Advertise on podcast: The Headteacher Update Podcast

In this episode we ask two experienced school leaders one simple question – What makes a great headteacher? – and see where the conversation goes. Our two guests enjoy a wide-ranging discussion about what a great headteacher looks like from the perspective of each of the key stakeholders in the school community – pupils, staff, parents and others. The pupil lens: We talk kindness and honesty, but also the importance of holding children to high standards. The staff lens: We talk trust, integrity, and leading by example. The parent/carers lens: We talk being visible, communicating clearly, and listening well. The governor lens: We talk respect and relationships. We also consider Ofsted and how we can maintain our values as a great headteacher while also meeting inspectors' expectations. Ultimately, we consider the characteristics, skills, traits and experiences that combine to make brilliant headteachers.

In this episode we discuss how we can improve the quality of teaching across the primary school, with practical advice and insights for school leaders. We begin by discussing the role of the curriculum in improving teaching quality, including the importance of inclusion and oracy. We focus too on the importance of planning teaching and learning – both short-term action planning and longer-term planning. Our panel also discusses effective approaches to teacher CPD, including coaching and mentoring and we consider why a people-focused, collegiate approach to the monitoring of teaching and learning is crucial – and what this can look like in practice. Finally, we discuss how we can hold teachers to account in positive and supporting ways and offer a few top tips.

In the midst of a teacher retention crisis, this episode asks how primary schools can keep hold of their teaching staff, especially their early career teachers. With more than 114,000 teachers having quit teaching for reasons other than retirement in the last three years, our expert panel discuss general principles for creating a school environment that encourages teachers to want to stay. We talk about pay, equity of opportunity, creating belonging and psychological safety across our workforces, the vital role of CPD and support for career progression, and much more. We ask what effective school leadership for retention looks like, including the support we must offer and how to build trust and those vital relationships. We discuss strategies to address workload, a key driver of teacher retention, including flexible working, and how schools can help teachers to achieve a better work/life balance. We focus in particular on strategies to support early career teachers, a third of whom are likely to quit after their first five years. Ultimately, we ask how headteachers can make their school a place where teachers want to work and feel they belong.

This episode considers what an inclusive primary school looks like and how we can create a culture of inclusion that enables every pupil to thrive regardless of starting points. We interview two experienced educators and discuss how we can support all learners, no matter their background and barriers to learning. We talk about how to create the right ethos and culture of belonging and family in our schools, including and how we can overcome barriers to pupil wellbeing. We discuss how we can address equity and equality of opportunity and we hear a number of real-life examples of inclusive practice. The conversation also touches upon how to use external and additional expertise to deliver true inclusive practice.

In this episode, we discuss how primary schools can maximise the impact of our staff team to deliver excellent SEND provision, with our panel offering a range of innovative ideas and approaches. Our three experienced guests begin their discussion with nine quick ideas and go on to develop these during the podcast, considering how the impact of our SEND staffing can be optimised to ensure we support our most vulnerable pupils. We ask how we can work within incredibly tight budgets to maximise the staffing of SEND – what approaches have been shown to be effective. We talk about ideas for the effective and efficient deployment of staff and we consider how we can get CPD right for all our colleagues who work to support SEND children, especially our teachers and teaching staff. We discuss the challenging role of the SENCO and how they can be supported by school leadership to oversee and lead SEND staffing and provision in the school. We talk about provision mapping and discuss how we can keep our practice and our SEND pupils central to our planning and at the heart of our inclusive school culture.

This episode dissects the revised Ofsted inspection framework, setting out actions that school leaders can take now to prepare and offering expert insights and tips. Our panel has extensive experience of Ofsted inspection, and they break down the key changes that schools should be focused on and how best we can respond. We highlight key aspects of the revised framework, including the implications of the new evaluation areas and grading points. We interrogate the new "secure fit" model of inspection and Ofsted's new "expected standard". We delve into the inclusion thread that runs throughout the framework and will dominant inspections from now on and we discuss the new focus on school context, asking how school leaders can best communicate this information during inspection. We offer top tips for the Monday phone call, tips for identifying strengths/weaknesses, touch upon the new role of the "nominee" and the case sampling of pupils. Finally, we list actions that schools should be taking now to set themselves in good stead for inspection under the new regime.

This episode offers advice for school leaders on how they can handle parental complaints, including de-escalation tips and dealing with vexatious complaints. With NAHT research showing a rise in parental complaints and vexatious complaints, this episode is packed full of useful tips and practical advice for school leaders. Our three experienced panellists describe what they are seeing on the ground in terms of rising complaints and discuss the reasons why more parents are complaining. We ask how we can best respond to complaints, including the steps we should take to take and how best to communicate with parents throughout the process. We discuss ways to de-escalate complaints and how we can protect ourselves personally and professionally during what can be a very stressful time. We discuss the nature of vexatious complaints and how we should handle these, including how we can response to parents who refer their complaints directly to bodies such as Ofsted or the DfE.

This episode looks at environmental work across the primary school, including how we can reduce our carbon emissions and integrate climate education into the curriculum. We look at where school leaders can begin when it comes to reducing carbon emissions across the primary school, including creating a Climate Action Plan and ideas for some quick wins. Our guests include experts from the National Education Nature Park and Let's Go Zero as well as a primary school doing amazing work in this area. We look at how we can engage pupils in this work without worrying or scaring them about the dangers of climate change. We ask how we can create an effective and engaging climate education. We also discuss ways to mitigate the impact of climate change in our schools. Throughout the episode our guests signpost to useful resources, initiatives and tools that schools can tap into to support this work, including educational resources. We also ask what support, grants and resources are out there for schools.

This episode looks at a range of routines, systems and protocols that can help you to create a calm and efficient primary school environment – with lots of practical ideas to adapt and adopt. Our panel of school leaders discuss a range of evidence-based ideas for useful school routines that help the school day to run smoothly – whether that be in the classroom, corridors or playground. We look specifically at consistent classroom routines across the school, including how to give teachers appropriate freedom and agency within a teaching and learning framework. We look at leadership routines, including effective headteacher practices and we ask: where do you stand during your day as a headteacher in order to be visible, to gauge how your school is doing, and to engage positively with parents, staff and students? We look at lunch-time routines and useful ideas for structuring the beginning and end of the school day. The also discuss the power of the timetable. We also ask what quick wins are available for new headteachers or those beginning in a new school when it comes to establishing effective routines.

This podcast discusses the retirement choices open to school leaders and headteachers, tips for effective pension planning as well as the implications of early and phased retirement options. We speak with two experts from Wesleyan Financial Services to discuss principles of effective retirement planning and what headteachers need to think about and plan for. We focus on the provisions within the Teachers' Pension Scheme including how benefits are calculated under the 80th Final Salary, 60th Final Salary, and Career Average schemes. We explain the McCloud judgement and how it is likely to affect headteachers who have been in service a long time. We advise how headteachers can set about working out how much income they might need at different stages of retirement and what action they need to take to achieve this. We also consider tax-planning for higher earners. A large part of the discussion focuses on understanding the available retirement options, including early retirement and phased retirement and the implications for headteachers' pensions and planning. This episode has been produced in partnership with our friends at Wesleyan Financial Services. Visit www.wesleyan.co.uk/teachers

This episode offers advice, ideas and examples for effective library provision in the primary school, including tips for whole-school literacy support. We meet with two primary school professionals and an expert from the National Literacy Trust to get their view of what makes for excellent primary school library provision. We discuss how to create a thriving school library provision when space and budgets are limited – including advice for schools that do not have a dedicated library space. We also look particularly at how school library provisions can support literacy and reading outcomes, including reading for pleasure, as well as offering support for all curriculum subjects. Our panel – which includes the school librarian from the School Library Association School Library of the Year – offer a lot of practical, tried and tested ideas for school library provision and library initiatives, including numerous ideas to help pupils develop their reading skills and love of reading.

This episode describes ideas and advice for identifying and supporting pupils with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in the primary school classroom. SLCN are now the most common need for the 1.2 million pupils who are on SEN Support in England's schools – and the evidence tells us that there will be many more who are going undiagnosed. The podcast features two SENCOs and a speech and language therapist who offer advice for school leadership teams (especially SENCOs) and classroom teachers. We consider the prevalence and impact of SLCN on pupil outcomes and the extent to which these needs fly under the radar. We look at common signs for SLCN and how SENCOs and teachers can work together to pick these up. We also discuss the overlap between SLCN and other common issues, including SEMH, the impact on friendships and social interaction, challenging behaviours, poor attendance and more.   And we discuss lots of in-class techniques and interventions to support these pupils, as well as wider support and intervetions, and other examples of good practice from our guests' schools.   This episode has been produced in partnership with our friends at Speech and Language Link. Visit https://speechandlanguage.link/

In this episode we discuss leadership succession planning and how primary schools can spot, develop and nurture the school leaders (and headteachers) of tomorrow. Across two halves, the podcast speaks to four school leaders to find out how they spot, encourage and develop potential leaders in their schools and trusts. We ask how we can talent-spot these leaders – what kind of leadership traits and characteristics are we looking out for in our teachers and school staff? Then, once we have identified these potential leaders, how do we support them to hone their leadership skills and what processes and CPD should schools have in place to encourage and inspire them? How do you nurture leaders pastorally to keep them energised? And what makes for an inspirational mentor or coach who might inspire the potential school leaders of the future? We discuss all this alongside lots of good examples and ideas from our guests' schools and trusts.

With the numbers of pupils with SEN rising year-on-year, this episode offers advice for primary school leadership teams (especially SENCOs) about the effective management of SEN across the primary school. Our expert panel begin by offering their principles of best practice for managing SEN. We then discuss how can school leaders can best support their SENCOs and what SENCO need in order to be effective in their role. We focus too on how SENCOs can best support teaching staff – what will empower teaching staff to identify and support pupils with SEN and where do the responsibilities of SEN lie between the duties of the SENCO and the duties of teaching staff? We talk about who should be on the SEN Register and how this is best managed and we focus on the management of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), discussing some basic principles of good practice. We finish the podcast with a focus on the most common SEN – namely autism and speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). This episode has been kindly supported by our friends at Speech and Language Link.

In this episode we discuss how to deliver excellent and high-quality school food on a budget in your primary school. We chat with two headteachers and the founder of the Chefs in Schools charity to explore ideas and options for how schools can deliver quality food experiences for pupils. We ask how we can work with families to improve packed lunches and also discuss how we can raise money via our food growing and education initiatives. We talk about what we can do to improve the take-up of free school meals, and we offer advice how we can deliver high-quality breakfast clubs that make a difference. We discuss food education. What should we be teaching about food and how? What does a good food curriculum look like? And we consider the impact that high-quality school food can have for children and their attainment and wellbeing.