Space to Think: Conversations In Education

What does it really take to lead a school and what keeps people going? Simon Botten is an executive headteacher in South Gloucestershire, leading two primary schools and serving as Head of Inclusion for a seventeen-school multi-academy trust. He has been a headteacher for nearly twenty years and is the author of Head Teachering: A Practical Guide with the Messy Bits Left In . Simon wrote the book...

In this episode I chat with Elly Chapple - TEDx speaker, author of Diagnosis: Human and founder of The Power of the Pause training. Her work draws on two decades of walking alongside her eldest daughter, Ella. Her book is not, she is careful to say, a book about disability; it is a book for every human. It is about presence, vulnerability and what we lose when we let the fast, overstimulated versi...

In this episode, I'm joined by Karen Gebbie-Smith, ASN Support and Development Officer with Aberdeen City Council, and Angela Johnston, Head Teacher at Daneston Primary School.  Karen has built a series of professional learning book groups for senior leaders across the city and in this conversation, we focus on one of the early texts - Good Autism Practice for Teachers by Karen Watson. Angela has...

I’m joined by Guy Claxton (Emeritus Professor of the Learning Sciences at the University of Winchester's Centre for Real-World Learning) and Emily Poel (a Berlin-based embodiment practitioner and trainer). Their new book, Bodies of Learning: How Embodiment Science Transforms Education, is now available. The book makes a serious, scientific case for putting mind and body back together - not as...

What does belonging actually mean in a classroom and what does it require of us? Zahara Chowdhury is a teacher with eighteen years of experience across secondary, further and higher education. She is the author of Creating Belonging in the Classroom (Bloomsbury) and hosts the podcast School Should Be .  Zahara brings both professional knowledge and personal experience to this conversation. Writing...

What does it mean to think well and what gets in the way? Kati Driver is a former civil servant and coach who works with people in public service, helping them think more clearly, more honestly and more deeply. Her practice is grounded in Nancy Kline's Thinking Environment, a framework built on the belief that the conditions we create around thinking matter as much as the thinking itself. In t...

A short introduction to Conversations in Education — what this podcast is, what it values and why it exists. A podcast that takes seriously the human complexity of working in schools, early learning centres and learning spaces of all kinds. If you've followed Space to Think, you'll recognise the spirit. If you're new here, this is a good place to start. Depth over speed. Inquiry over a...

In this episode, I’m joined by Miranda West, publisher and founder of the Do Book Company and the person responsible for turning the world’s doers into authors. Miranda spent nearly three decades in publishing before a family move to Switzerland, a rabbit hole online and an email to a small festival in West Wales led her to start something entirely her own. Since 2013, the Do Book Company has buil...

Curiosity creates space. This final Wild Fragment draws on a simple but powerful invitation from Michael Bungay Stanier to Stay curious a little longer. As a closing reflection for the season, this episode gathers the threads of the previous fragments - understanding, listening, tending, slowing - and offers curiosity as a kinder stance in leadership and life. Not as indecision, but as openness. A...

What if time isn’t something to manage, but something to relate to? This episode revisits my conversation with Sarah Stewart and the suggestion that We can’t control time… but we can change our relationship with it. This reflection explores how our experience of time is shaped by attention, presence, and meaning and not just schedules and productivity. It invites you to notice the quality of your...

In this episode, I return a very popular conversation with Cara Redpath about wild, wood-fired saunas in the context of wellbeing and recovery as Cara shares that Sauna has become an essential tool to healing in her toolbox. I reflect on wellbeing and healing as a lived practice - a gathering of small, supportive tools over time. It explores warmth not just as temperature, but as safety, ritual an...

Burnout rarely arrives all at once. This Wild Fragment revisits the conversation with Hazel Anderson-Turner and the reminder that there’s only so long you can keep pushing before your body or your mind says, ‘enough’. This episode reflects on burnout as a slow accumulation rather than a sudden collapse, exploring the word enough not as failure or weakness, but as a boundary and a signal. With refe...

What if the real work doesn’t begin with fixing? In this first Wild Fragment , I return to a conversation with Professor Viviane Robinson and the idea that a problem isn’t something to be solved; it’s something to be understood. This short reflection explores the pressure to act quickly in leadership and education and the quieter, braver work of curiosity before action. This episode invites you to...

In this episode, I speak with Hannah Buchan, The Live More Coach , who is currently 71 days into a 100-day uplevel of her life and business. We explore: Hannah’s core value of “feeling alive” and how it shapes everything from big decisions to the smallest daily tweaks. What sparked the 100-day challenge during a period of illness, and her realisation she had been playing it very safe. The role of...

In this episode, I’m joined by Cara Redpath , nutritional therapist, women’s health specialist and self-confessed sauna enthusiast. Today we’re stepping into the heat with Cara Redpath, a nutritional therapist whose love of sauna has become both a personal practice and a professional calling. Cara shares the evidence behind sauna’s powerful effects on our nervous system and cardiovascular health,...

In this episode, I revisit a conversation with Tracey Ezard, author of Ferocious Warmth. Tracey describes ferocious warmth as the dance between head and heart - the balance of high expectations and high support, courage and care. We talk about what happens when strengths turn to shadows, why psychological safety is the foundation of real learning and how to build cultures that hold both love and a...

In this episode of Space to Think , I speak with Clare Coghill, chef and owner of Café Cuil on the Isle of Skye. Clare shares her journey from growing up in a family-run hotel, to building her own café in East London, to returning home to Skye just as the pandemic reshaped everything. She talks about: How Skye and the seasons shape her menus and her creativity The influence of Gaelic language and...

In this gentle yet powerful episode, I speak with Karen Jarvis, a certified coach and grief educator, about the personal and professional journey that led her to found Reset and Rise Coaching . Karen’s story marked by early anticipatory grief, the sudden loss of her husband and her choice to leave headship shines a light on what it means to keep living, even when life changes in ways we never aske...

In this refreshing and grounded conversation, I speak with Sarah Stewart, time and project management expert, about how purpose-driven people, especially those leading or building something, can shift from firefighting to an intentional more holistic relationship with time. Sarah supports founders, leaders and teams who are feeling stretched, overwhelmed or just plain tired of the relentless to-do...

In this beautifully grounding episode, I speak with Fiona Doubleday - artist, educator, Substack writer and advocate for intentional living. Fiona shares her journey from a university lecturer to life as an exhibiting and teaching artist on the Isle of Arran. We talk about: Her pivotal moment at the kettle that changed everything. Living seasonally and creating a personal relationship with time. T...

In this episode writer and coach Claire Fitzsimmons shares the joy and intention behind “explorer days” - short, local adventures designed to help us see the familiar with fresh eyes. Rooted in her childhood experiences of spontaneous weekend outings, Claire’s practice has evolved into a way of nurturing curiosity, supporting independent businesses, and connecting with the people and stories that...

In this episode of The Human Behind the Work , I’m joined by Santiago Rincón-Gallardo, educator, systems thinker and author of Liberating Learning . His work centres on a simple yet radical belief: learning is a practice of freedom. We talk about: How succeeding in school can still wound our capacity to learn The moment Santiago reawakened his own power to learn and why that changed everything The...

In this episode, I’m joined by Guy Claxton, renowned cognitive scientist, author of over 30 books and a lifelong student of thinking, learning, and creativity. We explore: What it means to live intelligently (beyond IQ tests) The pivotal relationships that shaped Guy’s 50-year career His creative process, including the importance of not thinking Why fleeting ideas matter, and how to catch them The...

In this episode of The Human Behind the Work , I’m joined by Professor Jo Boaler , a pioneering voice in mathematics education, equity and mindset. We explore: The deep inequities in how maths is taught and how that shapes young people’s identities Jo’s creative process for translating research into accessible resources Her new idea of “Math-ish” and why asking for ish answers can unlock maths for...

In this first episode of The Human Behind the Work mini-series , I’m joined by someone whose books have sat on my shelves and in my hands, many times over: Michael Bungay Stanier . You may know him as the author of The Coaching Habit , The Advice Trap and How to Work with (Almost) Anyone . This conversation is about more than his books. We explore: The dance between complexity and simplicity Why h...