Deputy Chair of the strategic board for Well Schools, Associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, Wellbeing Governor at Broughton Community Schools and most importantly, father to two yo...

Happy New Year! We are delighted to upload a fascinating chat we had with Dame Kathy August. Kathy is a former Headteacher, a senior local education authority leader, Manchester's first academy CEO, former Board member at Ofsted and Honorary Visiting Professor at Salford Business School. She's also an author and now works as an independent adviser. So, an impressive and varied career which comes t...