Category: Uncategorized

26. Motivating yourself and your students with Action Jackson

26. Motivating yourself and your students with Action Jackson

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Action Jackson

Helen Prince talks to Jackson Ogunyemi, better known as Action Jackson, about the importance of being able to motivate, equip and empower to unlock young people’s confidence. He shares tips to help teachers motivate themselves and their students, discusses how psychology and physiology are interlinked, and stresses the importance of celebrating ourselves and our achievements.

“The opposite of winning is not losing; the opposite of winning is learning.”

Action Jackson is a motivational speaker, helping teachers motivate their learners to wake up happy and achieve. Known as the UK Ambassador for Happiness, he loves cheesecake, running and inspiring people. Action tweets at @Actionjackson

Further reading and support:

  • Are you looking for GCSE and A Level revision guides for your students? Developed by cognitive science and subject experts, Oxford Revise follows a simple three step strategy that helps students to make every minute of their revision count: Knowledge, Retrieval, Practice.
  • Explore the Oxford Revise student & parent hub for expert videos, past papers, revision planners, and advice.
  • Learner identity and Awe and wonder are two pillars of the Oxford Smart Curriculum. Find out more and read the curriculum direction paper.
19. Curriculum review and implementation with Kat Howard

19. Curriculum review and implementation with Kat Howard

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Kat Howard

Helen Prince talks to Kat Howard about curriculum implementation and how an exciting curriculum fires up and motivates learners. Kat also discusses fidelity to the subject, how to capitalise on colleagues’ interests and passions to enrich knowledge and extend the curriculum, and the importance of awe and wonder in the classroom.

Kat Howard is Head of Professional Learning for a large Multi-Academy Trust Teaching School Hub and is also the founder of national charity, Litdrive UK. In addition to her in-school role, Kat is an in-house Expert Adviser for the Teacher Development Trust, writing curriculum content for the Reformed NPQ Leadership Suite. In previous roles, she was a Senior Leader taking oversight of staff professional development, performance management and curriculum, with strategic leadership for English, and prior to her career in education, Kat gained extensive experience in the financial sector, overseeing recruitment, training and operations for a leading high street bank.


Further reading and support:

16. Identity, Awe & Wonder: giving every young person a voice and ways to bring vibrancy into the classroom with Aaron Bradbury

16. Identity, Awe & Wonder: giving every young person a voice and ways to bring vibrancy into the classroom with Aaron Bradbury

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Aaron Bradbury

Helen Prince and Aaron Bradbury discuss the importance of creating a sense of belonging in the classroom and Aaron offers three ideas for teachers to take away around diversity, equity and inclusion.

Aaron is Principal Lecturer Early Years and Childhood (Learning and Development, Psychology, Special Educational Needs and Inclusion) at Nottingham Trent University. Aaron is the Chair of the LGBTQIA+ Early Years Working group and advocates for representation in the Early Years. He is a Member of the Coalition for the Early Years on the Birth to Five Matters and currently researching on Early Childhood workforce, The voice of the child, and Pioneers of Early Childhood. He is also Co-Chair of the Early Years Academy and owner of Early Years Reviews, Team Early Childhood Podcast.

Further reading and support:

  • Learner identity and Awe and wonder are two pillars of the Oxford Smart Curriculum. Find out more and read the curriculum direction paper.
7. Teaching and parenting with Gogglebox’s voice of reason

7. Teaching and parenting with Gogglebox’s voice of reason

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Baasit Siddiqui

Helen Prince talks to Baasit Siddiqui about his time as a teacher and his journey to becoming one of our favourite Gogglebox regulars.   

As well as being a professional educator, Baasit has been helping to support his daughter’s home learning during school closures. Baasit talks about the remote learning strategies his child’s school used to help build pupils’ vocabulary, as well as the positive experience of seeing his daughter learn through play during lockdown.  

Baasit Siddiqui is the managing director of Siddiqui Education Ltd. Baasit’s passion is to educate, motivate and build aspirations of disadvantaged school children across the nation, using his unique experiences and connections as an educator, entertainer and entrepreneur. He tweets at @SiddiquiEdu

Further reading and support:

6. How can effective school leadership techniques impact quality of education?

6. How can effective school leadership techniques impact quality of education?

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Moira Marder

Helen Prince and Moira Marder discuss the effective leadership techniques Moira has used across the Ted Wragg Trust, a group of 12 schools and 9,000 pupils.  

They talk about the importance of creating a strong team and creating sustainability with a long–term vision for schools.  A lovely conversation about optimism and creating opportunities for our young people.  

Moira is the Chief Executive Officer of The Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust; an Exeter-based Trust set up in 2013 to transform the quality of education and life chances for all pupils in Exeter.  

Further reading and support:

  • Visit our wellbeing hub for support for parents and teachers.
  • Download our report ‘How Schools are Closing the Word Gap: The Oxford Language Report 2021-22’ for a series of case studies from teachers packed with ideas and suggestions for narrowing the Word Gap.
4. Lockdown learnings with Laura Patch: a light-hearted look at acting and home-schooling in the pandemic

4. Lockdown learnings with Laura Patch: a light-hearted look at acting and home-schooling in the pandemic

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Laura Patch

Helen Prince talks to Laura Patch about who and what inspired her to pursue a career in acting. Laura discusses how a broad vocabulary range helps her develop the characters she plays. They also chat about some of the challenges faced by parents during home schooling (peppered with amusing anecdotes from the village WhatsApp group!).

Laura Patch is a British comedy actor and mum to three young boys.

Further reading and support:

3. Covid’s impact on Early Years teaching – how to identify and address gaps in learning

3. Covid’s impact on Early Years teaching – how to identify and address gaps in learning

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Phil Minns

Helen Prince and Phil Minns chat about the joy of working in an Early Years setting, and discuss the impact of school closures on Early Years learning. They look at how to identify and prioritize which gaps to focus on, as well as discussing the importance of EYFS teachers working with KS1 teachers to ensure children have the basics to build on in the next step in their education.

Phil also talks about his time with Ofsted and the rewarding moments of working with schools.  A funny and light-hearted conversation covering everything from drama and stories to crisp flavours and musicals! 

Phil is one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors and is the specialist advisor for Early Years and Primary education. He has been Assistant Director of Children’s Services with responsibility for education, SEND and Early Years. 

Further reading and support:

  • Find out about Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), an evidence based intervention programme for children aged 4-5 to overcome language difficulties, independently evaulated by the EEF.
  • Word Sparks is a collection of fiction and non-fiction titles to help improve Early Years vocabulary and phonics.
  • Explore our ebooks library for Letters and Sounds.
  • Little Blending Books is a collection of books to help children practise sounding and blending words.
  • Kalim started in Reception as one of the youngest in his year. He started to learn sounds in September and by April could read, enjoy and understand simple storybooks. Watch his reading journey with Read Write Inc. Phonics.