Key Voices

Key Voices #75 - Keeping children safe during lockdown and beyond with MyConcern

"I think sometimes people are looking to remove all risk for staff and that is just not possible, it is about how you manage and mitigate potential risk. "

This week we talk to Martin Baker, CEO and Mike Glanville, Director of Safeguarding Services, at My Concern.  Martin and Mike share what they have been learning from supporting Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs)  over the last 6 months. They talk about how remote learning has affected the role of the DSL and offer some practical tips for schools on how to prepare for a potential increase in safeguarding workload when all pupils return in September.

We also consider what impact this period and increased use of technology might have on safeguarding in the future. 

Mike and Martin mention the debrief they did with over 250 DSLs, you can read the report from this session here

“Just think about the level of concern, confusion and challenge that all of those safeguarding leads have experienced, but I’m so impressed by their resilience and their commitment to solve those problems on behalf of their communities.”

Key Voices #74 - Leading academy trusts: why some fail, but most don't, with Sir David Carter and Laura McInerney

“Those lessons, like speaking with parents when you need to get on the front foot, how you set up your governance. How were you supposed to know that if you are an academy trust leader… and no-one was sharing learnings about what had failed?”

This week we speak to Sir David Carter, Executive Director of System Leadership at Ambition Institute and Laura McInerney, Co-founder of Teacher Tapp about their new book Leading academy trusts: why some fail but most don’t. We discuss why things might go wrong in trusts and who gets to learn from those failures, but also how those running trusts can avoid some of those pitfalls too. We examine how a trust needs to demonstrate clearly to parents, pupils and staff how they will benefit from selecting, attending or being employed by their organisation. 

We talk about being a CEO and the many challenges of the role but also the rewards of doing the job well. We consider how CEOs and boards, but also regional and national schools commissioners, might be able to tell if trusts are likely to be successful. David and Laura also gaze into the future to think about what kinds of innovation or consolidation might happen in the sector over the next 5 years.

" The difference between being a head, executive head and a CEO is still not that well understood... being a CEO is not just being a head on speed, it’s a very different job"

Key Voices #73 - Rural schools, SRE, Pupil Voice and Ethical Leadership with The Revd Nigel Genders

“We need to find more ways to make sure that we as a church in education hear what young people have got to say, they’ve got a lot to say and we need to hear it”

This week we talk to The Reverend Nigel Genders, Chief Education Officer at The Church of England. We discuss the Church of England’s role in running schools and teacher training establishments, and its vision for education. 

We consider the challenges small rural Church of England primary schools face and how they are collaborating to support each other. We also cover topics such as RSE, the importance of pupil voice and why we need an Ethical Leadership Commission. 

The RSHE resources that Reverend Nigel mentions can be found here.

This interview was recorded in March.

Key Voices #72 Reviewing a year of Key Voices

This week our podcast presenter, Caroline Doherty, gives a whistlestop tour of this year’s episodes of KeyVoices. If you’ve only recently discovered the podcast, this episode will provide you with a handy snapshot of what it’s all about. 

 

Caroline groups the episodes together around particular themes, so if you are interested in a particular topic, such as mental health, trust development, governance or SEND for example, you can find out which episodes might be most relevant to you. 

 

Thank you to all our wonderful guests this year and thank you for listening. We will be continuing to release new episodes over the summer. 

Information about all of our Key Voices episodes can be found here and they are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify etc.

Key Voices #71 - A look at Oak Academy’s role in supporting remote learning

“This isn’t the national curriculum online, this is a resource bank that will support you if you need it how you need it.”

 

This week we talk to Anne Heavey, Specialist education lead,  Oak National Academy and Director of Whole School SEND, and David Thomas, Curriculum Director, Oak National  Academy and Principal at Jane Austen College, about their work to create and develop the Oak Academy offer.

Key Voices #70 - Reflections on a long career in governance with Fiona Millar

“There were no league tables when I started and there are going to be no league tables this year! That opens up a space, I think, for a different kind of conversation. I just hope there’ll be the will to have that conversation when this immediate period is over.” 

This week we talk to writer, journalist and campaigner Fiona Millar. We discuss how her role as a governor has helped her write about education over the years in a meaningful way. She also considers how governance has changed since she began as a parent governor in 1992. 

We talk about how she managed her role as chair alongside a busy career, as well as parenting, and think about the challenges ahead for schools and their governing bodies.

Key Voices #69 - How to deepen engagement with the parent community with David Sammels

“I’m really excited about the fact that families have caught up with their children and with each other.”

This week we talk to David Sammels, Headteacher at Mayflower Community Academy. We discuss the impact remote working and learning has had on staff and pupils. 

Dave shares his “5 waves” of parental engagement and explains how Mayflower has developed its own communication channels with parents during school closure. This includes a daily newsletter, a daily livestream on Twitter called “Tea at Two'' where the community can come together to discuss issues, and online courses for parents delivered by staff to help them support their children.

You can see examples of Mayflower Community Academy’s daily Covid-19 newsletters here. 

Follow @DavidSammels and @Mayflower_MCA for more details about the “Tea at Two” sessions as well as other things we discuss in the podcast.  

This interview was recorded in late April 2020

Key Voices #68 - Using apprenticeships to develop the education workforce with Nick Heard

N.B This episode was recorded in early March during a residential training session of level 7 senior leadership masters and we’ve updated the introduction briefly to reflect some changes over the past few months.

This week we talk to Nick Heard, former school leader and Learning Experience Manager at The National College of Education, and two participants on the senior leadership masters course - Rachel Lisserman, Head of Year 10 at Northampton School for Girls, and Dane Carton, Vice Principal at St Martin’s Catholic Academy in Hinckley.

Nick explains how the Apprenticeship Levy works and how schools can use it to develop their workforce. Nick debunks some of the myths about apprenticeships in general and then we discuss in more detail how apprenticeships can be used to develop existing members of the education workforce, as well as to attract young people into it. We focus particularly on how the  senior leadership masters apprenticeship works in practice and hear from some of the participants about how they’ve found the programme so far. 

As mentioned in the podcast, you can contact Nick via @ROptimism on Twitter.

Key Voices #67 - What impact will Covid-19 have on the teaching profession? with Dr Becky Allen

“This contrast between the experience of the head and experience of the rest of the teaching body has really become so polarised during lockdown. And it really is a worry what will happen for school leadership in the near future.”

This week we talk to Dr Becky Allen, Co-Founder of Teacher Tapp. She explains what Teacher Tapp data reveals about the likely impact Covid-19 will have on the teaching profession. In particular, we look at the different levels of stress and workload experienced by teachers and leaders, and the very real danger of a significant number of headteachers leaving the profession altogether. 

We delve into Becky’s book, The Teacher Gap, covering issues such as recruitment, workload, CPD and retention, and consider questions such as ‘should we train teachers in the UK as we train doctors’ and ‘do we set NQTs up to fail’? 

Becky also shares many of the recent insights Teacher Tapp has been able to gather about remote learning, including what schools are providing and the factors that affect engagement levels. Finally, from her own perspective as a parent, Becky reflects on how remote learning might work more effectively. 

You can find out how to sign up for Teacher Tapp here.

You can read Becky’s blog on Parental Load Theory here.

Key Voices #66 - School business leadership during the covid-19 with ISBL, part two

“You know your schools incredibly well, the sector incredibly well, and your pupils incredibly well. Take confidence in the decisions you are making, and the autonomy you have to do what you think is best for your school.”

This week we speak to Stephen Morales, CEO of the Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL), Russell Dalton, COO Diocese of Worcester Multi Academy Trust and Kaley Foran, Lead Content Editor at The Key.

We discuss how schools have coped with the practicalities of reopening to more pupils following an easing of lockdown measures, and potential ways forward to make sure more children can safely return to school. We consider the ways in which the government could work more closely with the sector and speculate on what their plans for summer catch-up could be. We also discuss ways school business professionals can best prepare for what September might bring. 

This podcast was recorded on 16 June 2020.