Fiona Cuthbertson is a political lobbyist who has been involved in politics for many years. A former councillor and parliamentary candidate, Fiona now runs a public affairs agency where she works on a cross-party basis to help people get involved in the political process and to lobby on a range of issues that affect people’s lives - including, but not limited to, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). She is also the author of a political thriller, Party Games, which reveals the...

Dr Chris Bagley is a man with a dazzling variety of hats. He is psychologist, writer and musician with an interest in youth justice, educational transformation and systems change. He is Director of Research at the social enterprise States of Mind, and a lecturer and doctorate supervisor at the UCL Institute of Education. He also works part-time for South Gloucestershire psychology service, primarily in a Secure Children’s Unit and Pupil Referral Unit. Chris describes his purpose as being to...

If you've come across Jaz Ampaw-Farr before, you'll know that you are in for an absolute treat. If you haven't ever heard Jaz speak before - well, what can I say? I could tell you that Jaz is an award-winning educator, teacher trainer, coach and speaker, and soon to be author of her first book. But that doesn't really scratch the surface. Listening back to this episode in the edit, it was noticeable that Jaz made me laugh way more than any previous podcast guest had ever done. She also...

Today I am speaking with David Price OBE. David is the author of two books - ‘Open: How we'll work, live and learn in the future’ - and ‘The Power of Us: How we connect, act and innovate together’. It is this latter book that I’m mainly speaking with David about today. I listened to it recently as an audiobook and it’s absolutely fascinating. Here are some of the lovely things people have written about The Power of Us: ‘The Power of Us is the first book that captures the cultural forces...

Sophie Christophy is a culture transformer, feminist, unschooling parent and activist. She works on deconstructing patriarchy, from childhood socialisation in education and family culture, and in organisational culture, by creating a shift to principles of consent and self-direction. As a conduit for the emergence of a consent-based social and environmental paradigm, Sophie works with individuals and organisations on deschooling, integrating consent and self-direction based principles into...

Ollie Lovell is a teacher, author and podcaster based in Melbourne, Australia, and the host of the Education Research Reading Room (ERRR) podcast. In summer 2022, Ollie visited the UK on a whirlwind tour of three fascinatingly different educational institutions: Michaela School in North London, often described as the strictest school in the country; XP School in Doncaster, which places great emphasis on pastoral care, beautiful work and expeditionary learning; and the Self-Managed Learning...

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and co-director of the Wellcome Trust PhD Programme in Neuroscience at University College London. She has been awarded a number of prizes over the last 20 years or so, including the British Psychological Society (BPS) Doctoral Award, the BPS Spearman Medal for outstanding early career research, and the Royal Society's Rosalind Franklin Award. She was also the winner of the 2018 Royal...

The final episode of Season 2 of the Rethinking Education podcast features a conversation with Jonny Hunt, an independent sex and relationships consultant and the author of Sex Ed for Grown Ups: How to talk to young people about sex and relationships. NB: Contains strong language - not safe for work! LINKS: Everyone's invited: https://www.everyonesinvited.uk/ Jonny's book 'Sex Ed for Grown-Ups: How to talk to Children and Young People about Sex and Relationships' -...

Peter Gray is a research professor at Boston College and the author of 'Free to Learn' and 'Psychology', a college textbook now in its 8th edition. Here are some of the incredible things people have written about 'Free to Learn':: “The modern educational system is like a wish made in a folk tale gone horribly wrong. Peter Gray's Free to Learn leads us out of the maze of unforeseen consequences to a more natural way of letting children educate themselves. Gray's message might seem too good...

Emma Ann Hardy is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle since the 2017 general election. She is also the Shadow Minister for Further Education and Universities. Recently, Emma launched and chaired the Oracy All Party Parliamentary Group, which carried out an inquiry and published an excellent report, Speak for Change, in 2021. LINKS The Oracy APPG - https://oracy.inparliament.uk/about-us Speak for Change - the...

An interview with Rachel Sylvester on the findings of the Times Education Commission. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/society/education/education-commission

In this episode, Dr James Mannion - the creator of the Implementation Science for Schools programme - interviews two senior leaders, Kate Barry and Elaine Long, about their experience of the ISS pilot study at their school. RETHINKING ED CONFERENCE LINKS Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lets-get-together-the-rethinking-education-conference-2022-tickets-226415834857 Social media links: Youtube (trailer): https://youtu.be/JKz8ALX2QFM Twitter:...

In this episode I am joined by Ian Cunningham, the founder of the Self-Managed Learning College (SMLC) in Brighton; Dr Naomi Fisher, a clinical psychologist who sends her children to SMLC; and Ellie Costello, the Director of Square Peg, a social enterprise that supports young people and families with barriers to attendance. We are here to discuss the Schools Bill currently going through the English Parliament, which presents a significant challenge for people seeking to rethink education;...

In this episode, titans of education Mick Waters and Tim Brighouse talk about their sensational new book 'About our schools: Improving on previous best'. Here are some of the breathless reviews the book has received:: "You can hear the passion, the decency, the anger, the compassion, and the hope in this insider–outsider story about England’s education policy over the past 45 years... the most exciting and exacting book I have read in a long time." (Professor John Hattie) "It seems...

Jon Hutchinson is the Head of Training and Development at the Reach Foundation, an educational charity that focuses on expanding the role of schools into the wider community through a cradle to career model. Prior to this, Jon was an Assistant Headteacher at Reach Academy Felt-ham. He has taught across both KS1 and KS2, and also tutors on Ambition Institute’s Masters in Expert Teaching. Jon has taken part in expert panels for the Department for Education, Ofsted and the Standards and...

Today I am delighted to be able to share with you my recent conversation with Andy Sprakes, the co-founder of XP school in Doncaster. I also had the opportunity to speak with two students from the school, Declan and Guraaj, who were absolutely lovely and insightful as you will soon discover. There has been a lot of interest in XP school in recent months, partly following a very complementary profile of the school that was published in the Sunday Times magazine, entitled: ‘Is XP the school of...

Today I am speaking with John Higgs, the cultural historian and author of many excellent books, several of which we draw on in this conversation - especially: Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century The Future Starts Here: An Optimistic Guide to What Comes Next William Blake versus The World So this conversation draws together ideas from a number of John’s books, in an attempt to weave a positive...

Today I am speaking with Jay McTighe about Leading Modern Learning: A blueprint for vision-driven schools, the 2015 book that Jay co-authored with Greg Curtis. Leading modern learning builds on Jay’s previous work on Understanding by Design, to guide the reader through the process of taking vision statements really seriously, and then backwards planning your school in such a way that you WILL produce the kinds of young people who will be able to thrive and flourish in this bewildering and...

Warwick Mansell is a long-time contributor to the Guardian and the Observer, and worked for many years at the TES - the Times Education Supplement. He writes blogs for Prospect union, and the National Education Union teacher magazine, among others. A few years ago, he was shortlisted for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Education Journalist of the Year. Warwick runs a subscription-based education news website, Education Uncovered, which has the strap-line "digging around in the...

Geraldine Rowe is an educational psychologist and former teacher, and a specialist in Parent Partnership and Behaviour and Attendance. She has taught in Primary and Middle Schools and been a member of the Senior Leadership Team of an alternative provision secondary school. Her 30-year career has taken her into 100 schools, and Geraldine is a really good example of someone who is outside the teaching profession, but who has immense experience and insight to share. Geraldine recently...

Donald Clark is a man of many hats. He’s an EdTech entrepreneur who was formerly the CEO and one of the original founders of Epic Group, a pioneering company in online learning, and he is now the CEO of Wildfire Learning, an AI company. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Derby. And he is the author of at least two books - Artificial Intelligence for Learning, and Learning Experience Design. But today I am speaking with Donald about a different writing project. Over the last 20...

Today I am speaking with behaviour specialist and volcano of positivity Adele Bates. As you will hear at the start of our conversation, I worked with Adele for a short period, and so I speak with experience when I say that the second you meet her, you immediately realise that you are dealing with an incredibly compassionate, thoughtful, unique human being. Adele has recently written a fascinating, down to earth, warts-and-all book called 'Miss I don’t give a Sh*t: Engaging with Challenging...

This episode features a conversation with Harry Fletcher-Wood, who has written an absolutely fascinating book called Habits of Success: Getting every student learning. Ground-breaking books about education don’t come around too often, but Habits of Success is truly pioneering. We’ve heard a lot about cognitive science in recent years - often a quite narrow interpretation of cognitive science which focuses largely on memorising stuff. But there has been another area of social science bubbling...

Today I am speaking with Michael FD Young, Emeritus Professor of Sociology of Curriculum at the UCL Institute of Education. Michael has been a towering figure in the field of Sociology of Education for over five decades. He has written and edited many books throughout his career, including Knowledge and Control (1971), Bringing Knowledge Back In (20080) and Knowledge and the Future School (2014) - to name just a few. You may have noticed a theme in those book titles - Michael writes about...

Earlier this year, through connecting with people in the Mighty Network, I hosted a series of six "campfire conversations". In contrast to the podcast, which features long-form, pre planned, recorded conversations with individuals, the campfire conversations were an attempt to bring more people into the conversation. These were live-streamed, shorter, more spontaneous conversations that usually included between 6 and 12 people at a time - always including young people, as well as parents and...