The Wellspring Way: Recent Episodes
Elizabeth Hudson
The Wellspring Way is a new show from Wellspring Academy Trust, exploring education and more through the Wellspring philosophy. Join education leaders and practitioners from across Wellspring and beyond as we talk about life in the classroom, what’s going on in schools and how we can improve education for everybody. Subscribe for free to access a new episode every month and occasional bonus content too. Search for The Wellspring Way on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
In episode 22, Elizabeth is joined by Vice Principal at Ebor Gardens and Performing Arts Network Lead Lee Spink. Lee describes how he's combined his love of music and teaching in his career, and how important music in schools is for children.
Lee explains how teachers can be supported in delivering music and and discusses the benefits of resources such as Charanga. He also explains what the trick is to putting on a successful school performance. Lee then takes on our usual quick fire round, revealing his dislike of the dinner queue but love of a classic school trip.
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In episode 21, Elizabeth is joined by not one but two guests - associate principals Adele Lowery and Katherine Heaton. The dynamic duo talk about their journeys from student classmates at Leeds Beckett University to their current trust-wide leadership positions. They explore the challenges of making the jump from classroom teacher to education leader. Adele and Katherine also chat about their roles as network mentors. explaining how to encourage reading and the critical importance of a child's early years.
And, as always, they take on the usual quickfire round, revealing Katherine's unique approach to learning the piano and Adele's sports day strong point...
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In episode 20, Elizabeth is joined by Prof Leigh Hoath, Deputy Dean at Leeds Trinity University's School of Education. Leigh talks us through the importance of teacher-led research and why it's essential to make it accessible to all. She discusses some of the challenges around conducting research and explains why the place to start is with 'the stone in the shoe' - that thing that you can't quite ignore and need to know more about.
Leigh also takes on our quickfire round, revealing that you were much more likely to find her on a coach trip to France than on the school playing fields.
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In episode 19, Associate Principal Mary Ruggles joins Elizabeth at the mic. Mary shares her journey from Boston, Massachusetts to AP and SEND education in inner city Leeds, and explains how she found her passion for supporting children facing challenges. Mary discusses Springwell Leeds' creative approach to its curriculum and describes how being innovative is engaging pupils and providing them with skills to open up growing career opportunities across Leeds.
Mary also takes on our usual quickfire round to reveal a little about her own school days and she finds time to introduce us to Josie - one of Springwell Leeds' many school dogs!
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In episode 18, Elizabeth is joined by ECT (early career teacher) Rebecca Kirrane. Rebecca explains how and why she moved careers into teaching and what the process of teacher training was like. She describes how life is going as the new teacher of class 3 in Leeds' Victoria Primary Academy.
Rebecca also tells us about her own school days in our usual quickfire round, and explains how carefully planned revision is now a thing of the past with four children of her own to care for!
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In episode 17, Elizabeth is joined by Executive Principal Scott Jacques. Scott describes his move into Special and AP education, and how it differs from his early career in mainstream schools. He discusses how to engage hard to reach pupils and what it takes to create a successful Special or AP setting. He also describes his career highlight - building a new school from scratch.
Scott gives us an insight into his own school days in our quickfire round, and reveals how he was once in the unique position of razing his old school to the ground!
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In episode 16, Elizabeth chats to executive principal Sam Bailey as she prepares for retirement. Sam discussed the highs and lows of her incredible 26 years in education, moving from a newly qualified reception teacher to executive principal of five primary schools. Sam describes the joy of first hearing a pupil say 'Mrs Bailey' and teaching little ones, and shares her advice for new teachers starting out.
She also reveals a bit about her own school days in our quickfire round, and gives us perhaps the best answer we've ever had to the question 'what would you do if you had a magic wand and could change anything in the education system?'
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In episode 15 , Elizabeth is joined by Katie Pierce, Principal at The Forest Academy in Kendray, Barnsley. Katie describes Forest's remarkable journey from the 32nd worst performing primary in the country to the outstanding primary it is today, and what it took to get it there.
She explains how critical it is to raise expectations in schools and the importance of having a strong, supportive team around you. She tells us all about her own school days, and why she wasn't always willing to be the focus in the classroom, in our usual quick fire round.
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In episode 14, Elizabeth is joined by Executive Vice Principal at Springwell Lincolnshire Mia Sneyd to talk about all things reading. Mia explains her role in jointly heading up Wellspring's Reading Network and how the group is working together to share best practice and foster a love of reading in classrooms across the Trust.
Mia describes the importance of playing detective to identify the challenges blocking children and young people's enjoyment of reading, and discusses some of the books that can be guaranteed to down a storm in English classes. She also takes on our usual quick fire round, revealing her love of athletics and why the thoroughness of coursework wins over exams.
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In episode 13, Associate Principal Joanna Kempston joins Elizabeth to chat about her varied career in education, from Design & Technology teacher to heading up Wellspring's Communicolour project to developing trust-wide subject networks to increase knowledge sharing.
Joanna describes how the Communicolour initiative is transforming school spaces with world-class art, and discusses some of the challenges along the way. She also explains how her new subject networks project is already creating impact in sharing best practice across Wellspring. She also takes on our quick fire round, revealing she's a big fan of a school trip and (unsurprisingly) that the visual arts will always win her affections over performing.
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In episode 12, Wellspring's Chief Finance Officer Mark Wood joins Elizabeth to chat about all things finance. Mark explains some of the financial challenges facing schools, including SEND funding and the need for schools to regularly benchmark and review their spending.
Mark also takes us through his career journey to CFO of a large MAT and suggests we look again at how we measure success in education. He also reveals his school dinner favourite and more in our usual quick fire round.
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In episode 11, Elizabeth is joined by new Chair of the Board of Trustees at Wellspring Cheryl Hobson. Cheryl describes the changes she has seen during her seven years' involvement in Wellspring, her plans for the future and aims for the board, as well as explaining the importance of good governance in MATs.
Cheryl describes how essential it is for those involved in education governance to stay close to the classroom and highlights the importance of the green agenda in education. She also takes on our quickfire round, revealing her talents in the kitchen and why geography's replaced history in her affections.
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In episode 10, Elizabeth is joined by leadership expert Rob Smith. Rob describes his fascinating journey into education leadership coaching, via fighter jet pilots and prison wings, and explains how we can develop the next generation of education leaders.
Rob discusses what makes a great leader, why vision is at the heart of everything and how things can go wrong when schools don't have the right support for new leaders in place. He finishes off by describing the bits he loved about school in our familiar quickfire round.
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In episode 9, Elizabeth is joined by Catrina Lowri, founder of Neuroteachers. Catrina explains why it's her mission to help schools understand neurodiversity and enable them to better support students with conditions such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia and more.
Openly speaking about her own experiences as both a neurodivergent pupil and teacher, she describes the challenges teachers and schools face in supporting neurodivergent pupils and offers some practical tips on how to work with pupils' conditions rather than against them. She also tells us about her latest book idea and reveals her thoughts on sports days, school milk and more in our usual quick fire round.
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In episode 8, Elizabeth chats to Sarah Parker, Principal Designate at Trent View College, Wellspring's new post 16 SEND college in Scunthorpe. Sarah explains some of the challenges she and the team have faced in getting a brand new school off the ground and ready to welcome its first students in September 2023, as well as the wealth of opportunities associated with it.
She discusses how she's worked to ensure the young people who will attend Trent View College will benefit from the very best facilities and describes some of the unique features of this exciting new build. She also tells us a bit about her school days in our usual quick fire round and reveals how Barnsley's twin town holds a special place in her memories.
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In episode 7, Elizabeth is joined by Jason Thurley, Headteacher at Beacon Academy in Cleethorpes. Jason describes the incredible story of Beacon's success, and how he took it from the school of last resort earmarked for closure to a thriving, oversubscribed secondary school that has just secured funding for a major rebuild.
Jason explains what makes Beacon different, why he won't be pushing to increase its capacity much further and how Beacon's identity is very much a community effort. He finishes off by telling us a little bit about his own school experience in our quick fire round.
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In episode 6, Elizabeth is joined by Carrie Green, Executive Principal at Bramley Park Academy and Elements Primary - and there's a guest appearance from school dog Hamish! Carrie explains how she and the team turned around Bramley Park Academy's fortunes and embedded it firmly in the community.
She also discusses the importance of high quality provision for SEND in mainstream schools and reveals how teaching is in her blood. Her love of music and more features in our usual quick fire round.
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In episode 5, Elizabeth is joined by Katie Hartshorne, Teacher Training and Development Lead at the Josie Thirkhell Institute of Education, Wellspring's teacher training and professional development service. Katie discusses the process for getting into teaching and whether great teachers are born or made.
She also describes her own career journey in the education sector and reveals whether adults or children make the best students before divulging a bit about her own school days in our usual quick fire round...
Thanks for listening! If you enjoy The Wellspring Way, please subscribe. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
In episode 4, Elizabeth chats to Luke Mitchell, Head of Behaviour Support at Wellspring's behaviour consultancy and training service Positive Regard. Luke explains how empathy, understanding and a move away from systems of punishment and reward can deliver impressive results in changing challenging behaviour in the classroom.
He also describes Positive Regard's own story, how his career developed and reveals why his old teachers might be a bit bemused that he's now an expert on classroom behaviour....
In episode 3, David Whitaker, Wellspring's director of learning, chats about his book 'The Kindness Principle' and explains why empathy, understanding and unconditional positive regard are critical in managing behaviour in schools.
He also talks us through his career journey and gives an insight into his school experience by answering our usual quick fire round of questions...
In episode 2, Josh Greaves, Wellspring's deputy CEO, discusses the importance of space and environment when it comes to delivering exceptional education, and how sustainability is high on the Wellspring agenda.
He also explains his career journey to date and answers our quick fire round to give us a bit of an insight into his own school days, including a revelation about his choice of school disco footwear...
In the first episode of The Wellspring Way, Mark Wilson, CEO of Wellspring, explains the Wellspring journey so far and his ambitions for the Trust in the future.
In this episode, Mark discusses the importance of strategic thinking and his approach to leadership, and how we can learn lessons from the great cathedral builders of the past.
Music: The Right Direction by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com
Hear about a brand new podcast from Wellspring Academy Trust. Launching on Friday 19 March 2021...
Music: The Right Direction by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com