The Leadership Lens

In this episode of The Leadership Lens, we explore the powerful ideas behind Talking to Crazy by Mark Goulston and what school leaders can learn about managing emotionally heightened conversations with parents. Drawing on Goulston’s background as both a psychiatrist and former FBI hostage negotiation trainer, this episode explores why difficult conversations so often escalate in schools, why logic...

Beyond Labels: Getting Inclusion Right for Children Known or Previously Known to Social Care In this week’s episode, we explore one of the most important—and often misunderstood—areas of the renewed inspection framework: inclusion. This isn’t a standalone priority. It runs through everything—quality of education, behaviour, leadership—and is ultimately about how well schools work for those pupils...

🎧 The Leadership Lens Teacher Recruitment and Retention: Why Getting the Right People Matters – and Why Keeping Them Matters Even More In this week’s episode, we explore one of the most complex and consequential aspects of school leadership: teacher recruitment and retention. This is often framed as an operational challenge—vacancies, adverts, interviews—but in reality, it goes much deeper than t...

I Thought We Had Our Personal Development Offer Sorted… Then I Properly Looked at It This week’s episode is an honest reflection on what started as a simple PSHE/RSHE update… and quickly became something much deeper. With the revised DfE RSHE guidance coming into force from September 2026, this episode explores why reviewing your personal development curriculum is not about adding more content, bu...

In last week’s episode, I explored why so many school development plans don’t quite do what we hope they will. We looked at the idea that we often focus too heavily on goals, rather than the day-to-day systems and habits that actually drive change in schools. We also reframed the starting point for planning away from “what do we want to achieve?” and towards “what are our persistent problems?” Thi...

🎙️ The Leadership Lens – Show Notes Episode:   Why Most School Development Plans Don't Work and How to Write One That Actually Does Most school development plans look right on paper… but don’t actually change what happens day to day. In this episode, we explore: Why traditional SDP approaches often fail to shift practice The power of focusing on   persistent problems instead of broa...

KCSIE 2026: The Safeguarding Briefing You Actually Need – Part 2 In this episode of The Leadership Lens, we move into Part 5 of the KCSIE 2026 consultation draft. We unpack: The explicit inclusion of harmful sexual behaviour and misogyny as central safeguarding concerns Why behaviour between children is no longer “low-level” — it’s core safeguarding work The shift from risk assessments to risk and...

Episode Title: KCSIE 2026: The Safeguarding Briefing You Actually Need This week’s episode cuts through the noise surrounding the draft Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2026 guidance and focuses on what school leaders actually need to know — not next summer, but now. While the document is still in consultation and nothing becomes statutory until September 2026, consultation drafts reveal...

🎧 The Leadership Lens — This Week’s Episode Show Notes This week’s episode tackles one of the most urgent emerging areas for school leaders and DSLs:   Generative AI and safeguarding — what leaders actually need to know now. AI is no longer a future issue. It is embedded in the digital environments young people inhabit every day — from social media to messaging to image creation. The questio...

In this week’s episode of The Leadership Lens, we take a deep dive into the government’s newly published Schools White Paper -  'Every Child Achieving and Thriving' and the wider programme of reform currently shaping the future of the education system. This episode explores what the reforms actually mean for school leaders, how they connect to the ongoing SEND consultation, and why this...

This episode came about after I was asked to lead an hour long training session (with out fabulous Trust Inclusion Lead- shout out to Beth!!) with staff in primary and secondary schools on how to create a culture of belonging. We know that inclusion sits at the very core of the renewed inspection framework and so it's important that we all understand how we can demonstrate the very best inclusion...

The Curriculum Monitoring Blueprint - Sequencing Monitoring Activities for Real Curriculum Impact   Monitoring isn’t a calendar. It isn’t compliance. And it isn’t something you “do” for inspection. It’s architecture. In this episode of The Leadership Lens, I break down the exact order we use to sequence monitoring so that subject leaders build cumulative understanding — not isolated snapshots...

Half Term Reset: The 1% Shift That Protects Your Leadership The Leadership Lens – Episode 29 February half term is not just a break. It’s a checkpoint. Far enough away from January to see what’s actually stuck. Close enough to January to remember what you promised yourself. In this episode, I explore why small habits — not dramatic reinventions — determine the trajectory of your leadership year. D...

🎧 The Leadership Lens Early Writing, Strong Foundations, and the Writing Framework In this episode of The Leadership Lens, we focus on one of the most important — and often least secure — areas of curriculum practice: early writing. Following the publication of the DfE Writing Framework (July 2025) by the Department for Education, this episode explores what the guidance really means for schools,...

When the Behaviour Policy Isn’t Enough Even in schools where behaviour systems are strong, there is often a small number of pupils whose needs sit outside the universal approach. Their behaviour escalates, staff become emotionally stretched, and leadership time is disproportionately absorbed. In this episode, we explore what effective leadership looks like when the behaviour policy is working — bu...

In this episode, I’m talking about choosing the right interventions for pupils - and especially for pupils with SEND — and why, in so many schools, it can start to feel confusing and over-complicated. In lots of schools, staff are doing a huge amount. And yet, when leaders are asked a few simple questions — Why this intervention? Why this pupil? What exactly are we trying to improve? How will we k...

SEND has rightly been reframed around 'inclusion' and the Ofsted toolkit echoes this approach through every evaluation area. In this episode, we explore how leaders can ensure that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities are fully included in classrooms, learning alongside their peers, accessing ambitious curricula, and being supported through careful scaffolding, adaptation and hig...

Personal development is one of the judgements school leaders talk to me about more than any other — and often with the most uncertainty. Not because schools aren’t doing good work. Not because leaders don’t care deeply about children. But because this judgement sits across everything. Curriculum. Safeguarding. Character. Enrichment. Pastoral care. And unless it has been deliberately designed, it c...

Over the last few years, staff wellbeing has become one of the most commonly used phrases in education leadership. Yoga after school. Mindfulness apps. Staff breakfasts. Wellbeing days. And yet — teachers and support staff are still leaving. In this episode of The Leadership Lens, I talk honestly about why so many wellbeing initiatives fail to retain staff, and what actually makes the difference w...

Achievement is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Ofsted toolkit on inspection — and even the most experienced leaders can misjudge it. In this flagship episode of The Leadership Lens, I take a deep, unhurried look at what achievement really means under the current Ofsted framework. Drawing on inspection experience and school leadership practice, this episode explores how achievement is buil...

As we reach the end of the autumn term and step into the Christmas holidays, this episode of The Leadership Lens takes a different pace. This is a reflective, honest, and practical conversation about time management in real headship — not productivity hacks, not unrealistic “work–life balance”, but what sustainable leadership actually looks like when the pressures are constant and capacity is stre...

🎙️ THE LEADERSHIP LENS Episode: Pupil Premium in Practice: Using the DfE Menu of Approaches With Integrity In this in-depth episode of The Leadership Lens, Rachael Snowdon-Poole explores one of the most significant levers for educational equity and inspection: the Pupil Premium — and how school leaders can use it with integrity, clarity and impact, in line with the Department for Education’s Menu...

⭐ Show Notes — The Leadership Lens: Teaching That Sticks: The Mechanisms Behind Truly Effective Professional Development Welcome back to The Leadership Lens — the podcast for primary and secondary school leaders who want to improve teaching, strengthen culture, and build thriving schools without burning out their staff. In today’s episode, we explore something every leader spends huge amounts of...

📋 Show Notes Episode 4 – Building Strong Foundations in Pre-Reception: How Young Children Grow and Learn In this episode, Rachael explores what high-quality early-years provision looks like for children aged two to four. She unpacks how talk, relationships, and routines combine to create the strongest possible foundations for learning. Key discussion points • Why the two-to-four window is critica...