Managing Behaviour - Pivotal Podcast - Behaviour Management, Safeguarding, Teaching And Learning

We had a great time talking to Rob Jewell this week. Rob is Strategic Leader for Looked-After Children in the Gower consortium covering six boroughs in North Wales. Something of an educational celebrity in Wales, Rob shares his insights into the Welsh educational system as well as his experience of supporting looked-after children for many years. … Continue reading Rob Jewell on looked-after children and why Welsh education has got it right – PP118 →

It was a privilege and a pleasure this week to talk to world-renowned educational thinker Sugata Mitra about his work and his thoughts on an unusually wide range of educational issues. Sugata Mitra is Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, England. You may well know … Continue reading Sugata Mitra on why children need teachers, autonomy and technology – PP117 →

Paul is busy in Wales this week so, in his absence, Pivotal Education Senior Trainer, Mike Armiger, joined Kevin to speak to someone he knows well, Julie Farmer. Before speaking to Julie, Mike describes what he has been doing with the Caerphilly Behaviour Project. Pivotal have been going into all the schools in Caerphilly – … Continue reading Julie Farmer on how to meet the needs of the most vulnerable pupils – PP116 →

It was brilliant to speak to Kathryn Lovewell this week. After university, Kathryn started her career in education by teaching drama and art workshops in the community. She was invited into a school to start off drama classes and so she completed licensed teacher training and had a very difficult first year.  She loved working with … Continue reading How to look after your teachers; Lovewell on Well being – PP115 →

We had a great conversation this week with Jill Berry. A teacher for more than 30 years, Jill is former senior leader and headteacher of state and independent schools, has worked for the National College for School Leadership, is currently doing educational consultancy work and has just finished a part-time Doctorate in Education. She also spends ‘a disproportionate … Continue reading Jill Berry on Headteacher supply and why Heads need to be teachers – PP114 →

We were joined today by Hannah Wilson who is co-founder of the #WomenEd movement. She is also a CPD Consultant, an SLE, a facilitator, a coach and an events organiser! Over the years, Hannah has picked up curriculum, pastoral, whole-school and cross-schools responsibilities. She became assistant principal and has led on cross-curricular strands in a variety … Continue reading Hannah Wilson on #WomenEd and How to Promote Equality – PP113 →

It’s great to be back after the Easter break and to kick off the new term with a fantastic guest, Professor Mick Waters. Mick is a former QCA Director of Curriculum, former Chief Education Officer in Manchester, Headteacher in Cumbria and is currently working with schools in The Black Country as part of his role … Continue reading Mick Waters on Centralisation, OFSTED and Brilliant Schools – PP112 →

Next week we welcome Prof. Mick Waters onto the podcast as we start a new series of episodes for the Summer term. In the meantime, Kevin uses a virtual roulette wheel to pick episodes at random from the 110 available. Have you heard the episodes featured? The range of topics is remarkable and the variety of superb … Continue reading Pivotal Podcast Roulette! PP111 →

In a shorter than normal episode, recorded during the Easter holidays, we have a chance to hear Garth Smith’s latest audio diary. Garth is in the middle of a Primary PGCE and has just finished his second placement. As you will hear, it didn’t go as well as he had hoped it would. If you’d … Continue reading Garth Smith’s rocky road to becoming a teacher – PP110 →

This week, Paul, Ellie and Kevin spoke to Headteacher of Oulton Broad Primary School, Jamie White about his school’s journey from ‘Requires Improvement’ to ‘Outstanding’. Jamie had an unusual route to being a Primary headteacher as he is a Secondary-trained English teacher. He then worked in Middle schools until they were abandoned by the local authority … Continue reading How to move from R.I. to Outstanding with Jamie White – PP109 →

Paul shares some details about Pivotal Curriculum instructor courses across the globe. The next UK Open Pivotal Curriculum courses are on 12th and 13th July 2016 in Watford. Contact ellie@pivotaleducation.com for more details. James Mannion returns to the podcast this week to answer a voice mail question from Danielle about teachers as researchers. She is currently … Continue reading Two dates, a dentist and a boat – PP108 →

Mark Finnis joined us this week to talk about Restorative Practice. Mark was originally a Youth Worker in Liverpool where he did some work with the Youth Offending team and discovered the concepts of restorative justice. He has been working with Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Special Schools and Pupil Referral Units since 2001, helping them … Continue reading Mark Finnis on How to Implement Restorative Practice for Great Results! PP107 →

David Powell is the Director of Partnership between the University of Huddersfield and 20 Further Education colleges who are delivering Initial Teacher Training across the north of England. The Education and Training Consortium has partners who deliver ‘pre-service’ initial teacher education which is for those without a position and ‘in-service’ teacher education for those working … Continue reading David Powell on how to train teachers properly, Further Education and more! PP106 →

José Picardo joined us this week to talk about technology in the classroom. José is Assistant Principal at Surbiton High School which is an independent school for girls. He teaches Spanish and German but was originally in the logistics industry, deciding to become a teacher more than 15 years ago. José is also in charge of Digital Strategy … Continue reading José Picardo on how to get the best out of technology in teaching- 105 →

Dorothy Trussell is Deputy Head at Flixton Girls’ School near Manchester in the UK. However, she began her career in hospitality before completing a PGCE. Flixton Girls’ School has been given the rating of ‘Good with Outstanding Features’ so why is it important to have behaviour as a focus at this point? Dorothy believes that whatever … Continue reading Dorothy Trussell on how to transform behaviour in your school – PP104 →

Edd Brown is Improving Teaching and Learning Manager at Weston College, where he has been since he started his teaching career as a sports lecturer, nearly 13 years ago. How do you get staff excited about professional development? Edd understands the difficulty of finding time for CPD in FE. Weston has a blended approach to … Continue reading Edd Brown on How to Create Outstanding CPD – PP103 →

Mark Anderson, who is perhaps better known as @ICTEvangelist on Twitter, joined us this week for a wide-ranging conversation about ICT. Mark is an influential, award-winning blogger, author and speaker. Recently recognised in this research as the most influential person in edtech in Europe and then here as the second most influential blogger in the … Continue reading Mark Anderson on How Not to Waste Money on Tech – PP102 →

Our very special guest this week was Pivotal trainer, James Mannion. James qualified as a Teacher of Science in 2006. Since then he has developed expertise in a number of aspects of school life, including Learning to Learn, Evidence-Based Pedagogy; Teacher Research; Behaviour for Learning; Assessment for Learning; Gifted and Talented Education; Widening Participation; Personal, Social … Continue reading James Mannion on Learning to Learn and Teachers as Researchers – PP101 →

We loved speaking to the inspirational Andy Cope for episode 100. Andy trained as a teacher but quickly went into adult education. Then he realised he was ‘doing it wrong’. He discovered a subject called positive psychology which he describes as ‘the science of happiness and wellbeing’. He began a PhD in the science of … Continue reading Andy Cope on Being Brilliant! – PP100 →

In an unusual episode, Kevin presents Garth Smith – ‘Our Man on the Inside’ as he gives us his ‘end of term report’. Garth has finished the first term of his PGCE at an undisclosed location in England and this time he shares his thoughts about the most challenging time he has experienced so far. … Continue reading Garth Smith’s End of Term Report and the Top 5 Episodes of 2015! – PP99 →