Pritesh is a science teacher, head of science and assistant head in charge of teaching and learning at Ark Soane Academy. Known as the best science teacher in the country because of his student’s outstanding results, Pritesh takes us through the what, why and how of his approach to classroom teaching, including direct instruction, rehearsal, partic…

In this episode Matt talks to Femi about the things he has learnt from his visits to some of the highest-performing schools in the country and reflects on the ways he would change his teaching as a result. The pair talk about answering in full sentences, paired talk, choral response and rehearsal, amongst many other things. Get in touch with commen…

A short announcement from me to say that we have decided that the last published episode will be the final episode in Season 2, an announcement which simultaneously heralds the arrival of Season 3. I’m excited to say that you can expect more guests on the show in the coming series – Our interviews with star science teacher Pritesh Raichura, and emi…

Today Femi and Matt discuss their career changes, both recent (in Matt's case) and forthcoming (in Femi's) and how they are thinking about teaching and learning, and education going forward. This context should throw some light onto some of the conversations they have had recently or that are coming up.…

The discussion today was prompted by a listener question about students being late to lessons, so Matt and Femi each give their take on that. They discuss what they think the relevant psychology is and how they each handle this situation. They talk about whole-school policies and dealing with a culture of lateness as middle and senior leaders – and…

The topic of today’s discussion is Matt's visit to Ark Soane Academy, and in particular the impressive whole-school culture and the remarkable impact of that on student behaviours, attitudes and learning. Femi and Matt talk about the best science lesson Matt has ever seen, and wider discussion about starting and running schools and embedding shared…

The topic of discussion this week is warning systems – so very much a behaviour-based episode rather than a maths one. Matt and Femi cover a fair bit of ground: from classrooms with names written on the board and hundreds of warnings being issued each day through to classrooms with no warnings and students absorbed in their work. And from supportin…

This week Femi and Matt debate the pros and cons of homework - a particularly slippery beast to nail down. They get into some general principles and challenges of setting good homework, and what they have tried and each do now, among other things. By all means let us know if you think you have this one cracked: @beyondgoodpod on X.…

In this episode Femi and Matt talk about modelling - in all it’s various forms from leading on behaviour through to explicit teaching strategies. In particular they discuss pre-made teacher models and explanations vs modelling live, in real time, and explore some really interesting nooks and crannies of that facet. X: @BeyondGoodPod…

In this episode Femi and Matt discuss setting, the term ‘bottom set’, attitudes towards, and working with students who have low prior attainment. As you’ll hear both advocates of ensuring that those students get the highest possible quality education, that we meet them where they are, and that we work hard, carefully and mindfully as a community to…

In this episode Matt and Femi talk about Adam Boxer’s Book: How to Teach Secondary Science. In particular, they discuss Adam’s concept of ‘Directions of travel’, which provides a nice framework for characterising the way that we move through explanations. Both feel that many teachers could spend more time thinking about and planning explanations th…

Today’s topic is Year 11 mock examinations. Matt and Femi discuss: - Holding 2 or 3 sets of mocks vs just 1. - That mocks should not be the main means by which we discover what students can and cannot do. - Conditions for students to learn and improve on knowledge gaps exposed by tests, the implications for ‘going through’ the test in lessons, and …

Femi and Matt speak to Dave Taylor on the topic of the maths curriculum. Dave is a maths specialist and lead practioner, well known in maths circles for his ‘increasingly difficult questions’ and ‘backward faded maths’. Dave has thought long and hard about curriculum issues such as sequencing and mastery, and has experience of creating maths curric…

Today’s discussion is prompted by the Bill Rogers interview that recently appeared in the TES titled: ‘Bill Rogers: Where we are going wrong on behaviour’. Matt and Femi discuss: - The problem of COVID and re-victimising students - Teacher’s being inclined to appease students rather than lead on behaviour. - If you’re not in control it’s not a safe…

‘Passive passengers!’ - students who are not especially engaged in lessons. Matt and Femi discuss some of the indicators and consequences of passive behaviours, how we might think about that as teachers in terms of tackling it vs accepting it, some causes of passivity, and how we might tackle it.By Matt Findlay and Femi Adeniran

Today's guest is American Educator, Coach and Podcast host Dr Zach Groshell for a fascinating discussion about his work in US government funded schools and his drive for an increasingly evidence-based pedagogy. Matt and Femi talk to Zach about his role as an instructional coach, more and less directive coaching methodologies, the configuration of c…

Today’s episode is prompted by a recent post on X which posed the following question: “What do you do with your mathematics teachers while you do your whole school professional learning on literacy, reading or writing?” Femi and Matt discuss the two main failure modes for students on ‘worded’ maths questions – noting that the more common and critic…

In today’s episode, Femi and Matt discuss differentiation! They talk about adaptive learning, differentiation as an advanced teaching skill that relies on solid foundations of strong learning behaviour and pedagogical subject knowledge and the botheredness to actually go and do it (especially when classes are compliant.) They talk about prioritisin…

In this episode Matt and Femi discuss culture - particularly from the perspective of heads of department trying to shape the culture of teaching staff in their corner of the school. This one is not maths-specific – the discussion is relevent to colleagues from any subject area or team. They consider the fact that culture exists – whether you active…

Today Femi and Matt are speaking about lesson observations and related activities such as lesson visits, coaching and feedback. They talk about being clear on why the observation is happening; good and less good reasons for doing lesson observations and some of the issues around lesson observations as part of the performance management process. On …

Today's episode is about mistakes, disappointment and failure – with the discussion ranging from 'recognising that my last lesson didn’t go as well as I wanted', through to acknowledging and responding to under-performance at the level of the whole school. Matt and Femi discuss the importance of recognising and admitting when things aren’t good eno…

Today’s episode is about 'hit and run' CPD, which Femi and Matt approach with an attitude of constructive criticism and attempting to offer a vision of positive alternatives. 'Hit and run' CPD is really just any so called ‘training’ which is a singular, stand-alone event, with no follow up. All too often these sessions will involve all staff in the…

Today's episode starts with Matt and Femi chatting about Femi’s observations of coaches at his 6 year old's summer tennis camp, which turns out to be a fascinating lens through which to discuss the characteristics of great teachers as it is all about the ‘how’ of what is being done, and not the ‘what’ – which is so often the focus of discussions in…

In this episode of the podcast Femi and Matt share their thoughts on four different topics selected from X (formerly twitter): 'textbooks', 'locking the toilets', 'group work' and 'moving schools'. They discuss what the ideal textbook looks like, mixed revision, and workbooks. The pros and cons of locking the toilets during lesson time, mobile phon…

In this episode Femi and Matt discuss Line management! The duo get into what good practise might look like; things line managers should do and should avoid, regularity of meetings, line management as a partnership – so a collaborative process, and approaching line management outside of your specialism with genuine humility and curiosity. They discu…

In this episode of the podcast Femi and Matt discuss the ideas of Mastery and 'Conceptual Understanding' in teaching and learning. The conversation covers: - Mastery - Layers of understanding - A pragmatic definition of understanding - Common issues in the classroom - ‘rich’ activities vs repetition - Chunking and isolating skills - aha moments - K…

Welcome to this bonus episode of the Beyond Good podcast! The idea here was just to offer a little insight into what goes on behind the scenes at Beyond Good HQ in a very casual chat between Matt and Femi. They share reflections on how the podcast has evolved, a few thoughts on Edutwitter, discuss Matt's view that we don’t need any more 'maps of th…

In today’s podcast Femi and Matt discuss Wellbeing. After making the important distinction between wellbeing and workload they discuss - Attitudes to work - Being present – finding engagement with the task at hand - Meditation - Spiritual practice and gratitude - The effects of being asked to do meaningless or supercilious work - Socialising and so…

In today’s podcast Matt and Femi discuss two main topics which are 'setting', and 'de-escalation'. In both cases the points raised should be of interest to colleagues from all subjects. In the long-overdue chat on setting the duo touch on streaming vs mixed attainment; some reasons why different approaches might be more or less suited to different …

In today’s podcast Femi and Matt dissect the recently published findings of the DFE national behaviour survey. This is another conversation which is not at all subject-specific and should be of interest to all colleagues. In this episode the duo discuss the challenges with collecting and reporting the data; the student perspective; the gap between …

Today Femi and Matt discuss teacher effectiveness vs years of service and some issues with the word ‘experience’ which is generally used as a proxy for competence. As is increasingly the case the discussion is pertinent to all subjects and is not by any means maths-specific. There’s a lot of thinking out loud here and, unusually(!), the boys actual…

In this episode Matt and Femi dig into the dilemma that is ‘homework’! Reflecting on their experiences over the years they ask; how effective is it (academically)?, weigh the costs and benefits, and highlight the demands on teachers. They discuss the different approaches to homework they have tried over the years, the problems each approach threw u…

Today Femi and Matt discuss their approaches to handling complaints. None of this is specific to maths and so the conversation should be relevent for colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds. The pair talk about - Receiving complaints well - Prioritising responding to parents and acting promptly - The importance for people of simply being heard …

Today Femi and Matt discuss an article by Dylan Wiliam titled ‘Teacher Quality: why it matters, and how to get more of it’. In addition to this central theme the pair touch on the failures of policy initiatives to raise standards, teacher learning communities, considerations of the alignment of personal professional development with the school prio…

Matt and Femi are in a pensive mood for a thought-provoking discussion on CPD. They discuss the good and bad of inset days, utilising skilled practioners to model and share expertise, team building, sequencing and differentiation in professional development, ‘hit and run’ CPD vs sustained behavioural change, coaching and culture, Jim Knight and the…

In this episode of Beyond Good Tom Bennett joins Matt and Femi to discuss all things schools and behaviour. Tom Bennett began teaching in the East End of London, and is currently the Director and founder of researchEd and a Teacher Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. From 2008-2016 he wrote a weekly column for the TES and TES online, and i…

In this week’s episode, Matt and Femi discuss a comment made by Adam Boxer –that the most common issue he sees in classrooms he has visited is that students are simply not properly paying attention to the teacher. This is another conversation that will be relevent to teachers of all subjects – it is not maths-specific. The duo talk about why this i…

In this episode Matt and Femi discuss Ofsted. What is on offer is not a position on Ofsted, it is simply a balanced discussion limited to the perspective of class teachers and middle leaders. There is no subject-specificity to this one, so hopefully educators of all stripes will find this useful. The discussion took in some of the following feature…

in today’s episode Femi and Matt discuss centrally planned lessons. Their discussion extends to the various forms of lesson resources such as starters, practise materials, and mixed revision as well as teaching examples. They talk about workload, modelling, the use of different media, meeting the needs of the students sat in front of you, the effec…

In this episode of the podcast Femi and Matt discuss the broad ranging, but critical, topic of 'checking for understanding'. The discussion covers the various time-scales at which teachers might check for understanding; from moment to moment through the lesson all the way up to termly tests, and they discuss a variety of strategies that teachers us…

In this episode Femi and Matt speak to Rachael Southern who they asked to come on the show after learning about her fascinating and inspiring story: Rachael has recently returned to teaching after nearly a decade out pursuing a successful career in corporate law in the city. Not only is Rachael’s journey a fascinating one, but she is in a fairly un…

This episode begins with some further thoughts on department development plans - following on from episode 15 on that topic. Matt and Femi talk about defining what processes will be running in the department rather than trying to describe a particular endpoint and also incorporating teacher’s career ambitions into departmental development plans. Th…

In this episode Femi and Matt speak to Aparna about her experience of education as a mother of two exceptional children. The conversation shines a light on some of the challenges students, their families, teachers and schools face when the children don’t fall into that broad middle 99% that we are accustomed to working with. Hopefully the conversat…

Matt and Femi turn their attention to the subject of Departmental development plans and, as you will hear, this is a topic that they come at from quite different perspectives. They discuss the issues with development plans in the way they all too often appear in schools, vision and ambition for the department, auditing the current state of affairs,…

The central theme of the discussion in this episode is ‘teaching low ability students’. In a fairly wide-ranging discussion, Femi and Matt touch on expectations, setting and sink groups, profiling, behaviour, avoiding conflict, and some common pitfalls they have seen, amongst other things. Although they do cite a few maths-specific examples, on the…

In this week's episode, Femi and Matt mull over a topic which seems to get a disproportionate amount of air time on social media, which is teachers’ thoughts and feelings about their SLT. As always, the Beyond Good team would love to hear your thoughts and responses to the episode: @BeyondGoodPodBy Matt Findlay and Femi Adeniran

In this episode of The Beyond Good Podcast, Matt and Femi discuss resilience. There is an old adage that students should be working harder than the teacher, and they explore this, discuss what they each think is right at the core of good teaching, talk about engineering success, what that looks like in the classroom and how it evolves over time, me…

The theme of Femi and Matt's discussion in this episode is “things that schools could get rid of - or at least do less of”. While it is rarely the case that these ‘things’ are totally ineffective, more likely they are effective to some degree, but in the cost-benefit analysis do they meet the threshold of being effective enough to justify our time?…

In this episode Femi and Matt discuss what they were each doing at the beginning of their teaching careers that they felt was very effective, and as importantly what they were not doing, and then what other aspects came in later when more bandwidth came online as they developed automaticity (unconscious competence). This is a discussion about low h…

This week Femi and Matt discuss ‘making the most of your training year’ – in response to listener demand! Much of what is covered will be useful for trainees and ECTs, as well as mentors and anyone thinking of taking on a mentoring role. Indeed, some of the conversation is ever-green as they do cover areas such as planning, resources and feedback.…