🎙️ THE LEADERSHIP LENS Episode: Pupil Premium in Practice: Using the DfE Menu of Approaches With Integrity In this in-depth episode of The Leadership Lens, Rachael Snowdon-Poole explores one of the most significant levers for educational equity and inspection: the Pupil Premium — and how school leaders can use it with integrity, clarity and impact, in line with the Department for Education’s Menu of Approaches and the Education Endowment Foundation evidence base. This episode is designed for headteachers, senior leaders, trust leaders and governors who want to move beyond compliance and develop a strategic, defensible and morally grounded approach to supporting disadvantaged pupils. 🔍 What this episode covers Across the episode, Rachael unpacks: The true purpose of the Pupil Premium Why it exists, what it is (and isn’t), and why it sits at the heart of inclusion, leadership and inspection. The national disadvantage gap How gaps widen from Early Years through to GCSEs — and why early, evidence-informed intervention matters. Understanding disadvantage in context Why socio-economic disadvantage often overlaps with SEND, SEMH, attendance and language barriers — and why one-size-fits-all strategies don’t work. The four funding streams Early Years Pupil Premium Main Pupil Premium Pupil Premium Plus (Looked After and Previously Looked After Children) Service Pupil Premium Including how funding is allocated, managed, and monitored. Looked After and Previously Looked After Children Why this group faces some of the largest attainment gaps nationally, how funding is routed through Virtual School Heads, and how Personal Education Plans (PEPs) should drive decision-making. Grant conditions and statutory responsibilities What schools must do — including publication requirements, evidence-based spending, and impact evaluation. The DfE Menu of Approaches explained clearly How all Pupil Premium spending must align to: High-quality teaching Targeted academic support Wider strategies Practical examples within each tier From CPD and curriculum development, to targeted tutoring, language interventions, attendance strategies and pastoral support. The five-step planning approach How leaders can: Identify real barriers Use robust evidence Develop a coherent plan Implement with fidelity Evaluate and sustain impact What inspection really focuses on How inspectors evaluate leadership thinking, alignment with the menu, quality of teaching for disadvantaged pupils, and the impact of spending — not just paperwork. 🎯 Why this episode matters The Pupil Premium is not a bolt-on or a budget line. It is a moral, strategic and legal responsibility. Used well, it: Changes life chances Strengthens inclusion Improves teaching for all pupils Used poorly, it becomes: A list of disconnected activities A compliance exercise A missed opportunity This episode helps leaders ensure their Pupil Premium strategy is coherent, evidence-informed, defensible and impactful. ⭐ Premium Members’ Resource Leadership Lens Premium members receive exclusive resources linked to this episode, designed to turn insight into action. Premium members receive: ✅ A full training presentation A ready-to-use slide deck that explains: The purpose of the Pupil Premium The DfE Menu of Approaches The three-tier model What effective spending looks like in practice ✅ A detailed training script A facilitator script that enables senior leaders to: Deliver confident CPD to staff Support governors’ understanding Align team thinking around evidence-based spending Strengthen inspection readiness These materials are ideal for: SLT meetings Trust-wide CPD Governor briefings Strategy planning sessions 👉 Join the Premium Members’ Hub here: https://the-leadership-lens.mykajabi.com/premium-membership 🎧 How to listen You can listen to The Leadership Lens for free on: Spotify Apple Podcasts Amazon Music Search The Leadership Lens in your preferred podcast app and follow or subscribe to stay up to date with future episodes.

⭐ Show Notes — The Leadership Lens:

Teaching That Sticks: The Mechanisms Behind Truly Effective Professional Development

Welcome back to The Leadership Lens — the podcast for primary and secondary school leaders who want to improve teaching, strengthen culture, and build thriving schools without burning out their staff.

In today’s episode, we explore something every leader spends huge amounts of time and energy on… but which doesn’t always translate into classroom change:

🎧 Effective Professional Development

What actually makes PD stick? Why do some schools see huge impact, while others see none at all? And how can you design CPD that leads to real, sustained behaviour change? This research-based episode will give you a complete blueprint for designing PD that actually changes practice — not just great INSET, but great teaching.

🔍 In This Episode,

We Cover:

01 — PD as a Curriculum, Not an Event Why the most successful schools sequence, align, and build coherence into their PD offer — across whole school, subject, and individual layers.

02 — The 14 Behaviour-Change Mechanisms A deep dive into the Sims et al. (2021) systematic review and the EEF guidance report, including: Building knowledge Motivating teachers, Developing teaching techniques, Embedding practice

03 — Case Studies From Three Schools - How three schools used the same PD content with wildly different results — and what made the difference.

04 — Three Power Mechanisms The three mechanisms that drive the biggest behaviour change in teaching: Modelling Rehearsal Action planning Why PD without these is almost guaranteed to fail.

05 — Implementation: What You Can and Cannot Adapt - The biggest leadership mistakes in PD, how to avoid them, and what to protect at all costs.

06 — Three Big Leadership Takeaways

Clear, actionable insights you can start using this week.

🧠 Key Research Mentioned

Education Endowment Foundation (2021) – Effective Professional Development Guidance Report

Sims, Fletcher-Wood et al. – Systematic review of PD mechanisms

Deans for Impact – Practice with Purpose (expertise and deliberate practice) Cognitive Load Theory, formative assessment literature, instructional coaching research

🛠 Premium Members: Your Exclusive Resources Premium members get two powerful companion resources for this episode:

⭐ 1. A Fully Editable PD Presentation: Teaching That Sticks: The Mechanisms Behind Truly Effective Professional Development. Perfect for INSET days, SLT training, trust events, or coaching your middle leaders.

⭐ 2. A Word-for-Word Training Script Deliver the session yourself with confidence — ready for any CPD setting, at any time.

To access your resources, head to the Premium Members Hub. Not a Premium Member yet? You can join instantly — all the details are in the link: https://the-leadership-lens.mykajabi.com/premium-membership

📋 Show Notes Episode 4 – Building Strong Foundations in Pre-Reception: How Young Children Grow and Learn

In this episode, Rachael explores what high-quality early-years provision looks like for children aged two to four. She unpacks how talk, relationships, and routines combine to create the strongest possible foundations for learning.

Key discussion points

• Why the two-to-four window is critical for brain development.

• How Development Matters supports but doesn’t replace curriculum design.

• The role of adult interaction as a form of teaching.

• Building executive function and self-regulation through play. • Practical examples of language-rich routines.

• Why nursery practice should remain play-based, not a mini-Reception.

• How to observe and evaluate talk for impact.

Premium Member Resource:

👉 The Language of Interaction: A Practical Framework for High-Quality Talk in Nursery and Pre-Reception

Includes strategies and reflection tools to support leadership, coaching, and everyday pedagogy.

Sign up to the Premium Members' Hub to access this resource and all resources for the previous 16 podcast episodes: https://the-leadership-lens.mykajabi.com/premium-membership

Links mentioned

• EYFS Framework (2025)

• Development Matters (2023)

• Birth to 5 Matters (2023)

• Ofsted Early Years Research Review (2023)

• EEF Preparing for Literacy (2021)

Strong Foundations, Part Three: Talking Our Way to Learning - How Language Shapes the Early Years Episode of The Leadership Lens with Rachael Snowdon-Poole Series: Strong Foundations in the First Years In this week’s episode, we turn our attention to something absolutely central to early education and to the renewed Ofsted framework: spoken language. Under the renewed framework (live from November 2025), inspectors devote the whole first morning of primary inspections to evaluating Strong Foundations in the First Years — with a sharp focus on communication and language, early reading, and foundational knowledge. This episode unpacks why language is the heartbeat of learning and why it remains one of the most powerful — and most overlooked — aspects of curriculum and leadership. From the first gurgles of infancy to the complex oral sentences of Year 2, language is how children understand the world, how they make sense of their own ideas, and how they access every subject across the curriculum. It is not an “add-on” — it is the medium of the curriculum. Across this episode, Rachael explores: ✨ Key Themes Covered Why language must be seen as a core part of curriculum design, not something incidental How children’s early experiences shape vocabulary, confidence, and comprehension The vast variation in children’s starting points — and what leaders must do to close those gaps The importance of purposeful adult–child interaction in continuous provision Why everyday routines — the register, snack time, lining up — are golden opportunities for talk How to support pupils with EAL, SEND, and speech/language needs through deliberate practice The link between spoken language and writing, reading, and wider curriculum access How language bridges early years into Key Stage 1, and why transition must be precise, not broad How religious education, science, geography and other subjects rely on rich vocabulary How intentional adult modelling builds children’s conceptual understanding Why Ofsted’s renewed framework places such weight on spoken language as part of Strong Foundations This is an episode filled with practical examples, leadership reflection, and the deep moral purpose that underpins your leadership and your podcast. 🎧 Where to Listen (Free) You can listen to The Leadership Lens free on: Spotify Apple Podcasts Amazon Music Or via Kajabi: https://tinyurl.com/theleadershiplensfree ⭐ Premium Membership: What You Receive for £11/month If you’d like to go deeper, The Leadership Lens Premium Member Hub offers exclusive tools, CPD packs, scripts and leadership resources aligned to each episode. This week, Premium Members receive: 🧰 The Language-Rich Routines Toolkit A beautifully structured, two-page guide that helps leaders and practitioners transform everyday routines into powerful, high-impact opportunities for language development. It includes: Practical scripts and sentence stems for adults High-impact language-building strategies for daily routines Examples of how to strengthen talk during register, snack time, transitions, outdoor learning, story time and continuous provision Inclusion strategies for pupils with EAL, speech and language needs, and SEND Leadership prompts to help you evaluate the consistency and quality of talk across EYFS and KS1 Ways to evidence this work under the renewed Ofsted framework’s focus on Strong Foundations This resource supports: ✔ curriculum enactment ✔ early language strategy ✔ staff training ✔ inspection preparation ✔ transition conversations ✔ SEND and EAL provision ✔ high-quality interaction in provision ✔ building a genuinely language-rich culture All Premium members gain instant access to this toolkit plus every previous premium resource and all future releases — for £11 per month. 👉 Join here: https://tinyurl.com/theleadershiplenspremium 💬 Why The Leadership Lens Exists Rachael created The Leadership Lens because school leaders deserve: clarity instead of overwhelm reassurance instead of alarmism practical tools instead of theory alone confidence when navigating inspection and a trusted voice cutting through the noise This episode — and the premium toolkit — exist to help leaders create environments where children not only learn to speak, but learn to think, to connect, to understand their world, and to thrive.

In this episode, I continue the Strong Foundations series by exploring what strong curriculum design looks like in the earliest years of education — how it’s structured, how it’s experienced, and how it prepares children for what comes next. The episode unpacks how to design a curriculum that is intentional, coherent and ambitious, helping every child — including those who haven’t yet reached a good level of development — to close gaps and build secure knowledge over time. In this episode, we revisit the prime and specific areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage, exploring the role of the Early Learning Goals, and discussing how the educational programmes within the EYFS statutory framework connect to the Key Stage 1 National Curriculum. Using practical examples from real classrooms — including how a city-based Reception unit explores Farmer Duck to build geographical, mathematical and scientific understanding — I show how a well-sequenced curriculum can strengthen vocabulary, reasoning and comprehension through purposeful play and direct teaching. Listeners will gain insight into: How strong curriculum design supports equity and readiness for Key Stage 1. The interplay between direct teaching, continuous provision, and intentional adult interaction. How early experiences in reading, writing, number and scientific enquiry connect to later learning. Practical ways to align EYFS curriculum content with Key Stage 1 expectations. Who this episode is for: Headteachers, EYFS leads, curriculum leaders and subject coordinators working to build a coherent and connected early curriculum that genuinely prepares children for success. 💎 Premium Member Resource Premium members can download the EYFS to Key Stage 1 Curriculum Continuity Framework – Expanded Edition (Micro Foundations). This comprehensive document: Breaks down Key Stage 1 national curriculum content in English, Mathematics and Science into micro foundations of knowledge that must be established in EYFS. Provides incremental developmental steps for spoken language, reading, writing, number, calculation, reasoning, and enquiry skills. Includes leadership reflection prompts to guide joint discussions between EYFS and subject leaders. Supports schools in curriculum mapping, transition planning and CPD delivery. Sign up for our Premium Members' Hub here: https://tinyurl.com/theleadershiplenspremium This resource is designed to make phase transition conversations purposeful, evidence-informed and fully aligned to national curriculum expectations. Premium members can access the download in the Member Hub now.

In this episode, I explore what “strong foundations” really mean in early education — why they matter, how they’re formed, and what effective leadership looks like in making them secure. You’ll learn about: The neuroscience of early learning and why repetition matters. How language shapes everything else children learn. Strategies to ensure the quietest pupils have a voice. How to strengthen early literacy beyond phonics. Why precision and transition are non-negotiable. Key takeaways: Early education isn’t preparation — it’s transformation. Clarity, sequence, and time underpin every great curriculum. Talk is teaching — intentional dialogue changes outcomes. Practice makes permanent — accuracy before complexity. Getting it right for the most vulnerable benefits everyone. References: Bold Beginnings (Ofsted, 2017) Best Start in Life (Ofsted, 2023) Strong Foundations in the First Years of School (Ofsted, 2024) Education Policy Institute (2024) – Closing the Attainment Gap 🌟 Leadership Lens Premium Extra: The Strong Foundations Audit Tool Downloadable Premium Members' Hub Resource Sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/theleadershiplenspremium A reflective self-evaluation framework to help EYFS and KS1 leaders assess the strength of foundational knowledge, fluency, and inclusion across their school. Sections include: Curriculum design and sequencing Practice and fluency Inclusion and early intervention Language, vocabulary and talk Transition and information sharing Each section includes: ✅ “Look for” indicators for leaders and teachers ✅ Reflection questions for staff discussions ✅ Prompts to evidence intent, implementation, and impact Purpose: To support schools in identifying where early learning is secure, where it needs strengthening, and how to align practice with the moral purpose of equity.

Episode Title The Leadership Lens: Achieve, Belong, Thrive – Leading with Confidence under the Renewed Ofsted Framework ✨ Episode Overview From November 2025, Ofsted’s renewed inspection framework will change the way schools are evaluated — but it doesn’t need to change how we lead. In this extended masterclass, Rachael Snowdon-Poole unpacks what the new framework really means for leaders and staff: the three pillars of Achieve, Belong, Thrive; the golden threads of Leadership, Inclusion and Safeguarding; and how inspection now feels more like a professional partnership than an audit. Across this 40-minute solo episode, you’ll explore how to: Understand the new inspection standards — Expected, Strong and Exceptional — and what they look like in daily practice. Prepare your school team for inspection with authenticity, not performance. Use the notification call, reflection meetings and case sampling to tell your school’s story with confidence. Turn “inspection readiness” into “leadership clarity.” Build a culture where pupils achieve, belong and thrive — every day, not just during inspection week. This is essential listening for headteachers, senior leaders and trust executives who want calm, confident leadership through the 2025 changes. Key Themes Leadership, inclusion and safeguarding as the golden threads of excellence. Using the language of the renewed framework for honest self-evaluation. How the start of the school day reveals culture. The new emphasis on “Strong Foundations” in Early Years and Key Stage 1. Case sampling and reflection meetings explained. Building typicality and sustainability in teaching and culture. Turning inspection into affirmation. Premium Members Premium subscribers can download: A CPD Slide Show on the renewed framework to use with your leadership team. An accompanying training script linked to the slides aligned to the renewed framework. Access these now in your Leadership Lens Premium Hub. Not yet a member? Join here to unlock full CPD packs, templates and extended leadership resources: https://tinyurl.com/theleadershiplenspremium Listen & Subscribe Listen to The Leadership Lens on: Spotify Apple Podcasts Amazon Music Follow for free episodes every week, or upgrade to Leadership Lens Premium for full CPD materials, scripts and implementation guides.

🎙️ The Leadership Lens Episode Title: Behaviour for Learning – Building the Conditions for Thinking Episode Summary: In this episode of The Leadership Lens, Rachael Snowdon-Poole — serving Headteacher in a recently Outstanding school, Director of Performance & Standards across 20 primaries, and Trust Safeguarding Lead — explores one of the most powerful levers school leaders have: Behaviour for Learning. Because great behaviour isn’t just about calm corridors or tidy classrooms. It’s about creating the cognitive space for pupils to think deeply, remember securely, and learn meaningfully. Rachael unpacks what really sits beneath strong behaviour culture — moving beyond systems and sanctions to explore how beliefs, routines, and leadership alignment drive consistency and cognition. Drawing on insights from Dan Willingham, Tom Bennett, Peps McCrea, Dylan Wiliam, and Bandura, and from the real experiences of an executive headteacher leading multiple rural primaries, Rachael explores: Why attention is the gateway to learning — and how behaviour affects cognition. How social norms shape culture and why alignment across adults matters most. Practical strategies for sequencing behaviour improvement in sustainable ways. How leaders can move from managing behaviour to building behaviour. The power of coaching, visible leadership, and cultural reinforcement over time. You’ll leave this episode with clarity about how to create classrooms that aren’t just calm — they’re cognitively alive. 🎧 Listen Free You can listen to The Leadership Lens on: Spotify Apple Podcasts Amazon Music ⭐ Go Premium – Lead Behaviour with Clarity and Confidence Premium members receive exclusive access to the Behaviour for Learning Leadership Reflection Guide, a detailed evidence-informed tool to help you take this episode from theory into action. Inside, you’ll find: 🔍 Reflective prompts to evaluate the current behaviour culture in your school. 🧩 Discussion frameworks for SLT or middle leader meetings. 🪞 Diagnostic questions to identify where alignment and consistency could improve. 💡 Action-planning templates to translate insights into clear, trackable next steps. 📊 Research-aligned examples that link leadership practice to cognitive science. Use it with your leadership team to strengthen culture, align expectations, and build the true conditions for learning — where behaviour supports thinking, not just order. Join The Leadership Lens Premium Membership today to unlock this reflection guide plus every past and future CPD resource, including training slide decks, scripts, and templates across behaviour, teaching, culture, safeguarding and more. 👉 https://tinyurl.com/theleadershiplenspremium 💬 The Leadership Lens helps school leaders cut through the noise of frameworks, policy, and research — translating it into clarity, compassion, and concrete next steps for the classroom.