We welcome Dr Fiona Heath-Diffey to the studio today to talk us through her doctoral research into the experiences of primary student teachers getting to grips with the idea of teaching PE.

Fiona has previously joined us to talk about physical literacy - the idea that PE lessons should give pupils a lifelong healthy relationship with exercise and their bodies, rather than teachers taking an elitist view centred around creating elite sports people.

In her research, Fiona uncovered some compelling stories about primary student teachers as they worked on their PE teaching skills, and about how their own lived experiences of sport and exercise had a bearing on their learning.

Thanks to Fiona for battling through some serious lurgy to tell us all about it!

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Recorded in Studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 7th March 2025

For teachers it's the Easter break, and so we like to bring you another of our selections of the interesting, humorous and strange things we have been reading or otherwise consuming lately.

This time around, Tom's taking a look at what it's like to be a 'progressive activist', while also musing on the power of the legally-enforced lunch break. Meanwhile, Emma has a book recommendation and a bit of a rant about the dusty old tropes wheeled out every time a TV drama is set in a school.

Many laughs were had along the way, and we hope it whiles away a bit of time for you too. (And don't tell our colleagues where we hide when we're trying to get work done!)

Normal service will be resumed in two weeks' time.

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Recorded in Studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 11th April 2025

Back in our non-camera-enabled studio, we've got some thoughts for you today about how observation can be made more purposeful. Often found as an initial activity at the start of student teacher placements, it can sometimes be a missed opportunity if student teachers simply stand at the back and try to make sense of what's going on in a busy classroom in an unfamiliar school.

That's why we got some top-quality school colleagues in to discuss the challenges of making observation purposeful, and some simple strategies to give things a little more structure. They produced some clips, and we're bringing you those today.

After that, we flip things around and look at those moments where mentors are observing student teachers and giving feedback. What can we do to make those experiences even richer?

We hope there's something in there to get you thinking if you work with student teachers, whether inside or outside Wales.

Thanks to all our colleagues who helped with this project: Sioned Dafydd, Lucy Donovan, Nia Lockett, Lauren Rees, Scott Morgan, Rhian Staples and Rhian Wyn Griffiths.

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Recorded in Studio B2.10A at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 28th February 2025.

Back in our normal studio, we welcome Professor David Egan back to the podcast. David was last with us taking about the poverty gap in education, and today he’s here to tell us about a report he’s written into the recruitment and retention of secondary school teachers.

The report ranges widely around lots of important questions about what is shaping up to be something of a crisis for the profession, not just here in Wales but across the UK and, increasingly, internationally. David and his team have tried to find out why primary seems more attractive than secondary for people seeking to learn to be a teacher (despite primary teaching being really hard work), and what goes on once teachers get a job in a school. Are secondary school working conditions fit for a 21st century world of WFH, and do school leaders have the tools they need to develop their teachers professionally throughout their careers?

All these questions and more make for an interesting discussion with David. You can read the whole report from David and the team here: https://issuu.com/cardiffmet/docs/a_future_teaching_profession_for_wales

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Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 3rd March 2025.

We're in the 'other' studio today which, to our delight, is not bristling with cameras! Apologies to the very small club of people who watch our episodes on YouTube.

Emma was recently asked to review a book for the National Drama subject association: Teaching and Learning Shakespeare through Theatre Based Practice. Today we bring you an extended chat about the book, what it brings to those who want to use theatre based practice to help pupils access the work of Shakespeare, and what wider themes we can draw out for teachers in general.

Thanks to Emma for doing all the hard work on this episode, and we'll be back with our normal camera-enabled service next time.

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Recorded in studio B2.10A at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 28th February 2025

We make no apology for having based several of our episodes around the person that many student teachers report is the single most important person in their teacher education journey: the mentor. They're the school-based colleague who looks after the student teacher on placement, gives them advice, feedback and support, and assesses their teaching.

It just so happens that one of Emma's many jobs is to be on the team that supports those all-important mentors, and today we're joined by Sian Wickersham, who's another member of that mentor support group.

In this episode, we chew over some of the difficult issues that arise in trying to define the role of mentor, how the university can support them, and what research tells us about some of the tricky contradictions that sit at the heart of the job.

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Recorded in Studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 12th February 2025.

Today we welcome Kelly Bubbins from Willows High School in Cardiff. Willows is located in a part of Cardiff that's not without its challenges, and as Kelly tells us, assumptions about what that means for the aspirations pupils can have for themselves were a big problem for the school. This translated into poor behaviour and low aspiration, and the school decided to have a reset of its policies to see if something could be done about it.

Kelly explains to us how, after the school looked outwards to other organisations, and to research, it settled on a strategy that was Marmite to some, but quickly showed results for the pupils and teachers. After initially importing approaches from elsewhere, the school then evolved these so they were a better fit for their own context.

The results of that are in in the form of a glowing Estyn report hot off the press, and we're grateful to Kelly for helping to explain the story behind what happened.

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Recorded in Studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 17th January 2025

Today we're all on our own without a guest, because we're presenting original Cardiff Met research! But our colleague Sioned Dafydd is with us in spirit as she was a key member of the three-person research team that carried out this work.

Today we're looking at what happens when student teachers change from one school placement to another, and when they move from their initial teacher education into their first job. In particular, we're focusing on the part that Wales's Professional Standards for Teaching and Leadership have to play, but many of the issues we uncovered are universal for all of us who work with new members of the profession.

Using the results of interviews with student teachers and their school-based mentors over the course of a year (plus a final interview with three of our participants once they had secured jobs), we pieced together what goes on when new teachers make the transition from one school to another. With a little help from theories by Wenger, Maton and Korthagen & Lagerwerf, we try to explain what causes those tricky moments in new schools when people feel they've gone backwards, and propose some ways to make things easier.

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Recorded in studio D0.18 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 16th December 2024