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

Award-winning blogger, teacher and parent Nancy Gedge joined us for an inspirational conversation this week. Nancy qualified as a teacher in 1994 and took a break to have her own family. After returning to primary teaching, she now feels she is relatively fresh, despite starting her career some time ago. What drove Nancy to start … Continue reading Nancy Gedge on how to properly include a child with special needs; as a teacher and as a parent – PP98 →

This year, you can play along with our very special guest, Rodney, our Mystery Quizmaster and our Special Mystery Guest! In what has become a tradition, the Pivotal Podcast Christmas Quiz 2015 is full of festive fun, chaos and very bad jokes. Along the way, there are lots of education-related questions to grapple with, a … Continue reading It’s the Pivotal Podcast Christmas Quiz 2015! – PP97 →

This week we welcomed Brandon Krueger onto the podcast. Brandon is based in Colorado and is Pivotal Education’s Principal Trainer in the US. Brandon has been a teacher, a vice-principal,  a principal and then he worked in the central office, supporting school leaders. He also worked at University level in initial teacher education programmes and … Continue reading Brandon Krueger on Behaviour in the US – PP96 →

It was an amazing experience to speak to Everol Halliburton this week. Everol has worked at the Bridge Alternative Provision Academy for several years. He started his career working as a youth worker and started working in mainstream schools which led to being asked to work in a Pupil Referral Unit. He is now the TBAP … Continue reading Everol Halliburton – Skills from the sharp end – tough kids meet terrific adults – PP95 →

Paul spoke to Pivotal Education Head of Training, Ollie Frith, this week about how to get the best out of training companies who you have engaged to come into school and run CPD. What should you expect from CPD? Ollie points out that when you are booking an outside speaker for your organisation’s CPD, it’s a … Continue reading Ollie Frith on CPD, Dodgy Speakers and getting the most from live training – PP94 →

It was great to listen to Garth Smith’s latest audio diary this week. He is now 8 weeks into his PGCE initial teacher training course and has just completed his first ever lesson in a primary classroom! He was asked to prepare and teach a science lesson and his reactions to the experience are fascinating. Garth has … Continue reading Garth Smith on ‘First Ever Lessons’ and the Finest Ever ‘Teachmeet’! – PP93 →

We spoke to Tom Vodden this week about a subject which is not always seen as relevant or exciting. However, as you will hear in this episode, it’s can be very interesting and hugely beneficial to schools! Tom trained as a secondary RE specialist and has taught in mainstream and special schools in England and … Continue reading Tom Vodden on Behaviour Data: Rational, responsive and real – PP92 →

Kevin spoke to David McQueen this week in an inspirational interview. David is a businessman, international speaker and coach. He has worked with blue chip clients in the corporate sector as well as organizations in the third and public sector. He is also a TED Fellow on account of his participation at TED Global in Arusha in 2007 … Continue reading David McQueen – Motivation, Mentoring and Marvellous McQueen! – PP91 →

We learned some amazing things about the Oasis Multi Academy Trust this week when we spoke to John Murphy, CEO. John trained as a primary teacher and became a primary head before taking on two schools for boys who had been permanently excluded. After heading up a school in special measures, John became an academy principle … Continue reading John Murphy – Should we put our trust in Trusts? – PP90 →

It was great to catch up with Nikki Giant this week, after hearing her talk at the Pivotal Conversations Mental Health Conference in the Summer. Nikki is the founder and director of Full Circle. She’s worked in youth development for over a decade, and is 100% passionate about supporting young people to reach for their … Continue reading Nikki Giant – ‘Giant Steps for Equality’ – PP89 →

It was great to speak to Laura Henry this week about many different aspects of Early Years. Laura is an expert, international award-winning Early Childhood trainer and consultant, vice-president of Early Education and national representative for the World Forum in Early Care and Education. For three decades Laura has used her skills to support those … Continue reading Laura Henry on Starting Right, Baseline Testing and the Seeds of Behaviour – PP88 →

This week, Paul started off by telling us about: ‘Fantastic Walking’ This is something he saw at Belfield School in Rochdale. Individual children, groups of children and staff all walk around the corridors doing ‘Fantastic Walking’ which involves putting your hands behind your back, puffing your chest out and having your head nice and high … Continue reading Jaz Ampaw-Farr on Teaching Literacy, Ninjas, Blind Date and The Apprentice – PP87 →

Guy Holloway is Headmaster at Hampton Court House which is an independent school in Surrey, UK. Guy became involved with the charity, Save the Children, while he was still at University and from that moment on knew he wanted to work with children. He felt he could make a difference to these disadvantaged children. Guy believes … Continue reading Guy Holloway on The Longest Lie-In In Britain – PP86 →

As we reach the beginning of our 3rd academic year in the UK, we take a look back at the top 5 most downloaded episodes of the podcast so far. If you have listened to all the episodes so far, can you guess which ones will be in the top 5? If you are newer … Continue reading The Pivotal Podcast Top 5 Episodes – PP85 →

Kevin Bachan-Singh is a co-head at a Pupil Referral Unit in London, UK. In this interview, he shares with Paul some of the most important aspects of working in a PRU, as well as his own, fascinating life story. Unfortunately, the audio in this interview isn’t as good as our normal quality but I hope … Continue reading Kevin Bachan-Singh – ‘Our Man From The PRU’ (Pupil Referral Unit) – PP84 →