Rethinking Education

Ty Golding (https://twitter.com/tjgolding) is the Headteacher of Holton Primary School, in Barry town in South Wales. Ty has experience of teaching at every level of primary education, including nursery. He has worked with Welsh Government policy development and implementation, developing a national online platform for learners and most recently as Head of Curriculum Design & Development. Cat Plac...

Frank Norris is a former headteacher and HMI (His Majesty’s Inspector) with decades of experience leading and inspecting a wide range of schools and other settings including secure units, independent schools, prisons, initial teacher education as well as secondary and primary schools in England and abroad. From 2014-19, Frank was the CEO of the Coop Academies Trust. The Coop Trust is highly regard...

An astonishing conversation with Derry Hannam, a fascinating thinker and writer and practitioner of democratic education, and the author of the brilliant book ‘Another Way is Possible - Becoming a Democratic Teacher in a State School’. In his 20 years as a teacher in English state secondary schools, Derry Hannam always tried to create environments where students could make choices about - and take...

This is the second in a series of episodes featuring headteachers and former heads talking about Ofsted. David Phillips is the headteacher of Chilwell school in Nottingham. He has been in senior leadership for over twenty years and a headteacher in both the academies and maintained sectors. He is one of the East Midlands representatives for his professional association and has a particular focus o...

Martin Robinson is an educationalist, author, writer, consultant, orator and liberal artist. He worked in East London state schools for more than 20 years as a teacher, head of department, advanced skills teacher and school leader. For the last ten years he has worked as an education consultant delivering workshops and keynote speeches about curriculum design, teaching methodology and culture. He...

This is the first in a series of interviews with headteachers and former heads talking about Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education - England's schools inspectorate). Rebecca Leek is an experienced strategic leader who has worked across a wide range of settings and organisations, and she’s currently the Executive Director of the Suffolk Primary Headteachers' Assocation. She has been a headt...

Melissa Benn comes from a long line of outspoken campaigners and prominent Parliamentarians. She was educated at Holland Park comprehensive and the London School of Economics where she graduated with a First in History, the first woman in a generation to do so. Melissa’s journalism has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Independent, the Times, Public Finance, Marxism Today, Lo...

Martin Robinson is an educationalist, author, writer, consultant, orator and liberal artist. He worked in East London state schools for more than 20 years as a teacher, head of department, advanced skills teacher and school leader. For the last ten years he has worked as an education consultant delivering workshops and keynote speeches about curriculum design, teaching methodology and culture. He...

Fiona Cuthbertson is a political lobbyist who has been involved in politics for many years. A former councillor and parliamentary candidate, Fiona now runs a public affairs agency where she works on a cross-party basis to help people get involved in the political process and to lobby on a range of issues that affect people’s lives - including, but not limited to, Special Educational Needs and Disa...

Dr Chris Bagley is a man with a dazzling variety of hats. He is psychologist, writer and musician with an interest in youth justice, educational transformation and systems change. He is Director of Research at the social enterprise States of Mind, and a lecturer and doctorate supervisor at the UCL Institute of Education. He also works part-time for South Gloucestershire psychology service, primari...

If you've come across Jaz Ampaw-Farr before, you'll know that you are in for an absolute treat. If you haven't ever heard Jaz speak before - well, what can I say? I could tell you that Jaz is an award-winning educator, teacher trainer, coach and speaker, and soon to be author of her first book. But that doesn't really scratch the surface. Listening back to this episode in the edit, it was noticeab...

Today I am speaking with David Price OBE. David is the author of two books - ‘Open: How we'll work, live and learn in the future’ - and ‘The Power of Us: How we connect, act and innovate together’. It is this latter book that I’m mainly speaking with David about today. I listened to it recently as an audiobook and it’s absolutely fascinating. Here are some of the lovely things people have written...

Sophie Christophy is a culture transformer, feminist, unschooling parent and activist. She works on deconstructing patriarchy, from childhood socialisation in education and family culture, and in organisational culture, by creating a shift to principles of consent and self-direction. As a conduit for the emergence of a consent-based social and environmental paradigm, Sophie works with individuals...

Ollie Lovell is a teacher, author and podcaster based in Melbourne, Australia, and the host of the Education Research Reading Room (ERRR) podcast. In summer 2022, Ollie visited the UK on a whirlwind tour of three fascinatingly different educational institutions: Michaela School in North London, often described as the strictest school in the country; XP School in Doncaster, which places great empha...

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and co-director of the Wellcome Trust PhD Programme in Neuroscience at University College London. She has been awarded a number of prizes over the last 20 years or so, including the British Psychological Society (BPS) Doctoral Award, the BPS Spearman Medal for outstanding early career researc...

The final episode of Season 2 of the Rethinking Education podcast features a conversation with Jonny Hunt, an independent sex and relationships consultant and the author of Sex Ed for Grown Ups: How to talk to young people about sex and relationships. NB: Contains strong language - not safe for work! LINKS: Everyone's invited: https://www.everyonesinvited.uk/ Jonny's book 'Sex Ed for Grown-Ups: Ho...

Peter Gray is a research professor at Boston College and the author of 'Free to Learn' and 'Psychology', a college textbook now in its 8th edition. Here are some of the incredible things people have written about 'Free to Learn':: “The modern educational system is like a wish made in a folk tale gone horribly wrong. Peter Gray's Free to Learn leads us out of the maze of unforeseen consequences to...

Emma Ann Hardy is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle since the 2017 general election. She is also the Shadow Minister for Further Education and Universities. Recently, Emma launched and chaired the Oracy All Party Parliamentary Group, which carried out an inquiry and published an excellent report, Speak for Change, in 2021...

An interview with Rachel Sylvester on the findings of the Times Education Commission. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/society/education/education-commission

In this episode, Dr James Mannion - the creator of the Implementation Science for Schools programme - interviews two senior leaders, Kate Barry and Elaine Long, about their experience of the ISS pilot study at their school. RETHINKING ED CONFERENCE LINKS Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lets-get-together-the-rethinking-education-conference-2022-tickets-226415834857 Social media links: Youtu...

In this episode I am joined by Ian Cunningham, the founder of the Self-Managed Learning College (SMLC) in Brighton; Dr Naomi Fisher, a clinical psychologist who sends her children to SMLC; and Ellie Costello, the Director of Square Peg, a social enterprise that supports young people and families with barriers to attendance. We are here to discuss the Schools Bill currently going through the Englis...

In this episode, titans of education Mick Waters and Tim Brighouse talk about their sensational new book 'About our schools: Improving on previous best'. Here are some of the breathless reviews the book has received:: "You can hear the passion, the decency, the anger, the compassion, and the hope in this insider–outsider story about England’s education policy over the past 45 years... the most exc...

Jon Hutchinson is the Head of Training and Development at the Reach Foundation, an educational charity that focuses on expanding the role of schools into the wider community through a cradle to career model. Prior to this, Jon was an Assistant Headteacher at Reach Academy Felt-ham. He has taught across both KS1 and KS2, and also tutors on Ambition Institute’s Masters in Expert Teaching. Jon has ta...

Today I am delighted to be able to share with you my recent conversation with Andy Sprakes, the co-founder of XP school in Doncaster. I also had the opportunity to speak with two students from the school, Declan and Guraaj, who were absolutely lovely and insightful as you will soon discover. There has been a lot of interest in XP school in recent months, partly following a very complementary profi...

Today I am speaking with John Higgs, the cultural historian and author of many excellent books, several of which we draw on in this conversation - especially: Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century The Future Starts Here: An Optimistic Guide to What Comes Next William Blake versus The World So this conve...