Education Leaders | The Chart-Topping School Leadership Podcast
This podcast offers strategic school leadership insights for education leaders aiming to drive meaningful change and build thriving school communities. Host Shane Leaning, an organisational development coach, interviews renowned educators and thought leaders to uncover evidence-based approaches and practical solutions for challenges in school improvement, staff development, and cultural transformation. Episodes are released every other Tuesday, with alternating weeks featuring focused deep-dives into specific leadership challenges like managing diverse teams, driving innovation, and implementing sustainable change. Each episode provides actionable, research-backed frameworks to help listeners build confidence in their leadership and create lasting impact in their schools.
Episodes
Master Your Leadership Interview Game | A Conversation with Orla Dempseyla Dempsey
Leadership interviews terrify plenty of capable teachers, and Shane admits he is one of them. So Orla Dempsey, a coach who helps teachers secure leadership positions, coaches him live in this episode. She starts with a reframe Shane calls huge: when a question asks “what would you do if...”, answer in the past tense and tell a story about something you have already done. If you are preparing for a
Compassion and Accountability Are Not Opposites
A teacher hands in their planning late for the third time, and you know they are dealing with a difficult situation at home. Insist on the deadline and you may ask for something they cannot manage, but keep extending it and colleagues end up carrying the load while pupils’ preparation suffers. This solo episode of school leadership coaching looks at what to do when two of your values pull in oppos
3 Ways to Pause Before Acting | A Conversation with Andrew Miller
Dr Andrew Miller, Academic Principal at Beijing International Bilingual Academy, explains what going slow really looks like for a school leader and why "maybe don't" could be the most useful phrase you say all year. His career spans Washington State's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Singapore American School and Shanghai American School, so he has seen how pressur
3 Big Ideas from This Month's Episodes | Education Leaders Live
Every month, Shane Leaning and Chris Scora sit down to unpack what has come up on the Education Leaders podcast, and this live catch-up covers two of the season's most talked-about conversations. The main event is a robust back-and-forth on Claire Badger's episode, "Do Schools Really Kill Creativity?", where Chris admits he needed three listens to get past his initial discomfort
Do Schools Really Kill Creativity? | A Conversation with Claire Badger
Claire Badger, a former research scientist and science teacher, disagrees with one of the most popular ideas in education: that schools kill creativity. Drawing on the cognitive science in her book, she argues that creativity has a clear definition (something must be both new and useful) and that most school approaches to it miss the second half. If your school celebrates its art displays, orchest
Introducing the Education Leaders Podcast Network
Shane Leaning has spent years building the Education Leaders podcast into a trusted source for practical leadership strategies. In this special launch episode, he's joined live by the hosts of four other education podcasts to unveil something new: the Education Leaders Podcast Network. What started as a conversation between Adam Kohlbeck and Chris Passey about wanting all their favourite education
Why Your Open Door Policy Fails
Shane opens this episode by naming a habit most school leaders share: telling their team "my door is always open," then wondering why staff still hesitate to bring problems to them. He argues these phrases feel generous but give people nothing concrete to act on, leaving new starters and existing team members to guess how you actually want to be approached. Drawing on a 2013 field study of over 60
What can Leaders Learn from Architects? | A Conversation with Phil Idle
This episode explores what happens when school leaders stop starting a building project with a room count and start with a harder question about who their students are becoming. Phil, a Director at EIW Architects and past International Chair of the Association for Learning Environments, has spent more than thirty years watching how classrooms, corridors and timetables quietly shape behaviour, belo
Inside Britain's Strictest School | A Conversation with Katharine Birbalsingh
This week, we're revisiting a favourite from the archives. Shane sits down with Katharine Birbalsingh, founder and headmistress of Michaela Community School, the free school in a converted Wembley office block that has posted the highest Progress 8 scores in England for three consecutive years. Katharine explains why she's never once used an agenda in a meeting, why simplicity beats choice in almo
Stop Telling Teachers What to Do | A Conversation with Jim Knight
When a teacher in South Carolina hit 86% on a goal she had set for herself, her school moved off the state's lowest-performing list and the state department called to ask how she had done it. In this episode, Jim Knight, founder of the Instructional Coaching Group and the person who coined the term "instructional coaching", explains why that result had almost nothing to do with the teaching strate
How to Interrupt Without Making It Awkward
Ever sat in a meeting watching one person take over while everyone else goes quiet, and had no idea how to step in? Shane tackles exactly that in this solo episode. He unpacks why dominant speakers do more than annoy the room: research on "hidden profile" problems shows that when one person carries the conversation, groups are far more likely to land on the wrong decision, because the quietest per
Accountability or Surveillance? | A Conversation with Tyrone Ruth
Ask a teacher how many people looked at their exercise books last year and you might be surprised by the number. Tyrone Ruth counted his: fifteen different people, in a single academic year. In this episode, Tyrone, a teacher-turned-senior-leader with experience across the UK and the Middle East, unpacks what he calls the hidden curriculum of surveillance: the quiet network of book looks, learning
Education Leaders LIVE | July Reflections
This is a bonus episode. Every last Thursday of the month, Shane sits down with Chris Scorer to pick apart the themes from the month's podcast guests, the stuff that stuck with them, the bits they disagreed on, and where it all leads. If you listen to the main feed, this is your chance to hear those conversations chewed over properly.It's a quieter one this month, summer holidays for a good chunk
What are Leadership Levers?
Seventeen weeks into writing a weekly newsletter on LinkedIn, Shane has landed on a simple but powerful idea: leadership levers. This episode explains what makes a lever different from a project or a habit, why it has to be small enough to do tomorrow morning without telling anyone, and why it has to live inside something already in your week, like a meeting or a handover. Drawing on John Sweller'
10 Million Views Later | A Conversation with Tom Sherrington
This week, we're revisiting a favourite from the archives, recorded back when this podcast was still called Global Ed Leaders. Shane sits down with Tom Sherrington, the former headteacher turned writer, speaker and co-author of the Teaching WalkThrus series, to trace how he built one of the biggest audiences in education from a single WordPress blog in 2012. Tom explains why he never planned any o
Rethinking Equity Through Learning Science | A Conversation with Zaretta Hammond
Zaretta Hammond wants school leaders to stop treating change as a straight line. In this conversation, the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain explains why growth actually moves in a spiral, why there's always a dip before things get better, and why so many educators are caught off guard by that dip because the system rarely rewards the messiness of learning. She unpacks the ide
Management Mastery | A Conversation with Poppy Nobes
Most schools pour resources into developing brilliant teachers and then promote those same people into management roles with almost no preparation for what comes next. This episode centres on a genuinely exciting initiative: Management Mastery, an in-house leadership development programme created by Poppy Nobes, Head of Professional Development at Aldridge Education. Poppy built the programme afte
How to Defuse Defensive Teachers
technique called three-point communication that changes the physical dynamic of feedback conversations before a single word is spoken. Drawing on the instructional coaching research of Jim Knight, Parker Palmer's writing on how the soul approaches truth sideways, and well-established findings on side-by-side versus face-to-face conversation, Shane makes the case that a lot of the time, it isn't th
Education Leaders LIVE | June Reflections
This is a bonus episoded. Join us every month for Education Leaders Live, where we explore key insights from our recent podcast episodes, including the importance of adaptability in leadership, the role of research in education, and how to foster a community of learning.Key takeaways:* Discover what leaders can learn from cuttlefish and the challenges of adapting to different environments.* Unders
When Scientists Enter Your Classroom | A Conversation with Patrice Bain
Patrice Bain's classroom was the first in the United States where cognitive scientists studied how children actually learn, not in a university laboratory, but with real students in a real school. That extraordinary starting point left her feeling completely alone professionally, with no colleagues to talk to and no community to turn to. This episode is for every teacher or leader who has ever fel
How to Catch a Straw Man
You float a reasonable idea in a meeting and within seconds, you're defending a plan you never made. This episode is about the straw man argument: what it is, where it shows up in schools, and why it quietly kills good decisions. Shane breaks down the four distinct forms it takes, from the classic distortion of what you actually said, to the hollow man (an opponent who doesn't even exist), the wea
Beyond 'Research Says' | A Conversation with Andrew Watson
When someone tells you "research says you should be doing this," what should you actually do with that? Andrew Watson, educator, author, and founder of Translate the Brain, has spent fifteen years studying how cognitive psychology research does and doesn't apply inside real classrooms, and his answer might surprise you. In this conversation, Shane and Andrew tackle one of the most persistent tensi
What can leaders learn from cuttlefish?
This episode tackles one of the quietest drains in school leadership: performing a version of yourself that isn't real. Shane introduces the cuttlefish dilemma, the pattern where leaders adapt their identity to fit a borrowed picture of what leadership is supposed to look like, and explains exactly why that performance compounds cognitive overload and leaves you running on empty by midweek. It mat
Education Leaders LIVE | May Reflections
This is a bonus episode. Every last Thursday of the month, Shane sits down with Chris Scorer to pick apart the themes from the month's podcast guests, the stuff that stuck with them, the bits they disagreed on, and where it all leads. If you listen to the main feed, this is your chance to hear those conversations chewed over properly.This month was a big one. Chris and Shane get into four very dif
What Schools Get Wrong on Sustainability | A Conversation with Clare Garey
Three-quarters of children are worried about the state of the planet and Clare Garey argues that makes sustainability not just an environmental issue, but a wellbeing one. In this conversation, Clare, founder of Sustainability at School, challenges the idea that hanging up an eco poster or marking Earth Day is enough. Drawing on her work with international schools across Spain, India, Singapore an
What the Pandemic Did to Student Brains | A Conversation with Nancy Weinstein
If you've noticed that students seem different since the pandemic and you're not sure what to do about it, this episode gives you real answers. Nancy Weinstein, Chief Innovation Officer at Otus and co-founder of MindPrint, shares findings from a longitudinal study of 35,000 students aged 8 to 21, tracking cognitive skills from 2015 through and beyond the pandemic. The data reveals something most s
Why Saying No Feels So Hard
Saying yes is one of the most common habits among school leaders, and most of the time it happens automatically, without conscious thought. In this solo episode, Shane reflects on a conversation with a fellow educator that revealed they shared the exact same challenge: both had said yes far too much, and both were feeling the weight of it. Drawing on Adam Grant's Give and Take and the recent work
Heads Who Lead Beyond School | A Conversation with Chris Passey and Sam Crome
What does it really take to step into public thought leadership as a headteacher and what do consultants and trust leaders get wrong when they walk into schools? In this episode, Shane is joined by Chris Passey, Headteacher at Kimichi School and co-host of the Coaching Unpacked podcast series, and Sam Crome, Interim Headteacher and Director of Education for Xavier Catholic Education Trust, for an
Education Leaders LIVE | April Reflections
April was a packed month on the Education Leaders podcast. Five episodes, four guests, and a thread that quietly ran through all of them: the value of small, listened-to, incremental change.Chris Scorer joined me for our monthly live show to make sense of it all. Here's what landed.Listening before leading. Richard Wheadon's episode on his leadership journey hit hardest here. Richard's been honest
Leading Through Imposter Syndrome | A Conversation with Julia Bialeski
Most school leaders have felt it at some point: that quiet, nagging suspicion that everyone else is more capable, better prepared, and more deserving of the role. Julia Bialeski knows it well. In the spring of 2019, she walked into her first principal job with a smile on her face and panic in her chest, presenting excitement to the world while privately wondering when everyone around her would fig
The Science Behind Post-Decision Doubt
That sickly feeling after a tough leadership call isn't your intuition warning you that you got it wrong and this episode explains exactly why. Drawing on Leon Festinger's 1957 work on cognitive dissonance, a 2021 meta-analysis from Hebrew University, and Kahneman and Tversky's research on loss aversion, Shane reframes one of the most common experiences in school leadership: the quiet panic that s
How Schools Can Grow Young Changemakers | A Conversation with Melati Wijsen
Melati Wijsen started Bye Bye Plastic Bags at age 12, spoke at the UN as a teenager, and never went to university, yet she is now teaching at three universities and shaping how a generation thinks about leadership and change. This episode is a conversation about what happens when a school genuinely creates space for a student's passion, and what school leaders can learn from one of the most compel
The Danger of Getting Comfortable | A Conversation with Richard Wheadon
There's a particular kind of leadership trap that nobody warns you about: the one where everything is going so well that you stop noticing why. Richard Wheadon spent the first decade of his career in a high-performing London school where great culture, strong professional development, and collaborative leadership were simply the norm. It wasn't until he moved to a new school in the Northwest that
The Science of Leading | A Conversation with Meg Lee
What if the principles that help students learn could also transform how you lead? This episode explores the powerful concept of the "science of leading" with Meg Lee, co-founder of Learning Science Partners and an internationally recognised advocate for evidence-informed teaching and professional learning. Meg explains why our leadership moves often fail when we act on "brittle knowledge," just e
Education Leaders LIVE | March Reflections
Shane and Chris are back for this month's Education Leaders Live, recording from Shanghai and Newcastle respectively, to unpack some of the biggest themes from recent episodes.The conversation kicks off with the backstory behind Education Leaders itself. How it started as a hobby podcast called Travel Ed, what redundancy taught Shane about building a business, and why the "build it and they shall
What Actually Works in Teacher Development
England spends £1 billion a year on teacher professional development, yet a poll of school leaders found that just 1% said it led to lasting change in practice. This episode examines why that gap exists, drawing on a landmark 2025 report from the Teacher Development Trust, which surveyed over a thousand teachers and leaders across England. The findings are stark, but the patterns, as Shane argues,
Poor Proxies for Leadership | A Conversation with Chris Baker
How do we truly know if someone is a good leader? If your school relies on visible presence, constant busyness, or even a certain "look," you might be measuring the wrong things. In this thought-provoking episode, Shane is joined by experienced educator and leadership development specialist, Chris Baker, to explore the concept of 'poor proxies' for leadership. Inspired by Rob Coe's work on poor pr
The Work Behind Education Leaders
Episode 151 is a milestone worth pausing on, and Shane uses it to do something he probably should have done sooner: properly introduce himself. Many listeners know the podcast but have never heard the full story of how Education Leaders grew from a simple desire for better conversations into a three-part organisation spanning a community, a coaching academy, and international school consultancy. T
Education Leaders LIVE | February Reflections
Teachers spend years learning to coach people. Ask questions, not give answers. Build trust before expecting vulnerability. Hold space. Stay quiet when staying quiet is the hardest thing.Then they get promoted. And most of it disappears.Chris Scorer — school leader, data specialist, and co-host of Education Leaders Live — said it plainly this month: "You'd never walk into a classroom and tell kids
The Future of British Schools Abroad | A Conversation with Simon Probert
What does it mean to lead a ‘British’ school in an international context today? If your school promotes ‘global citizenship’ but struggles to feel truly grounded in its local community, this conversation is essential. Shane is joined by headteacher and author Simon Probert, who argues that the future success of our sector depends on moving beyond a ‘rootless’ global identity. He introduces the pow
Communication Masterclass | How to Paraphrase
You explained it clearly, they nodded, and two weeks later three people did three completely different things. This episode tackles one of the most common and costly communication breakdowns in school leadership: assuming that because you said it, it landed. Shane draws on research from Cornell and Stanford, including the "tappers and listeners" study, to explain why even experienced leaders consi
Parent-Driven School Storytelling | A Conversation with Selina Boyd
Selina Boyd, international editor of The Good Schools Guide, reveals what actually matters when parents choose schools for their children. With over a decade reviewing international schools and more than 1,600 schools assessed worldwide, Selina explains why authentic leadership isn't about what leaders say about themselves, but what parents and students say about them. This conversation challenges
Why Smart Leaders Make Terrible Decisions
You hired the wrong person, killed a working programme, or ignored a massive risk whilst feeling completely rational the whole time. This episode unpacks five cognitive biases that sabotage school leadership decisions constantly: anchoring, availability bias, endowment effect, groupthink, and optimism bias. Shane shares real examples from his own leadership mistakes, including a disastrous hiring
LIVE | January Reflections
Chris Scorer and Shane Leaning got together to unpack some of the big themes from recent episodes, particularly that vulnerable solo episode Shane put out about self-doubt and imposter syndrome. The response to that one has been overwhelming, especially the private messages from leaders who haven't felt able to share their struggles publicly. Chris and Shane dug into why we've become so intolerant
Why Coaching Programs Fail | A Conversation with Gene Tavernetti
Instructional coaching should be a powerful engine for teacher development, yet so many school initiatives stall or backfire. Why? In this frank conversation, Dr. Gene Tavernetti joins Shane to dissect exactly where and how coaching programmes commonly fail. With over thirty years in education (as coach, teacher, counselor, administrator, and consultant), Gene pulls no punches on the systemic pitf
How to Tackle Self-Doubt
You know that feeling when you wake up with a weight on your chest, convinced you don't belong and everyone's about to find out? Shane gets vulnerable about a recent morning just like that: when a piece of work that wasn't his absolute best sent him spiralling into shame. This solo episode tackles the difference between "I did something imperfect" and "I am not good enough," and why that distincti
The Tab Tax on Teachers | A Conversation with Jett Wolper
Why do schools continue using systems they hate? Jett Wolper from Sisi challenges the assumption that broken school systems are inevitable. Most educational technology wasn't designed for teachers, it was built for the people who purchase it, creating a 20-year legacy of platforms that work on paper but fail in practice. From timetabling that consumes enormous amounts of leadership time to communi
Mastering Direct and Indirect Communication
What if being direct isn't the same as being clear? Shane challenges a core assumption in leadership advice: that directness equals clarity. Drawing on Edward Hall's work on high and low context cultures and a recent conversation with Eunice Okpotu about psychological safety, Shane introduces a quadrant framework that separates directness from clarity. He's seen UK heads who are incredibly direct
How to Make Change Stick | A Conversation with Dr James Mannion
Dr James Mannion has noticed something telling when working with school leaders: ask them what proportion of change initiatives actually improved anything. Most estimate 10-20%, but when pressed about sustainable change with real evidence, that figure drops to nearly zero. Dr James Mannion, author of a comprehensive programme on implementation science, explains why this failure rate persists despi
Your Top Picks: Most Listened Episodes
As 2025 comes to a close, Shane reflects on the year by counting down the five most listened to episodes of Education Leaders. The podcast has grown significantly, doubling in size just in the last six months and reaching around 150 episodes total. Whether you've been following along all year or you're brand new to the show, this episode gives you a curated guide to the conversations that resonate
School Character and Culture First | A Conversation with Tamara Yuill Proctor
When Dr. Tamara Yuill Proctor began researching curriculum integration at secondary level, she quickly discovered that successful change wasn't really about curriculum at all. It was about understanding the character and culture of the school first: the people, their capacity, the school's history, and what the community actually needs. In this conversation, Tam shares findings from her doctoral r
LIVE | December Reflections
Welcome to our December edition of Education Leaders LIVE, where Chris Scorer and Shane Leaning reflect on the month's episodes. This time we reviewed three conversations that sparked some genuine debate between us. From firefighting versus long-term thinking, to whether HR should serve leadership or staff (we still don't agree), to the fundamentals of building trust quickly. We also had a surpris
How to Build Leadership Trust Quickly
Which breaks faster: trust in someone's competence or trust in their character? Shane explores Stephen Covey's framework that trust operates on two separate dimensions. Competence trust builds quickly through credentials, positions, and demonstrated capability, but character trust takes time to develop through consistent honesty and integrity. The crucial insight? While competence breaks slowly wi
Ethical School Leadership | A Conversation with Dr Yael Cass
Compliance feels safer than ethics. You can tick the boxes, point to the policies, and stay in your head without engaging the emotional discomfort. But what if that's exactly the problem? In this episode, Dr Yael Cass introduces the concept of "compliance plus," a thoughtful, human-centred approach that brings intention and reflection into the systems schools rely on. Yael explains why internation
How to Think Long-Term When Everything's on Fire
Your budget's been slashed, three teachers have resigned, parents are complaining about the new timetable, and someone's asking about your five-year strategic plan. Sound familiar? This episode tackles the leadership trap that stops brilliant school leaders from making real progress: abandoning long-term thinking the moment a crisis hits. Shane explores why waiting for things to calm down before t
LIVE | November Reflections
This month's Education Leaders LIVE brings together the big themes from November's episodes. Chris and Shane dig into what trust actually looks like in schools, why the shift from scrutiny to development matters so much, and whether leaders at trust level can genuinely connect with classroom teachers. The conversation around Sam Gibbs' episode sparks a proper debate about loss aversion and what ha
How to Trust Your Teachers | A Conversation with Sam Gibbs
When Sam Gibbs asked, "Are we any further forward in honestly trusting the teaching profession?", she hit on something uncomfortable. In too many schools, we've slipped into what Sam calls toxic accountability. Sam, Director of Education at Greater Manchester Education Trust and co-author of The Trouble With English, argues that school leaders need to start from one simple assumption: teachers are
Coaching For School Leaders | A Conversation with Joanne Robinson
When Jo Robinson joins Shane, they focus on a simple, urgent problem: too much of what passes for professional development in schools is one-off, inspirational, and then forgotten. Jo — Chief Programmes Officer at the International Centre for Coaching in Education — gives school leaders practical steps to move from occasional workshops to coaching-led development that actually improves teaching an
Have You Got a Moment?
When someone says “have you got a moment?” your instinct might be to say yes — and then lose 20 minutes, your focus and whatever calm you had left. This solo episode shows you a practical, repeatable way to handle those knocks so you protect your attention and still serve your team. Shane introduces the five-second “doorway decision”, explains how essentialist thinking underpins the approach, and
Teaching Leadership Through Curriculum | A Conversation with Maureen Chapman & James Simons
This episode introduces a practical, curriculum-centred approach to student leadership with Maureen Chapman and James Simons of Cor Creative Partners. They explain why leadership should be taught like any other skill (not left to “natural leaders”), share the memorable chocolate-milk classroom story that reveals how students hide emotions, and show how simple classroom routines and roles make lead
LIVE | October Reflections
This is our first Education Leaders Live recording, where I sat down with Chris Scorer to reflect on October's episodes. We talked about the difference between administration and leadership, why corridor conversations are actually the big wins, and how brilliant teachers often become exhausted leaders because they're cognitively fried by the basics. Chris shared some honest reflections about his o
How Leaders Beat Cognitive Overload
When brilliant teachers become exhausted leaders, it’s usually not because they lack ability — it’s because they’re cognitively overloaded by the basics. In this solo episode Shane explains what that overload looks like (the story of “Sarah” who dreads Monday evenings), why common leadership programmes often skip the fundamentals, and how cognitive load theory helps explain what’s going on. If you
From Formative Assessment to Formative Action | A Conversation with Valentina Devid
This conversation dives into what formative action is, why Valentina Devid and colleagues reframed formative assessment as an action-oriented practice, and why that reframing matters for school leaders trying to get useful classroom evidence turned into immediate, high-impact teaching moves. Valentina walks through the five-step action-oriented investigation process (orient & predict; think &a
How to Lead Without Being Needed | A Conversation with Brett Griffin
What happens when you take a school leader who's used to timetables, structure, and constant visibility, and drop them into the chaos of running a startup? Brett Griffin made that exact transition, moving from assistant principal to CEO of Pupil Progress, a tech company now used by over 700 schools globally. This conversation reveals something uncomfortable: the very structures that make schools f
A Solution-Focused Approach to Leadership | A Conversation with Vicky Essebag & Tara Gretton
Struggling with staff meetings that spiral into problem talk? This episode explores solution-focused communication and how school leaders can transform their school culture by changing the questions they ask. Vicky Essebag and Tara Gretton share practical strategies for shifting from deficit-based conversations to hope-filled dialogue that actually moves your team forward. You'll discover why aski
Leading School Mental Health Confidently | A Conversation with George Peterkin
This conversation with George Peterkin challenges how we think about mental health in schools. George introduces the three pillars framework: prevention, intervention, and postvention. While most schools have the first two fairly well established, postvention (what happens after an intervention) is often neglected. George shares practical examples of what postvention looks like, from simple check-
What Every PD Leader Should Know | A Conversation with Bethan Hindley
Professional development is happening in schools everywhere, but is it actually working? In this episode, Bethan Hindley from the Teacher Development Trust tackles one of the biggest challenges facing school leaders today: fragmented CPD. Despite all the training sessions, workshops, and courses, many schools struggle to see real impact because their professional development lacks a clear, joined-
How to Stop Wasting Your PD Budget
Ever left a fantastic professional development session feeling completely energised, only to find yourself back to square one a month later? Shane tackles this all-too-familiar scenario in this solo episode, coining it "One Hit Wonder PD" or "Drive-By PD." Shane explores why even the most brilliant, engaging PD days often fail to create lasting change in schools. The problem isn't the quality
Teaching Primary Children Where They Are | A Conversation with Emma Turner
In this essential episode for school leaders, Shane explores primary education leadership with Emma Turner, a primary education expert with over 25 years of experience in school leadership development. Emma challenges the common practice of applying secondary-focused approaches to primary settings, sharing practical school leadership strategies that respect how young children actually learn. This
How to Build a Consultancy | A Conversation with Michael Iannini
In this brutally honest conversation, Michael Iannini pulls back the curtain on what it's really like to leave the safety of education employment and strike out as an independent consultant. From worrying about whether you can afford that plane ticket to learning the hard way that repackaging other people's content doesn't work, Michael shares the lessons that most people won't tell you about goin
Self-Compassion for Overwhelmed School Leaders | A Conversation with Stephanie Lill
In this powerful conversation, Stephanie Lill from Mindful Sparks completely reframes how we think about compassion in schools. Far from being a "nice to have," compassion emerges as an essential leadership skill that goes beyond kindness and empathy to create real, lasting change. Lilly breaks down the crucial distinctions: kindness is doing nice things, empathy is understanding someone's situati
Why Teachers Resist your Great Ideas | A Conversation with Christopher Youles
Ever wonder why brilliant educational ideas don't always translate into classroom reality? In this conversation, Shane Leaning sits down with author Chris Youles to explore the messy truth about implementing change in schools and why sometimes it's easier to influence other people's schools than your own. Chris, Assistant Head Teacher and author of the brilliant Teaching Story Writing in Prim
How To Learn From Everyone | A Conversation with Ben Whitaker
Shane Leaning chats with Ben Whitaker about his new book "The Ideas Guy" and why he thinks we're all capable of being idea generators. Ben's an education consultant who specialises in education leadership training and co-hosts the Edufuturists podcast, and he's got some fascinating takes on school leadership coaching. Rather than hunting for that perfect role model (spoiler alert: they don't exist
Leading With Conviction | A Conversation with Katharine Birbalsingh
Katharine Birbalsingh, founder of Britain's most talked-about school, reveals the leadership principles that transformed her vision into reality. From her converted office building in London, Michaela Community School has achieved the highest progress scores in England for three consecutive years, with results that rival the country's most elite institutions. Katharine shares her unflinching
How to Make Change Feel Safe | A Conversation with Paul Halford
Shane Leaning speaks with Paul Halford about his new book "My Educated Life: Lessons from Leading Schools." Paul explores why change in schools is fundamentally a subjective experience, explaining how even the most logical strategic plans can fail when they encounter the reality of people's personal lives and emotional responses. Using a football coaching analogy from his youth, he demonstrates ho
What Makes Teachers Tick?
Shane challenges the common assumption that all teachers must be primarily motivated by their love of children. Drawing from research and personal reflection at the Festival of Education, he explores the diverse motivations that actually drive educators - from technical craft enthusiasts to social justice warriors to stability seekers. Using the 2007 Watt and Richardson "FIT-Choice Scale" study, S
Project Learning That Works | A Conversation with John Taylor
In this episode, Shane Leaning sits down with John Taylor, Director of Learning, Teaching and Innovation at Cranleigh School and one of the principal architects of the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). They explore how a small pilot programme exploring science ethics has evolved into a globally recognised qualification with over 50,000 students annually. John shares insights into project-based
How to have a nuanced conversation | A conversation with Drew Perkins
In this episode, Shane sits down with Drew Perkins, President Director of ThoughtStretcher Education and host of the ThoughtStretchers Education Podcast. Drew brings a refreshing perspective on how we can navigate the often polarised world of education discourse, from the direct instruction versus inquiry debate to the broader challenge of maintaining nuanced thinking in our schools. Drew sha
Change Starts Here | A Conversation with Efraim Lerner
What if everything your school needed was right in front of you? In this special extended conversation, Shane sits down with his co-author Efraim Lerner for an unfiltered chat about their upcoming book "Change Starts Here" and why they believe schools need to rediscover confidence in their own communities. Shane and Efraim dig into how schools have gradually outsourced their decision-making,
The Truth About Metacognition | A Conversation with Nathan Burns
Shane sits down with Nathan Burns, widely known as "Mr Metacognition," to tackle one of education's most discussed yet frequently misunderstood concepts. Nathan brings refreshing honesty to the conversation, immediately acknowledging that metacognition is complicated and that existing definitions don't do a particularly good job of explaining what it actually is. Far from being the latest educatio
