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Personal development that opens doors with Pete Thorpe

Duration: 15:26

Episode summary

Further-education colleges do more than prepare students for a qualification. They can rebuild confidence, unlock talent and widen a young person’s sense of what is possible.

Geoff Barton speaks to Pete Thorpe, Personal Development Manager at Leicester College, about supporting a highly diverse community of learners. Pete introduces Thrive, the college’s personal-development programme, which gives 16-to-19-year-olds dedicated curriculum time to develop resilience, communication, teamwork, wellbeing, safeguarding awareness and other skills they will use throughout life.

They explore how current affairs can make abstract ideas feel relevant, link vocational and academic learning to the wider world, and give students material for discussion and debate. Pete also explains why inclusion is central to the programme: differentiated versions of the same article allow learners, including students who are new to English, to take part in a shared conversation. It is an optimistic case for personal development as a source of agency, aspiration and opportunity.

In this episode

- The breadth and diversity of further education

- Rebuilding trust for students who felt school did not work for them

- Why personal development matters alongside technical training

- The structure and aims of Leicester College’s Thrive programme

- Connecting classroom learning with the real world

- Building literacy, oracy and independent thought through discussion

- Challenging the belief that certain opportunities are “not for people like me”

- Differentiating content while keeping learners in the same conversation

About the guest

Pete Thorpe is Personal Development Manager at Leicester College. His work supports learners across a wide range of academic, vocational, apprenticeship, adult-learning and supported-learning routes, with a focus on the transferable skills and opportunities that help students thrive beyond their chosen course.

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Citizenship matters - but schools still face a practical question: where does it fit?

Geoff Barton is joined by Rob Poole, Director of PSHE and Citizenship at Sharples School in Bolton. Rob explains why citizenship has gained new urgency amid political change, the pandemic, artificial intelligence and the rapid growth of social media as a source of news. At the heart of his approach is active citizenship: students should understand society, recognise that their voices matter and believe they can make a difference.

The conversation explores how citizenship can be woven through PSHE, relationships, law, equality, finance and careers rather than confined to a single unit. Rob also shares how extended tutor time creates space for reading and current affairs, why teachers should not avoid difficult issues, and how well-sourced, politically balanced journalism can support safe and nuanced debate. He closes with practical examples of using news across subjects, tutor time, homework and classroom discussion.

In this episode

- Why citizenship is essential — and too often overlooked

- Moving students from passive consumption to active participation

- The effect of political and technological change on citizenship education

- Finding curriculum space for PSHE and citizenship

- Why critical thinking benefits every subject

- Helping students assess news beyond social media

- Handling sensitive and controversial issues with confidence

- Using current affairs across subjects and beyond the classroom

About the guest

Rob Poole is Director of PSHE and Citizenship at Sharples School in Bolton. He leads the school’s work across citizenship, health and wellbeing, relationships, careers and financial education, and champions informed discussion as a route to active participation.

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“Every teacher is a teacher of English” is easy to say. Turning it into consistent classroom practice is much harder.

Geoff Barton talks to Jennie Shearer, Literacy Lead at The Cavendish School in Eastbourne, about making literacy a genuine whole-school responsibility. Jennie explains why secondary literacy goes beyond phonics, fluency and reading ages: students also need to understand, question and enjoy texts, while learning to read, write, speak and listen like historians, scientists, geographers and artists.

They discuss how middle leaders and subject specialists can embed disciplinary literacy, why assessment data should open questions rather than close them, and how reading supports wellbeing as well as attainment. Jennie also shares how she redesigned the school library around “social reading”, using current-affairs articles to generate purposeful talk. The result is a lively account of student agency, intellectual challenge and the joy that can emerge when reading becomes something young people do together.

In this episode

- Why secondary literacy must go beyond the basics

- Creating collective ownership across departments

- What disciplinary literacy looks like in practice

- Supporting students to read and communicate within each subject

- Using assessment diagnostically, not just as a headline reading age

- Turning a quiet library into a space for social reading

- The relationship between reading, oracy and student agency

- Learning to disagree well — and to change your mind

About the guest

Jennie Shearer is Literacy Lead at The Cavendish School, an all-through school in Eastbourne. A teacher and experienced literacy leader, she focuses particularly on embedding literacy across the secondary curriculum and supporting subject teams to develop their own disciplinary practice.

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What do young people need to know and be able to do if they are to become confident, active citizens?

Geoff Barton speaks to Helen Blachford, Director of Personal Development at Bohunt Education Trust. Helen describes a trust-wide approach that places citizenship, PSHE, religious education, careers, digital literacy and oracy at the centre of students’ development. Rather than responding to the modern world simply by banning phones or warning about social media, the trust aims to equip students to question information, make informed decisions and participate confidently in society.

Helen explains how a shared core curriculum sits alongside local flexibility, how different schools organise RSHE, and why personal development deserves the same rigour and status as other subjects. She also discusses the value of student voice — including students helping to strengthen teaching about misogyny — and how trusted current-affairs content can provide a framework for critical thinking and debate.

In this episode

- Bohunt Education Trust’s ambition to develop “game-changers”

- The knowledge and skills young people need to participate in society

- Digital literacy, information literacy, citizenship and oracy

- Combining a trust-wide core curriculum with local choice

- Giving personal development proper curriculum status

- Assessment, misconceptions and student voice

- How students can help shape and improve the curriculum

- Using trusted journalism to support critical thinking

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How can schools encourage more reading without overlooking the students who find it difficult?

Geoff Barton speaks to Professor Jessie Ricketts, a psychologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, whose research focuses on reading development in adolescence. Jessie explains why reading engagement and reading proficiency must be considered together, how widely students’ skills can vary within a single classroom, and why reading is an issue of educational equity as well as attainment.

They explore the importance of whole-school leadership, disciplinary literacy and choosing approaches that match a school’s intended outcome. Jessie also explains how The Day’s differentiated versions of the same current-affairs story can help students with different reading abilities access a shared discussion — connecting literacy, oracy and learning without limiting anyone’s intellectual potential.

In this episode

- What research tells us about teenagers’ reading habits

- The difference between reading engagement and reading proficiency

- Why variation in reading and language skills matters in every subject

- Reading as a social-justice issue

- The role of senior leaders and subject teachers in building a reading culture

- Why reading initiatives need a clearly defined goal

- How differentiated texts can create more equitable classroom discussion

- The close relationship between literacy and oracy