This episode offers practical advice to those taking on new leadership roles in the secondary school, with dos and don'ts, useful tips, and lessons learned from our experienced panel.

If you are a teacher taking on a new leadership role in school – whether that be a headteacher, senior leadership or middle leadership post – then this episode is for you.

Three experienced school leaders offer us some golden rules for taking on a leadership role and discuss how we should start out in our new post, including how we should approach the first half-term in post and what missteps we should avoid.

We ask what the biggest misconceptions of leadership are and what surprised our panelists most when they first stepped up.

We discuss how new leaders can establish credibility and ask our panellists what they would do differently if they could go back to their first term as a leader.

We look at how leaders can prioritise and at people management skills, offering tips for managing difficult conversations. We also advise on managing workload and work/life balance as a leader. We touch on the power of mentoring and coaching for leaders and hear about some of the early leadership experiences of our three panelists.

It's a discussion with lots of practical tips and powerful ideas.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode offers insights, ideas and approaches for teaching year 7 classes effectively – including practical ways of preventing the infamous year 7 dip.

Our expert panel of three experienced teachers discuss strategies for the year 7 classroom and consider the differences between excellent teaching in year 7 compared with older year groups.

Specifically, we consider tips for how to handle the first half-term with your year 7 classes, including how to help pupils settle in well and the learning habits and routines that we need to establish early-on.

We talk about how to develop independent learning skills, literacy and reading, oracy, self-regulation and more. We also discuss how to strike the balance between nurturing these young pupils while also maintaining high-expectations and challenge in the classroom.

The panel touches upon how we can ensure a broad and balanced curriculum for our youngest pupils, how we can identify the core knowledge and skills needed for pupils at this stage, and the role of extra-curricular work.

We consider how teachers can support a smooth transition from primary school – both academically and socially – including tips for the classroom, effective use of tutor time, pastoral support, and advice about what schools often get wrong more generally. We also discuss how to work with the parents of year 7 children.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode offers practical insights for teachers on how best we can support our high-attaining students in the secondary school classroom.

Our panel discusses the language we use when referring to this cohort of students and how we might define what "high-attaining" means.

We then move on to outline a number of classroom strategies for teachers to help them teach and support these learners as well as some common mistakes to avoid.

We discuss how we can create a culture of scholarly ambition in our classrooms and approach the curriculum challenges faced by high-attaining students. We also offer tips for making a success of extension activities.

We ask, too, how we can help learners to become increasingly independent and to stay motivated and engaged – even in the face of challenges and set-backs.

The panel includes an English and a maths specialist but many of the strategies discussed apply across the curriculum.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.