Advertise on podcast: The Leading Learning Podcast

When your phonics screening check results make your stomach drop, what do you actually do next?  In this return episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast, Jocelyn treats the check like a blood pressure reading: it tells you whether to look closer, and the score sheets tell you where. She explains how to tell students who know the code but stumbled on the format (special hint: alien names) from those with real gaps, and why accent is never an error. She also covers why whole-class phonics and rigid pacing guides may be quietly holding students back. You'll leave with a practical, step-by-step plan for the weeks after the check, and a reminder that the data is feedback, not a verdict on you as a teacher.

"Ask more questions, tell less" is coaching gospel - but what if it's setting your least experienced teachers up to fail?  In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, Jocelyn challenges the one-size-fits-all approach to instructional coaching, arguing that asking someone to generate their own solutions only works if they already have the experience to recognise a good one. Using the Responsive Leadership Model and two real classroom examples, Jocelyn shows how the same coaching conversation can play out completely differently depending on where a teacher sits in their development, and offers one simple question leaders can ask themselves before their next coaching conversation to get it right.

Ever wonder why a teacher can run a flawless, tightly-structured literacy block in the morning, then deliver a chaotic, worksheet-heavy science lesson by the afternoon? In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, Jocelyn unpacks the real reason strong instructional practice so often fails to transfer across the curriculum - and it's not inconsistency or a lack of care. Drawing on the difference between tacit, explicit, and theoretical knowledge, Jocelyn explains why "doing the PL" isn't enough, and offers two simple questions school leaders can use to help teachers turn what they already know how to do into knowledge they can talk about, share, and apply anywhere.

Every school is drowning in a checklist of "evidence-based" boxes to tick (phonics programs, screeners, daily review, engagement norms) and still seeing no movement in student outcomes. Why? In this episode, Jocelyn unpacks the gap between doing the tasks and achieving the outcome, and why systems end up rewarding the countable stuff (a program exists, a norm is displayed) instead of the thing that actually matters: whether students are learning.  She breaks down three cognitive principles every classroom decision should be tested against, and shows how a small shift in the questions leaders ask can move teachers from compliance to genuine understanding. If your team is working harder than ever and still not seeing the results, this episode explains why - and what to focus on instead.

Systems are pushing hard on explicit teaching and the science of reading - but a directive can change what a school looks like without ever touching what happens once the classroom door closes.  In this episode, Jocelyn unpacks the real cost of leading change through compliance and tone alone, and what it actually takes to build teacher capability that lasts. If you've ever felt the tension between what the system demands and what your best teachers already know, this one's for you.

This is the season two premiere of the Leading Learning Podcast, hosted by Jocelyn Seamer. The episode opens with a real classroom story: a teacher, new to implementing a spelling program, quietly turned a discussion-based lesson segment into a written worksheet, spending unpaid personal time to do so. Jocelyn uses this as a springboard to explore why capable, well-intentioned teachers reach for familiar routines (like worksheets) when facing new pedagogy, drawing on her responsive instructional leadership model: four phases of skill development. She argues this behaviour isn't laziness or resistance but a natural response to an experience gap, where unfamiliar practices feel effortful and uncertain, so teachers recreate the "shape" of what they already know. The episode offers practical leadership guidance, including a "what's the same, what's gone, what looks familiar but does a different job" framework for introducing new programs, and reframes worksheet-making as diagnostic information about a teacher's developmental stage rather than a problem to criticise. Jocelyn closes with a note that the same dynamic applies to over-reliance on PowerPoint slides.

In this episode, Jocelyn looks back at an episode from her other show, the Structured Literacy Podcast. We challenge the assumption that whole-class phonics with a little extra is the most effective route and explore why targeted Tier 1 grouping often delivers stronger gains. Using cognitive load theory and intervention research, we show how matched content can raise progress without creating waitlists or missed learning elsewhere. • why many Year 3 students still need foundational code • what grouping studies actually tested and why that matters • how targeted, explicit, code-focused teaching drives gains • early, intensive support over waiting for intervention • designing Tier 1 to include intervention features • cognitive load as a lens for matching content • when to keep whole-class and when to regroup • practical next steps for data, grouping, and progress checks

In this episode, Jocelyn unpacks a question school leaders increasingly face: should we build our own curriculum program instead of buying one?  Using the distinction between price and cost, Jocelyn shows how "free" homegrown programs often carry hidden costs: lost coaching time, leader burnout, and knowledge that vanishes when the person who built it leaves. Drawing on a real coaching example, Jocelyn argues that no program, bought or built, replaces the core work of growing teachers' skill in reading the room and responding to students. The episode closes with a practical framework - tweak, rewrite, or replace - for deciding when an existing program truly needs to change.

In this episode, Jocelyn tackles one important question: Do your students have the prerequisite knowledge for this learning? The spread of answers reveals whether a school is focused on delivering content or ensuring students actually learn. Key points include: Introducing content does not equal learning it.Overload drives behaviour issues.Reframing the teacher's role, from "deliverer of content" to "engineer of student success."Listening, not blaming.

In this episode, Jocelyn explores why new teaching practices often fail to take hold after professional learning sessions, and how giving teachers one clear, concrete starting point - rather than open-ended freedom - better supports beginners in building consistent, effective habits.

In this episode, Jocelyn explores how to close the gap between assessment data and classroom instruction. She argues that diagnostic and formative assessment need to be built directly into school-wide systems, not treated as separate from planning, and offers three practical questions and simple tools to help leaders and teachers make data actually drive what happens in classrooms.

Jocelyn reflects on what happens when a well-built instructional program stops providing answers, and what leadership teams must do next. This episode explores the difference between building a minimum viable system and the deeper, more demanding work of continuous improvement, offering practical frameworks for diagnosing why a subset of students isn't progressing and how to design targeted responses grounded in evidence rather than chasing new programs.

In this episode, Jocelyn explores why instructional initiatives lose consistency during implementation, and offers a practical five-step framework to reset and strengthen practice across a school.

Today's episode forcuses on school leadership, exploring who truly holds decision-making power in school improvement... and why it matters. Jocelyn unpacks how even capable leaders accidentally hand over authority through outsourcing to consultants, blindly following system guidance, or over-delegating to staff.

In this second episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, Jocelyn explores how school leaders can avoid the trap of chasing every new initiative and instead make strategic, high-impact decisions.  Drawing on Jim Collins' Hedgehog Principle from Good to Great, she introduces the NICE framework a practical four-part test to help leaders evaluate new work before committing to it.  Whether you're weighing a new program, platform, or approach, NICE gives you the discipline to say no to the bright and shiny so you can say yes to what genuinely moves the needle for students.