The SecEd Podcast is dedicated to supporting best practice in the secondary school – with practical advice, examples, discussion and tips for teachers, support staff and school leaders across the range of topics relevant to day-to-day secondary school life. A new episode every half-term
This episode offers practical advice to those taking on new leadership roles in the secondary school, with dos and don'ts, useful tips, and lessons learned from our experienced panel. If you are a teacher taking on a new leadership role in school – whether that be a headteacher, senior leadership or middle leadership post – then this episode is for you. Three experienced school leaders offer us…
This episode offers practical insights for teachers on how best we can support our high-attaining students in the secondary school classroom. Our panel discusses the language we use when referring to this cohort of students and how we might define what "high-attaining" means. We then move on to outline a number of classroom strategies for teachers to help them teach and support these learners as…
In this episode we offer practical tips and ideas for how teachers can support the communication skills of students as they make the step-up to the year 7 classroom and key stage 3 study. An experienced panel – including a speech and language therapist – discuss how we can help those students who struggle with communication needs, including oracy and vocabulary. We consider the increase in…
This episode talks everything supply teaching – with practical advice for schools on how to enable your supply teachers to excel as well as a range of tips for supply teachers themselves. In the first half of our discussion, our expert panel focus on how secondary schools can set their supply teachers up for success, including what must be in place before they arrive at the gate and top tips for…
This episode discusses how teachers can create the perfect classroom environment for their students, offering a range of practical tips and quick wins. Our expert panel discuss four core aspects – the physical classroom environment, the social environment, the emotional environment, and the learning environment. Physical environment: We ask what we can do to create a positive physical space in the…
This episode offers a range of practical ideas, advice and teaching techniques for engaging students in the work of William Shakespeare – both in the English classroom and across the school. Produced in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the episode features a panel of experts and educators who discuss how we can make Shakespeare enjoyable for our students. We talk about Shakespeare's…
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…
This episode focuses on belonging and inclusion in the secondary school – namely how can we ensure that every student can take part in school life. Our panel of experienced school leaders define what "belonging" means in the context of a busy secondary school. We talk school culture: what does a culture of inclusion and belonging involve, how can we develop this in a natural way, and what…
In this episode we break-down the secrets to effective adaptive teaching approaches in the secondary classroom. Our experts define what exactly adaptive teaching is and offer insights to help teachers to know when we should adapt our teaching, how we can adapt teaching, and who we should be adapting it for. We discuss the importance of using adaptive teaching to maintain high expectations in the…
This episode offers a range of ideas and advice for identifying and supporting students with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in the secondary school. SLCN are the most common need for the more than 1.2 million students who are on SEN Support in England's schools – and the evidence tells us that there will be many more who are going undiagnosed. This discussion features four experts…