NEW! The Working Classroom
In the latest episode of the Open Circle podcast, Tim Roe chats to Matt Bromley and Andy Griffith about their forthcoming book, The Working Classroom. Listen via Soundcloud below.
NEW! How to develop students’ literacy skills
This episode of the award-winning SecEd podcast, hosted by Matt Bromley, looks at how we can best develop the literacy skills of our students, offering whole-school, cross-curricular and classroom-specific ideas, interventions and tips.
NEW! How to be an effective form tutor
Classroom routines
This episode looks at how to embed high-impact routines into your classroom and your teaching. We ask which routines or learning habits are the most successful and how can they be established in order to make teaching and learning more efficient and effective.
Curriculum design – part 1
Matt Bromley is interviewed by Pete Henshaw, editor of SecEd Magazine, about his book, School & College Curriculum Design, and shares steps 1, 2 and 3 of his curriculum design process: agree the vision, set the destination, and assess the starting points.
You can listen to all SecEd’s podcasts via their website, or download them from your usual podcast service including iTunes and Spotify. The podcast players embedded on this page come courtesy of Spotify.
Curriculum design – part 2
Matt Bromley is interviewed by Pete Henshaw, editor of SecEd Magazine, about his book, School & College Curriculum Design, and shares steps 4, 5 and 6 of his curriculum design process: identify the waypoints, define excellence, and diminish disadvantage. This podcast, like the first part, is available via your usual podcast service including iTunes and Spotify.
Curriculum design – part 3
Pete Henshaw, editor of SecEd, welcomes back expert Matt Bromley to discuss effective curriculum implementation and how we can best evaluate our curriculum impact…
Effective lesson planning
This podcast considers effective lesson-planning in the secondary school, offering practical advice and ideas for teachers as well as subject and curriculum leaders. Topics include curriculum-sequencing, the 00non-negotiables, your end-points, tackling misconceptions, and much more. 00
Effective school governance
This podcast considers what good governance looks like in the secondary school, how school leaders and governors can work together productively, and how schools can support their governors to be effective.
Budgets and finances
With soaring costs and real-terms funding cuts, balancing the books has become one of the biggest challenges facing schools today. This podcast offers practical advice for effective school financial management during the cost of living crisis.
Back to school – a leadership checklist
Are you ready for the new school year? This podcast offers a practical checklist for senior leaders working in secondary schools to help you prepare for the autumn term and beyond. Our experts discuss the common ‘new year’ tasks that school leaders need to consider as well as common problems at this time of year and how to respond.
Running an effective transition from Year 6 to Year 7
This podcast looks at how we can support pupils as they make the transition from primary to secondary school. The discussion features two secondary schools and two of their feeder primaries. We consider common transition challenges and solutions with lots of tried and tested ideas for transition.
Making a success of extra-curricular activities
This podcast considers extra-curricular activities and what effective provision looks like across the secondary school, including common challenges, staffing, quality-control, and ensuring equitable access.
Teacher performance management and appraisal
This podcast looks at how senior and middle leaders can ensure that teacher appraisal and performance management processes are fair and effective, including what they should involve, how objectives should be set, and much more…
Helping students cope with exam anxiety
This podcast focuses on how we can help students to prepare for their examinations (including GCSEs and A levels) and support them to handle the anxiety and stress that exams season can often bring.
Preparing students for post-16 success
This podcast considers the key elements of the transition from key stage 4 to 5. We offer practical tips for how we can prepare students, both academically and pastorally, for the big step-up to post-16 study.
Parental engagement
This podcast discusses the tenets of effective parent/carer engagement work for secondary schools, offering advice, tips, ideas and best practice for building effective relationships.
The future of digital learning in schools
This podcast looks at how digital learning in schools is evolving in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and what it will look like in the months and years to come – with lots of ideas, examples and suggestions for effective practice.
School improvement
This podcast offers practical advice and ideas for effective school improvement practices and processes, including guidance from four experienced secondary school leaders who discuss their common priorities and areas of focus, core principles, vision and values and much more besides…
Marking and feedback
In this podcast, three experienced teachers offer a range of tips, ideas and advice for effective marking, feedback and assessment practices in the classroom. Themes include workload reduction, in-class marking, whole-class feedback, specific techniques & more…
Transition of Year 7 pupils
This podcast considers how we can ensure a smooth start to secondary school for our year 7 pupils. Our expert panels discuss general best practice ideas and approaches as well as specific advice for this September and a Covid-affected transition…
In this episode, Matt Bromley interviews colleagues from four secondary schools to find out how we can ensure an effective transition of pupils from year 6 into year 7.
Teaching pupils with SEN
In this podcast, Matt and his guests consider what effective teaching for SEN students looks like in the mainstream secondary school classroom, offering practical advice for teachers and school leaders on pedagogy, interventions, the graduated approach among many other areas.
Developing metacognition and self-regulation
In this podcast, Matt Bromley interviews Jackie Beere and Kevin Piper about metacognition and self-regulation. The panel define their terms and discuss ways to help students develop metacognitive skills in order to support their wellbeing, and their learning and progress. They debate whether metacognition can be taught as a transferable skill or if it is domain-specific, and discuss the importance of a teacher modelling different learning strategies. The podcast offers a number of practical ideas and tips for teaching staff.
Pupil Premium best practice
The discussion in this podcast looks at the impact the Pupil Premium has had over the last 10 years on closing the attainment gap. The panel discuss the causes of academic disadvantage and explore some solutions for schools, including tackling the vocabulary gap, improving quality first teaching, and putting in place targeted interventions and support.
Teacher workload
Matt talks to headteacher Phil Denton, head of English Chloe Testa, and education trainer Peter Radford about teacher workload. They discuss the impact burn-out can have on teachers’ wellbeing, as well as the consequences of low teacher retention and explore possible solutions. The conversation also touches upon the importance of school culture, explaining that often it’s the nature of the work teachers are asked to do that causes anxiety. Guests argue that teachers should be afforded autonomy when it comes to planning and assessment. They discuss the impact Covid-19 has had on workload and what schools might learn about flexible working.
The Forgotten Third
Matt interviews former headteacher David Birch about his work on the Forgotten Third project which was an independent Commission of Inquiry set up in October 2018 to look into how to improve the prospects of those students who do not achieve at least a grade 4 standard pass in GCSE English and maths at the end of 12 years of schooling. Young people who fall below this bar pay a high price in terms of reduced prospects in progression to further and higher education and to careers. The Commission focused specifically on how we can do better for these young people in respect of English, though many of its observations could also be applied to maths.
Literacy, numeracy, and digital skills development
Matt is in the interviewer’s chair to ask assistant headteacher Zoe Evans about her work on developing literacy, numeracy and digital competency skills for pupils at a school in North Wales.
Bromley Education 