Beyond Education that Counts: Recent Episodes
Max Coates
People try to apply metrics to education to define and evaluate it. The impact of education is so much more and presents intangible outcomes. Some of these are intentional however many are ill-considered and can be detrimental for life chances and personal fulfillment. These podcasts explore the undergrowth of education where seeds germinate or where they can be stunted.
More than anything they are a plea for the primacy of teacher professionalism.
I had the privilege of interviewing Chris Fisher, the Blind Woodturner. There is a lot of interest in resilience in our schools and also wider following the pandemic. Hear it from a man who has done it for real
For the last 20 years, education has given a priority to leadership. Sometimes the term is used rather loosely. I am in conversation with Professor Ian Craig who wants to rebalance and clarify the debate on how schools are run.
Dave McPartlin, the headteacher of Flakefleet Primary School in Fleetwood, talks to Max Coates about changing a culture. He took the school choir to Britain's Got Talent. They sang Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now'. Great song but a metaphor for his leadership of a school and its community.
A review of educational leadership, then and now. Whatever happened to the National College for School Leadership. The curious incident of the piano in the night.
A conversation with Dr. Russ Rook about the start of Chapel Street Trust. We discuss what it was like to create new schools and how innovative thinking and practice were gradually brought back into line. Trusts like Chapel street were the forerunners of many of the more familiar Multi-Academy Trusts operating today.
A conversation between Professor Max Coates and Andrew Hammond and Phil Birchinall around the incredible impact of culture on both educational performance and on shaping young lives.
All schools have a culture. However, what is it, what does it do and who is creating it?