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Headteacher Update Podcast: Supporting pupil mental health & wellbeing

The Headteacher Update Podcast

Release Date: 05/01/2024

Headteacher Update Podcast: Supporting pupil mental health & wellbeing show art Headteacher Update Podcast: Supporting pupil mental health & wellbeing

The Headteacher Update Podcast

In this episode we discuss a range of ideas and strategies for how primary schools can support the good mental health and wellbeing of their pupils. We chat to three guests who work in three different schools. We hear their tenets of good practice when it comes to supporting good pupil wellbeing in school before discussing what wellbeing challenges they are seeing on the ground and at the chalkface in their schools. We delve into some of the work taking place in our guests’ three schools and hear anonymised case studies of successful interventions they have had with pupils who have...

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Headteacher Update Podcast: Protecting headteacher wellbeing during Ofsted inspection show art Headteacher Update Podcast: Protecting headteacher wellbeing during Ofsted inspection

The Headteacher Update Podcast

In this episode we discuss tips, ideas, and strategies for protecting the wellbeing of headteachers – and other school staff – during Ofsted inspections. Our guest is Paul K Ainsworth, who has held director of school improvement roles in four multi-academy trusts in the last nine years and in that time has experienced more than 40 Ofsted inspections. We get Paul’s practical insights – both small ideas and more substantial advice – about how we can protect our mental health and wellbeing, and that of our school team, during inspection. We get lots of tips for reducing...

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This episode looks at the effective deployment of our teaching assistants in the primary school classroom, offering advice for whole-school practice and individual teaching and lessons. We ask how teaching assistants can enhance pupils’ outcomes and support inclusion and how teachers and teaching assistants can communicate and work together effectively. We discuss school systems and structures that can support their effective deployment. And we discuss the training and development that must be in place for our teaching assistants. We consider how teaching assistants should and...

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Headteacher Update Podcast: Improving teaching with instructional coaching show art Headteacher Update Podcast: Improving teaching with instructional coaching

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This episode looks at using instructional coaching as part of your school’s approach to staff CPD and improving teaching and learning. Three experts discuss what instructional is and its core principles. We ask how we can best launch and develop this approach in our schools and how it can be used to enhance teachers’ knowledge and understanding of pedagogy while complementing whole-school CPD. We consider the discrete stages of instructional coaching and also hear case studies and examples from our guests of where instructional coaching approaches have worked well practice. The podcast...

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Headteacher Update Podcast: Supporting pupils who use English as an additional language show art Headteacher Update Podcast: Supporting pupils who use English as an additional language

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This episode looks at how primary schools can best support the education and development of pupils who use English as an additional language (EAL), including refugee children. The podcast features three experts and opens with each guest offering their three tenets of best practice for EAL. We discuss what primary school leaders can do to ensure effective whole-school provision for EAL pupils, including effective teaching and learning approaches. We talk specifically about how to support refugee and asylum-seeking pupils given the arrival in recent years of children from Afghanistan, Ukraine...

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This episode looks at best practice for delivering phonics programmes and teaching early reading in the primary school. Two experts discuss how phonics supports early reading and what the high-quality teaching of early reading looks like in practice. We ask what a high-quality phonics programme should offer schools and how we can ensure maximum impact with the scheme we are using. How can we move pupils from learning to read to reading to learn and how can we instil and inspire a love of reading in our pupils to last a lifetime? Elsewhere, we ask what Ofsted inspectors look for when they judge...

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This episode offers crucial advice and lots of practical tips to help primary school headteachers – especially those new to post – to survive and thrive in the top job. We speak with three experienced school leaders who draw on their experiences and the ups and downs of their careers to offer their tips, ideas, and advice to others. We ask what our guests wish somebody had told them during the early months and years of their headships – a question that yields lots of quick wins as well as more in-depth, long-term advice. Our guests also describe some of the challenges they have...

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This episode of the podcast considers how school leaders can successfully navigate difficult conversations that often need to take place with staff, parents and others. We discuss common types of “difficult conversation”, some general principles for how to handle these discussions, and how we can best prepare ourselves and others for these conversations. We discuss the crucial role that school and leadership culture plays in creating the right conditions and thus taking the sting out of these conversations. We look specifically at handling difficult conversations with parents, including...

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Headteacher Update Podcast: Self-evaluation in the primary school show art Headteacher Update Podcast: Self-evaluation in the primary school

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More Episodes

In this episode we discuss a range of ideas and strategies for how primary schools can support the good mental health and wellbeing of their pupils.

We chat to three guests who work in three different schools. We hear their tenets of good practice when it comes to supporting good pupil wellbeing in school before discussing what wellbeing challenges they are seeing on the ground and at the chalkface in their schools.

We delve into some of the work taking place in our guests’ three schools and hear anonymised case studies of successful interventions they have had with pupils who have struggled.

We talk extensively about their approaches to mental health and wellbeing education – within PSHE but also more generally across the curriculum and in the classroom with lots of ideas big and small.

We look in particular at what we can do to support our pupils, including while they are waiting for CAMHS referrals, and we discuss what support we can access via other outside agencies.

Elsewhere, we discuss how we can build positive relationships with pupils and families so that we can better recognise the warning signs of emerging problems and intervene quickly.