Helping Schools to Become Great Places to Work with Mandy Coalter

Summary

In this episode of the School Podcast, Mandy Coalter discusses the importance of transforming schools into great workplaces. The conversation covers HR, teaching, and school culture, emphasizing the crucial role of leadership in shaping school environments. Mandy highlights the need for flexibility, staff retention, and valuing every role within a school, from teachers to support staff. She also touches on challenges like workload and stress and offers insights into fostering positive workplaces through flexible practices and effective communication. The episode concludes with recommendations for improving school cultures and ensuring educators' well-being.

Highlights

• Mandy Coalter is passionate about helping schools become better workplaces, focusing on leadership and culture. 🏫
• Flexibility for teachers and staff can improve retention and job satisfaction. It's not just a perk but a necessity! 📆
• Listening to staff feedback is crucial. Engage with everyone from janitors to teachers to make impactful changes. 🗣️
• AI could be a game-changer in reducing teacher workload and improving educational practices. Stay informed! 🧠
• Mandy's book, Talent Architects, is a resource for educators looking to improve their school's work environment. 📚

Key Takeaways

• Leadership is key to creating a positive school culture. Make sure everyone feels respected and valued! 🌟
• Flexible working isn't a dream - schools can make it happen for happier staff and students! 🎓
• Valuing every staff member, from teachers to cleaners, creates a cohesive environment! 🤝
• Regular feedback and a supportive culture can transform a chaotic school into a harmonious one! 📋
• AI and digital tools can revolutionize how schools manage workloads. Embrace the future! 🤖

Overview

Mandy Coalter has vast experience in transforming school environments through innovative HR practices and leadership training. Her interview reveals great insights into making schools places where teachers and staff thrive. She believes schools should not just be educational institutions but also great workplaces and provides actionable insights for achieving this.

Throughout the conversation, Mandy emphasizes the importance of flexible working conditions and treating all school staff with equal value. She shares practical strategies for addressing common issues such as workload stresses and ensuring every member of the school feels valued and respected, underlining how this approach leads to a more harmonious and effective teaching environment.

The introduction of AI and digital tools in schools is also explored, presenting opportunities to streamline operations and reduce the burden on educators. Mandy highlights the potential of modern tools to revolutionize educational work environments, echoing her vision that forward-thinking leadership and inclusive practices can significantly impact school success.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction In this introductory chapter, the host welcomes listeners to the school podcast featuring guest Mandy Coulter. The episode promises to cover a wide range of topics related to Human Resources, people management, teaching, and learning, making it appealing to a broad audience. The host expresses gratitude to sponsors Gadget Line, praised for producing high-quality media for schools, and Dreams to Reality, recognized for their excellent school programs that emphasize mindset development.
• 01:01 - 02:30: Mandy Coalter's Work and Philosophy The podcast episode introduces Mandy Coalter, an expert in motivation, well-being, and academic performance, who discusses her work and philosophy. Despite the gray and drizzly weather, Mandy expresses her enthusiasm for being part of the show. The episode sets the stage for a conversation at Access Education HQ, highlighting the objective of transforming dreams into reality with impactful speakers.
• 02:31 - 09:00: Flexible Working in Schools This chapter is centered on the topic of flexible working in schools. The conversation begins with an acknowledgment of the difficulty in finding time to discuss such matters due to busy schedules, suggesting the prevalence of this issue in educational environments. The dialogue highlights the person's extensive work and respected reputation in the field of education, noting that their contributions are both valuable and impactful. The content sets the stage for a deeper dive into the specifics of flexible working within the educational sector, considering the significance of balancing workload and personal life for educators.
• 09:01 - 15:00: Leadership and Culture in Education The chapter explores the importance of leadership and culture within educational settings. It emphasizes the necessity for schools to create work environments that are not only nurturing for students but also exemplary for staff. The chapter highlights the speaker's commitment to transforming schools into outstanding workplaces, reflecting the belief that excellent educators come from excellent employers.
• 15:01 - 24:00: Teacher Development and Importance The chapter focuses on the significance of teacher development and creating desirable workplaces in educational settings. The main speaker discusses their role in ensuring that institutions become top employers where individuals choose to work, want to remain, and feel they can thrive. Special emphasis is placed on working predominantly with academy trusts to impact a greater number of schools, while also occasionally collaborating with individual schools. The discussion highlights the comprehensive approach, involving all levels from cleaning staff to top leadership, emphasizing that every part contributes to the whole.
• 24:01 - 30:00: AI and Future of Education The chapter titled 'AI and Future of Education' takes a deep dive into the essentials of creating a supportive and thriving educational environment. It highlights the need for each academy trust to promote itself as an inviting place to work, emphasizing the importance of school-level satisfaction daily. Every individual in the educational system, from janitorial staff to catering, contributes significantly to the institution's environment. The narrative underscores the collective effort required at multiple levels to enhance educational offerings and ensure both trust-wide and individual school-level success.
• 30:01 - 35:00: Conclusion The conclusion chapter focuses on the importance of creating a cohesive and supportive school environment where every staff member, not just teachers, plays a critical role in its success. The chapter emphasizes the significance of ensuring that everyone, from the management to the cleaners, are appreciated and can interact positively with students, fostering a community where everyone feels valued and part of the school's success. The goal is to make the school a great place to work where every individual's contribution is recognized and makes a difference.

Helping Schools to Become Great Places to Work with Mandy Coalter Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Welcome to another episode of the school podcast and today we have Mandy Coulter. In this episode we talk everything HR, people, teaching and learning. You name it, this episode is for you. With that said, I also have to thank Gadget Line for making this all happen. They produce worldclass videos and pictures for schools. So, make sure you get in touch with them. Also, shout out to Dreams to Reality as well, running world-class programs in schools focused on mindset,
• 00:30 - 01:00 motivation, well-being, academic performance. We have a list of unbelievable speakers delivering impact every day. So, check out Dreams to Reality. Let's get into the episode. Welcome to another episode of the school podcast. Once again we are in Access Education HQ here in Lurra and today we got Mandy Coulter. How are you Mandy? I'm really well thank you on this rather gray drizzly day but great to be here. The winter is here. Um we were
• 01:00 - 01:30 just talking then we've been trying to do this for a very very long time. I know we're both too busy aren't we? We are both very busy. But we did it. We we're here. We're going to we're going to make it happen. And there's loads of um stuff I really want to talk about and dive into because you are literally working with everybody in education or so it seems and your work is really well respected and extremely valuable. Um and it makes a difference which I think is absolutely key. But for everybody who
• 01:30 - 02:00 doesn't know who Mandy is, can you explain in short what you do? Oh yeah. Well, it's I guess it's simple but you know challenging. So my work is about uh working with as many schools as possible to help them become great places to work. Okay. And the reason I do that is because I'm really passionate that if we want to be the amazing educators that I know all schools want to be for children and young people, we actually have to be amazing employers. Uh and we haven't always been as a sector. Uh we really
• 02:00 - 02:30 need to be one of the very best employers that people choose to come to. They want to stay. They feel they can flourish. So what I try and do is focus on that. How do we create great places to work? And I I work mainly with academy trusts. Okay. Because that way I can impact more schools, but I do sometimes work with individual schools as well. So when you when you look at or you work with a trust, do you look at it from all the way down to cleaners and Oh yes. all the way up. Yeah. Absolutely. And it's a sum of its parts because you
• 02:30 - 03:00 know for every uh academy trust uh they've got to create a sense of we're a great trust to work at but obviously every single individual school needs to be a great place to work as well because that's the daily experience of all the staff and it's it's about those two adding together and enhancing that offer. But you are absolutely right that every single person who's in that school environment or in that trust matters. you know, they they clean and make sure the classroom's clean, the catering staff feed the children, the estate
• 03:00 - 03:30 staff look after the buildings and keep them safe and secure. And that matters as much as those teachers in the classroom. So, it is absolutely about looking at how everybody feels about working there. And and how can we make it a great experience for everybody no matter what part they play. I think you're right as well because when when I go into some schools and they've really nailed it down, it doesn't matter who you are in the building, everybody gets along. Even the cleaners may talk to the students and and everybody knows everybody and there's a real good
• 03:30 - 04:00 culture um built into the school, but how does a school get there? Or let me ask you a different question. If you go into you start a new project in a school or you're going to run a program for a trust, what are some red flags you see straight away when you're like this needs to be worked on yesterday? Is there anything what comes to mind like, okay, this is a problem? Well, I think the first thing you have to do is get your evidence base, okay? And and check in with everybody. You know, what is this trust school good at? Um, and what
• 04:00 - 04:30 could be better? So, uh, I will work with the trust and the schools to make sure that we're surveying staff. You know, we're doing that properly. It's a rigorous survey that can properly analyze people's feedback. And then I'll go and talk to the staff to get the stories behind that data. So the data will usually tell me, you know, maybe a big thing that comes up a lot in schools is workload and that that lack of sense of well-being. That comes up an awful lot as you might expect. Another issue that actually comes up quite a lot is those that are not classroom teachers,
• 04:30 - 05:00 not feeling as valued as the teachers, a bit like we just talked about. So those are the kind of themes that might come up through the data. And then I'll go and do the focus groups and talk to the staff and say, "Well, tell me more about this. What does it mean? What would make the difference to you?" Um, and the stories really help flesh out that data. And then I'll work with the trust to say, look, this is the reality of where you are now. And there's some there's always things that trusts and schools are brilliant at. These are the things that we need to address. But we also look at that in the context of where is
• 05:00 - 05:30 the world of work going and how are people's expectations changing. So if people are saying quite a lot, you know, we can never work flexibly here no matter what. That's no longer sustainable in the modern working world. So we have a look at how can we change that because even in in a school environment people can work flexibly. It's not the same as perhaps what you and I can do. It's different but there are still ways that you can make it work. So how what are some of the ways you you can make flexible Yeah. I mean there are some amazing schools and trusts now doing brilliant pioneering
• 05:30 - 06:00 work in this area and the government obviously have launched the flexible working ambassador. Okay. uh schools and multi-ac academy trusts and they're the pioneers on flexible working and they do lots of different things from you know trusting people to do their planning time at home or wherever they want to do it looking at the times that they set meetings for and making sure they're not in really antisocial hours that they run meetings really efficiently. Um allowing staff to request a personal day off once a year because they might want to go to
• 06:00 - 06:30 their own kids's nativity. They might want to go to a kid's graduation. they might want to go to Glastonbury. I hear that a lot. You know, you're a teacher, you got to go to Glastonbury. Whatever it might be, they don't care. They just say, "We'll see if we can make it work, you know, and then some schools are doing some great things around allowing people to ask for slightly later starts or early finishes to pick their own kids up from school." Do you think that would have a massive impact in keeping teachers in the
• 06:30 - 07:00 profession? Well, I see it in those schools that p and and I don't think there's enough data capture of this actually in evidence capture because I see it with the schools I work with where it it enables people to flourish. They do stay. The retention rates are better. Um they're usually schools that are performing really strongly educationally because they've they're keeping great people. Their recruitment costs are low. It really is a win-win. There are some difficulties around how we timetable part- timerrs and how we manage parents perceptions and but you know I'm a parent and my son's been
• 07:00 - 07:30 taught by part-time teachers, job share teachers and he's flourished through that. So these things can work. Is that the same for primary and secondary school or is it more flexible working in primary school or Yeah. How do it's interesting because I think the solutions are can be a little bit different because of obviously the nature of how you're teaching. you know in secondary timetabling is often the challenge in primary obviously it's different because you've got the connection with one teacher so there are some different um solutions but I think the processes to get there uh the change
• 07:30 - 08:00 process is often very very similar yeah it's for leaders headteers CEOs I might bring Mandy in but I might not like the answer Mandy finds what obviously I I guess that's a a great attribute of that particular leader to bring you in to be like okay we need to improve. We need to develop and we need to make progress but at the same time it's looking in the mirror and sometimes we don't want to look in the
• 08:00 - 08:30 mirror. So like yeah is is that a common problem you see when like in schools at the moment because if you're running a school and you found out 60% of your staff are not happy at the moment that's quite hard to swallow isn't it? It is. It is. I mean, most of the CEOs I work with um want to get better in this area. They know it's important. They know they could be better and so they are very open and engaging in the process. Um uh and to the point where, you know,
• 08:30 - 09:00 sometimes I'll walk in the room and I think this is going to be a bit of a tricky conversation and they're just they are amazing. Take it on the chin. We really need to do something about this and what do we do? So I feel really blessed with that and I guess that's why they ask me in. I think for them it can be challenging because absolutely some of their individual schools might feel a bit more sensitive to where they're landing in the whole picture of the trust. Um and I have spoken to some CEOs where you know they've got to go and have some tricky conversations with some of their school leaders because absolutely their staff survey results
• 09:00 - 09:30 aren't great. Now sometimes there are good reasons for that if a school's in a very turbulent time and lots of change is going on and they're trying to turn around a lot. But um it's about having the honest open conversation about how we're going to work on this and see it as important educationally because if you're a school that's got a huge churn of teachers every year that impacts education. It does you know it isn't just a nice to have people retention. It's fundamental to the children. So the CEOs I work with they get that um and
• 09:30 - 10:00 they're prepared to handle that then how they they deal with that internally. There have been a couple of occasions I would say in the work I do where um sadly I feel that maybe what I've suggested has ended up in a drawer rather than actually really action. A bit of a tick box. It's really sad. I f it's quite heartbreaking when that happens cuz you know how do you know when that happens? Uh because I keep close to what goes on later. Um I watch with interest. I keep in touch with the trusts I work with. And honestly, you
• 10:00 - 10:30 know, I could I could count it on one hand and I've worked with dozens and dozens and dozens of trusts. So, it happens, but it does happen and it is sad. Um, because, you know, you want to make a difference. Um, and you cost money. They're paying for you. You want them to get some value from you. But, uh, luckily, you know, most of the trusts I work with, they just do amazing work after I've left them and and I'm really proud of them. So your book talent architects, why why have you used the word architects? What was the what was the meaning behind that word? Yeah.
• 10:30 - 11:00 Yeah. Well, actually, you know, it was a a conversation with somebody um and thinking about how to kind of bring together the sense of what I was trying to achieve in in that phrase and that's that's what we came up with. And the two words really, you know, talent, you're thinking about growing, nurturing people, developing people, getting the best from them, allowing people's talents to flourish. Okay. But alongside that, the architect's bit was around when we think about architecture, you're thinking long-term planning, you're
• 11:00 - 11:30 thinking sustainable, you're thinking creative and innovative. And I think um in our approach to culture and how we um develop people in our sector, that's where we need to be. We need plans. Yeah. You know, they need to be longterm. I talk about a long-term people strategy, but we also need to be really innovative. If we keep doing what we've always done, we'll always get what we always got. Yeah. So we need to think about well a bit like we were talking about flexible working can we smash the old ways of doing things and think about doing things differently because the the
• 11:30 - 12:00 modern world needs that from us. So for me great architecture does that it kind of stimulates different thinking. So talent talk to me about talent. So I'm assuming that you're seeing everybody as talent. Yes. So say you're a teacher or you're going into a new role in SLT. Can you learn and develop as a teacher and improve your ability or a leader or is it just something you've got? Oh gosh, no. We can all learn, can't we? And develop. Um, for sure. And he's a
• 12:00 - 12:30 naturalb born leader or she's a naturalb born leader. No such thing. No such thing. No such thing. I You might get the odd person who innately is very, you know, good at bringing people with them. Definitely. Um, but when I think about, you know, I've led big teams and the biggest team I ever had was 200 people in my career. Um, and when I think back to when I first started, what was that doing? I was working in in the NHS in a big acute hospital, running all sorts of services. Um, and really pressurized environment, really, really busy 24/7.
• 12:30 - 13:00 Um, and I think back to how I led then, how I led when I first started leading and all the mistakes I made. You know, when I first became a leader, you definitely did think that you had to know all the answers, right? You had to be the person that was the most expert. And actually, I realized throughout my career, absolutely not. In fact, the best time in my career was when I sat around the room with my team and I thought, they're all better than I am. Yeah. Which as a leader is a little bit scary, but actually is where you need to be. You need to build a team that's so
• 13:00 - 13:30 great almost don't need you. Almost don't need you. You're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. I love that. Well, I would say you're only as good as the people that work for you. Yeah, you need a great team. So, I think leaders absolutely can develop and through all sorts of ways. Um, one of the things I'm really passionate about is that at the moment we don't consistently develop people in schools to be great people leaders. Okay. All of the education programs that we offer are very much about how to lead education.
• 13:30 - 14:00 And obviously that matters. Obviously absolutely matters. But we don't prepare people for how do you have a difficult conversation with somebody? How do you get the best out of people when you're recruiting? How do you really spot because it's not really a science, you know, it's a bit of an art. We don't do that. So, um I'm just developing a new program actually to bring that to the sector because I I I feel like we are failing leaders chucking them in expecting them to be able to lead people and then as an HR professional sadly you
• 14:00 - 14:30 see when that goes badly wrong which is heartbreaking again you know. Why is everything you're talking about absolutely essential for student outcomes? Um well there's lots of evidence that tells us that um you know student outcomes are uh impacted by quality teaching. Full stop. And actually uh for disadvantaged students that matters more than ever. So a quality teacher in every classroom in this country is what's going to make the difference to student outcomes. Is that happening at the moment? Uh, no, not no
• 14:30 - 15:00 because we've got high turnover of teachers. We're struggling to recruit into certain subjects. We've got a burnout of our teachers. So, if you're feeling really stressed and under pressure, how can you perform at your very best? How could anybody? So, there's some big challenges there, but we know that's what makes a difference. And so, if teachers are, you know, if we are struggling to recruit in certain subjects, if we are losing teachers out of the profession, then that impacts student outcomes. And often certainly the schools I've worked with, you see
• 15:00 - 15:30 that triangulation between they're struggling with student outcomes, uh they're struggling to recruit and retain great people and often then there's there's a money issue, finance issue as well because you know it costs a lot of money to lose people. Um so it's really important what is missing for teachers. So from the outside in, obviously I work in education, so playing I guess devil's advocate. They get paid relatively okay money. Um they get a lot of holidays
• 15:30 - 16:00 every single year. They you know they finish at 3:00 every day. I'm not saying this is the truth. So don't don't any teachers watching no don't clip don't clip that. I know that because I'm I'm in schools every single day. But like what what is missing? what what is like the fundamental things that is missing at the moment um yeah in education because there are so many amazing people who are teachers who are leaving the profession at the moment you know I think some of the things you've said
• 16:00 - 16:30 were part of the kind of original deal weren't they for teachers you know you get a bit of work life balance you get the holidays you get decent pay I think that has shifted a lot you know there's definitely been issues about the relative level of pay for teachers over the last decade compared to other graduate professions that I know the government want to put right and that's really their job to put right to a certain extent but coming back to what do if you start to look at those younger generations coming through they want two things right they want um meaningful work well we offer that but
• 16:30 - 17:00 they also want flexibility and they want to be trusted and schools we talked about this earlier have not always been great at that and it is more challenging than you know professional services firms or all these organizations now that can offer you hybrid working or whatever it might be. It is more difficult to get that offer right in schools. But if you're a school that can offer that meaningful work and be very creative and positive and supportive around flexibility, you'll be really really attractive. And not just to the
• 17:00 - 17:30 younger generation actually because research shows I I did some work um looking at um older teachers and how to retain older teachers in the classroom. Um and again flexibility was fundamental that ability to just you know work a bit differently as you get a bit older but actually still very very capable of delivering great education for children and young people. So it's kind of that's an offer across all generations now. Hello my name is Annis Jennos. I am the founder of Aduro. Aduro is England's
• 17:30 - 18:00 leading stakeholder feedback solution for schools school trusts. Uh we work with over a couple thousand schools and about 200 school trusts. A lot of the work that we do is with staff retention, trying to understand the effects leading to it. And our research shows that the top three factors contributing to staff decisions to stay or leave uh their trusts or schools are mental emotional well-being and the stress levels they feel. Second, the workload and how
• 18:00 - 18:30 balanced it is. And third, the relationship with their leadership, whether they feel trusted and respected. Those three factors have more of a relationship uh with staff retention than school size, area, region and any other factor. So whatever you do, make sure that in your school you work carefully on the culture and you really understand what's contributing to it. What's the first thing what comes to your mind when you think about flexible working? What could school start to
• 18:30 - 19:00 implement? Is it the day so you can a day off so you can watch nativity? Is it so you can go to Glastonbury? Is it just those days off here and there or is it leaving early on a Friday? Is there any other things we've not discussed which can be flexible? Well, do you know the one thing that um I always encourage schools to start with because actually it's not difficult to do um is uh to think slightly differently about their policy. So a lot of schools flexible working policies follow the legislation
• 19:00 - 19:30 which says somebody can put in a formal request and they have a right to do that and and the laws just changed on that. So there are more rights for the employee and what I've always encouraged schools to do is take a step back from that and encourage your staff to come and have an informal conversation with you and see if you can find a win-win. Um and then you can just rubber stamp it if you can. And if you can't then they still have the right to go and ask formally. But if you create that culture where it's okay to ask, it's okay to talk, it's okay to try and come up with a win-win. And that isn't hard for as a
• 19:30 - 20:00 leader, it just doesn't make sense why you wouldn't want to do that. So when I've had members of staff for me said the things maybe I'm a bit more lenient, but I'm paying them out of the pocket of my business like, "Yeah, no problem. Do what you need to catch up when you need to." Whatever it is, if you need to do it, go and do it. Because sometimes I've gone to some schools and um the the teacher might email me saying, "I won't be in in the morning, but I'll be in the afternoon because I got a funeral in the morning." And then I find out later on in the afternoon. There's someone really
• 20:00 - 20:30 close to them. So, they got the time off to go to the funeral in the morning, but then they had to be back at 12:00 to be back in school for the rest of the day. To me, that's baffling. And that would make me not want to be a part of a school because it's just like to me if I was a a leader and I know there's a lot more constraints, there's a lot more um challenges with timetabling. I get it. But if I was a head teacher, I was like there's no way you can come back into school after that funeral. Absolutely no way. We do whatever we can. Even if I have to teach that class, I'll do
• 20:30 - 21:00 whatever I can to make sure that you don't have to come back. Am I wrong? Am I deluded? I don't I don't know. No. I mean, you're right to say to acknowledge it's harder in a school environment than it is in other businesses, but there are other sectors too where it is hard, very frontline delivery. So, we're not alone in that challenge. Um, but you're also right that, you know, you would like to think that as a leader, you would look all you'd exhaust all those options, wouldn't you? And the very best school leaders in in this field do that and they get the dividends from it. And
• 21:00 - 21:30 there are increasingly lots more school leaders taking that attitude, which is lovely to see. But there are still those stories out there sadly where you know people are told they can't have any time off for anything no matter what. Um or absolutely as you've described you know they have to be back in as soon as that event's over. I guess there's a flip side though isn't it? Like when you're teaching in the classroom it's sir can I go to a toilet and you're like okay you might let one go then all of a sudden all their hands go up and you know they're supposed to be gone for 2 minutes it stretches to five. So it's like you give them an inch they take a
• 21:30 - 22:00 mile. Would that be the same with staff though? Is that the downside to this? So, you know, if you start letting people have time off for everything, you wouldn't have any staff. Is there is there an opposite? Like, yeah. Is there a counterargument to this? So, I guess it's two things, isn't it? One, it's creating that culture. Um, and I've I've heard um I think it was uh Johnny Utley who's written a brilliant book, Putting Staff First. He's an educator. I think it was him I heard talking about this that you you have to create that culture where people really want to be there and want to give their best. Yeah. So they
• 22:00 - 22:30 don't want to do those things because that's not in the interest of the children, is it? And it's not in the interest of each other. And if people are really connected culturally and that also means you can sometimes have the hard conversations with them. You know, I really want to do this, but unfortunately it just super clashes with our needs as a school right now. Let's talk about what else might be possible. Um, and I think, you know, we've all been there, I think, in our careers and understood, okay, you know, what I'm what I'm asking for is not necessarily doable, but they are offering me some alternatives because they do still care
• 22:30 - 23:00 about me. And I think if you've got that culture, firstly, people will want to be there and be committed um, and will respect that, but also secondly, they'll understand sometimes when maybe what they'd like isn't always possible. Once again, I started thinking about the opposites. I wonder how many teachers or people are working in schools at the moment have like um silently quit. So they've kind of just taken a massive step back from their job. They no longer
• 23:00 - 23:30 really care anymore. They're just doing just enough so they don't get fired but not really doing anything more. Um and the students and yeah for themselves the impact on on their own mental health but also then the outcomes of the students as well. It's like how do you like start to build up the morale I guess in education or in schools? Is there any like ideas you can use personally or schools can start to implement or is it just a case of getting the data first, seeing what the data says and then go
• 23:30 - 24:00 from there? I mean there are definitely things that schools can do. So I I tried in the book to just give some a really simple framework for this based on all the research and evidence that I've seen which I try and keep on top of and also my just very direct experience of working with schools and you know I talk about these four pillars in the book of the things that will make the biggest difference. Uh and quite a few schools have told me even without working with me directly they've just bought the book you know implemented those thoughts and
• 24:00 - 24:30 ideas um and and seen the benefits. So definitely you know um uh there's things in there about what are the four pillars? The four pillars are first one is leadership, culture, climate. So all the things we just talked about developing your leaders to be leaders of people and recognizing that we're not born that way. We do have to be coached, develop, mentored, trained to be great leaders of people. Uh so that's the first pillar. um letting people flourish their talent, developing them, CPD, professional development, really focusing on allowing people to grow as a
• 24:30 - 25:00 professional, offering them a career. That has to be effective though, doesn't it? Has to be effective. It has to be something they own and are engaged in. Um for and and that applies to everybody in the school environment and and some staff feel they often don't get access to that kind of training and development. Thinking about your pupil behavior systems, how safe is it in the school? how supported are people with dealing and tackling with behavior issues because that really makes a difference to what your work in life's like. And then finally, the fourth pillar is around um looking after
• 25:00 - 25:30 people's well-being, enabling that flexibility and looking hard at workload to make sure it's sensible and you're not asking people to do daff things because you've always done them. Um and that you really are always asking the question, should we still do this in this way? And I think with digitalization and AI, you know, we've got to have a rely on that because everything we're doing today is probably going to be able to be done differently tomorrow. So, how can you see AI affecting education within the next
• 25:30 - 26:00 couple years? Yeah, I mean AI is going to affect so much, isn't it? But it still feels really unknown. Um uh you know I think in my own profession as an HR professional automating a lot of our processes can free up time and money to do things much more slickly. When it comes to the classroom it's really hard to know but certainly you can think of the tools and techniques that must must take out some time factor for teachers things that allow them to just do things quicker slicker um and really which
• 26:00 - 26:30 improves their ability to teach to focus on the children and the young people. Absolutely. But also, I guess preparing the young people for a world of of AI um and trying to be a breast of that. And I know there are some trusts I think Dixon's Academy Trust are looking quite hard at AI and how it could help with teacher workload. And it'll be really interesting to see what comes out of that those trusts that are trying to pioneer that and how that can be replicated. Um and I do think it could revolutionize things over the next five
• 26:30 - 27:00 years if we harness it in the right way. For sure. Interesting. So, have you started to implement it in what you're doing at the moment or is it still that unknown? Yeah. Where where are you at with this whole idea of AI? Because I think sometimes there's people who are like jumping go going all in. There's other people who's, you know, trying it a little bit. Then there's other people who are just completely avoiding it like it does not exist. Where are you? You know what, Cameron? I'll be honest. I'm
• 27:00 - 27:30 in that sort of I know I need to get my head around this. I know I need to think about it. Uh and I know I need to apply that both to how I operate and my work. But it is hard and it's daunting and it's a bit scary, isn't it? Even like um has anyone ever sent you like a kalanly link. Yeah. And and then you like you find your time and then it sends the link to and I'm like, "Oh my god." I think these they save so much time, don't they? I did a Zoom session a little while ago and somebody said to me, "Do you mind if we just do the AI um
• 27:30 - 28:00 recording of your session and what the AI will do is summarize your 90minute session." And when I got the report back, it was amazing. I couldn't have written it better myself. Wow. How it summarized my session. Uh yeah, it's mind-blowing, isn't it? And that's a tiny tiny thing. So, yeah. What do you think schools would struggle with though trying to implement AI because they're so they're already you know there's time that's what I mean the time the time is not there so what challenges can you see
• 28:00 - 28:30 schools facing apart from yeah do you think it's something which is how do you think AI is going to be introduced in education I think the big challenge is when you're really really busy it's hard to get the time to step back and think how could I be more efficient and doing that actually takes time and investment. So quite often to become more efficient, you have to put some extra time in. You have to create the time and that's hard. Yes, it's common even for someone like us who you know we run our own businesses and there's that common
• 28:30 - 29:00 saying of working in your business or working on the business. And at the moment, I feel like I've not really made much progress over the last two years because I've spent way too much time working in the business, being on the road every single day working with school, doing amazing things, but I'm still doing what I was doing 2 years ago. And it's really good, but actually there's I can make it bigger and better and impact a lot more people if I just spend a lot a bit more time working on
• 29:00 - 29:30 it instead of in it. And I think that's probably the same for AI and not just businesses, um, normal businesses, but also education. And I think that's where the academy structure can be really powerful. You know, you're not on your own as a school. There's an infrastructure to support these things. Um, and if a trust is able to help do that thinking with you, Yeah. not for you because it is really important that professionals that are delivering day in day out feel part of any change. But if the trust can just help create that
• 29:30 - 30:00 capacity across its schools, that's really powerful. And it's much harder to do that, I think, if you're on your own in an individual school. It's not impossible, but it is tougher, I think. What do you think to, you know, the saying that being a head teacher is like being a football manager? Have you heard that before? Yes. The amount of pressure and um what's your thoughts on that kind of statement and what what you see working in schools? I don't think it's helpful as a statement actually because it creates a sense of insecurity. That's
• 30:00 - 30:30 essentially what they're saying, right? Yeah. Yeah. You don't deliver this year's exam results, you're out. You're out. And sadly, that may well be the case in some uh schools and some trusts, but I think I would like to think that most recognize it's a really tough job. I mean, I I hats off to head teachers. They are amazing people doing amazing work. It's a very very pressurized challenging job and just gets more and more so I think as time goes on. Uh and I think they deserve huge amounts of support to do that job really really
• 30:30 - 31:00 well. empathy, a time, all of those things. And of course, you know, if they're not doing that job well, like all of us, appropriately challenged but supported through that. And and sadly, sometimes it won't be the right role for some people. And and maybe, you know, and I, you know, I've been an HR professional for 30 years, and I do believe that every single person that moves on from a role should move on with dignity and respect. Got you. whatever the whatever the reasons um I mean obviously there are some people that you know we might not treat like that
• 31:00 - 31:30 because they've done really really terrible things but for most people maybe they have struggled maybe it wasn't right for them uh it's been too much pressure whatever they still deserve dignity and respect to go and do something else because everybody's got talent um and sometimes timing is important the environment's important sometimes the coaching and the mentoring they're getting because I know some head teachers who who've um struggled and they no longer became a head teacher and they went to another school and became a deputy head again and they've kind of
• 31:30 - 32:00 built themselves up again, maybe developed a bit more confidence, learned from the current headteer and maybe in another 5 years they might want to go at it again or they might not. I don't know. But um it's just about I guess that supporting environment, isn't it? Culture again, I think is key. Yeah. And you know, it's quite a unique leadership role because if you think about your community and where you live, right, we don't know who the person is running our local supermarket. No. Um, you probably don't know who's running your local hospital, you know, but you definitely
• 32:00 - 32:30 know who's running your child's school, but then you think it's a unique business, isn't it? Unless you trust take care of all the money, but say a headteer might be in control of finance. So, you got the business side, so cash flow and everything. So you got your finance, but then you got your students, your managing, your teachers, and you got parents as well. So like you've got this whole it's a you don't really have any other business like that, do you? No. No, no. And you're very visible as a leader. Really visible. You might not even be in the school that day and something kicks off, but your face is on
• 32:30 - 33:00 the paper tomorrow. Absolutely. And you you might Yeah. You're responsible, aren't you? Yeah. And I think that is pretty unique when you think about the rest of, you know, public private sector organizations that people are running. So I think they deserve all of our respect. How do you build good culture in schools? Um I think it does start with the way leaders lead and that sense of everybody feeling safe, valued, respected and trusted. And that's not to say that we go around being soft and
• 33:00 - 33:30 cuddly all the time. You know, sometimes the kind thing is to have a difficult conversation actually in a respectful way. But it is about making sure that everybody does feel they've got a voice. They can be heard. They can be listened to. They are respected for what they do no matter what they do. And it and the leader sets the tone of that. So the head teacher because it's such a unique role. Their approach attitude will permeate the school. Uh so they really matter. But I think the best headteers
• 33:30 - 34:00 recognize that it can't be just left to them. you know, as we talked about earlier, they've got to make sure that every single head of department or leader um buys into that philosophy and understands how to lead well and how to create that culture and environment. And those are the the schools that get it right where it permeates throughout and the head sets it, but it's not reliant on them. So, we're talking obviously a lot about people, but what can the individual who works in a school do to take
• 34:00 - 34:30 responsibility for themselves? Cuz it's easy to still sit back, blame the head teacher, blame the trust, blame offstead, blame, but what I'm not saying they're not all factors, but what can the individual do to start taking responsibility to become a architect, I guess, instead of the assassin? What can they assassin? What can they do to like really start to make an impact in their life so they go in school and feeling amazing? Access Education Software is
• 34:30 - 35:00 there for those busy school days, for the chaotic mornings when getting out of bed without a coffee can feel impossible. We're there for the multitaskers, for the cashless lunch payments, the fussy eaters, and the ones that always forget the school trips, the letters home, and the countless emails. And we're there for the teachers, making sure everyone's paid accurately and on time. And we're no stranger to the world of education related pensions. We're there for the time off, whether you choose it or whether it chooses you.
• 35:00 - 35:30 We're here for those looking for the best, for those focusing on developing and empowering themselves and others, and for those looking to build their teams. We're there for those tasked with keeping the budget in check in challenging times. For those planning the recommendations to governors, for budget monitoring, and those that need to report on adjustments throughout the year. For those planning the next budget and the next and the next, for the years to come. We're here for the information seekers, insight detectives, and real-time data warriors. For those that
• 35:30 - 36:00 need accurate reports generated in minutes. We're here for the children. For those that want thousands of award-winning, easy to digest learning videos across more than 30 subjects in multiple languages. For the anxious exam takers, and for every single person that wants to make education great. Once the school day is done, we'll still play our part. We're still there for updates and to keep parents informed. and for those homework assignments and all important grade boosts. We're still there for the
• 36:00 - 36:30 governor meeting and the parents evening, the afterchool clubs and the extracurricular classes. And as for the hardworking teachers and staff, we're here hoping you can find a little extra time in the evenings to unwind. So when the day comes to an end, teachers, parents, and children across the land can rest easy knowing that Access Education software will be there tomorrow to lend you a hand. access education giving you the freedom to put education
• 36:30 - 37:00 first. So I think the first thing that's really important one is that you know choose a school that aligns with your own personal values is really important. Uh, and of course most Is that easier said than done now? I I think well, you know, with the way that the labor market is, teachers are pretty marketable. So, it's probably slightly easier to move schools. I recognize it's not always easy if you've got commitments in a certain area. But knowing your own value, I suppose, knowing your own value and try and try and choose an
• 37:00 - 37:30 environment. I think you learn that as you go through your career. You may be the same. Early on, I never thought about any of that. And then as time went on, I realized, oh my goodness, you know, I can only work somewhere where there's a huge alignment between Oh, 100%. I turn I turn away schools now. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So, if you And I had a situation where I was talking to Dave, my camera guy, um about I was in a school. I won't name the school, and a new head teacher came in. And I mean, I
• 37:30 - 38:00 don't think I've met a more unprofessional person in my entire life to the point she knew who I was. She even looked me up and down and said, "Who are you?" "Well, I'm a visitor in her school." She didn't know who I was. You probably should have came up to me saying, "I don't know who you are. Can you tell me a bit more about what you do? Why you here?" Um to the point also like uh they'd give out mental health questionnaires. She would want to change it all. If uh any staff wanted to see the counselor, they would have to go to see her first before they see the counselor. All all of this, this is a true story as well. And when it came to
• 38:00 - 38:30 the end of my contract, the deputy head was lovely. She's like, "Obviously, we're not going to go forward yet, but we keep you in mind in the future." I said, "Respectfully, um, I wouldn't be coming back anyway. There's a reason why I've not sent you the proposal you've asked for because it's just not the right fit anymore, and it's a shame because it was it was a good school, but they might get the outcomes and it might be, you know, really, I don't know, but I don't What is the long-term impact of that kind of control?" Well, I guess, you know, short term it might be okay, might it? At some point that's got to
• 38:30 - 39:00 buy. I think it wasn't a bad school. Like it wasn't Yeah, it's probably a few things. The head teacher previously was there for about 15 years. They loved the head teacher. So you know there was things what needed to be improved for sure. But the way it was kind like dealt with even I was like wow I the last 5 days of my contract I had anxiety going in and I wasn't I was only there once every two weeks at that point. Yeah. So you can imagine what it might be like if you're working there every day. Exactly. And I think that's the thing, isn't it? You know, if if staff can think quite
• 39:00 - 39:30 carefully about that, am I going to feel valued, respected in this environment, do their due diligence when they're applying for jobs, the market is in their favor for that at the moment. That's the first thing I think. Um, if you're in that environment, then absolutely be that person too. You know, treat others with respect. If you've got uh difficult conversations, have them, but with respect and care. Don't avoid those things. understand the pressures on leaders and try and have some empathy for that. If you're in an environment
• 39:30 - 40:00 that perhaps does feel toxic or difficult, that is a really hard place to be. All I did then was I think, okay, what am I responsible for? Just get my job done. Be polite. Do exactly what I'm here to do, but um also with Yeah. I knew I wasn't coming back. Do your best to role model the way. Yeah. Get some support because, you know, recognize you're in a tough environment. Get some support. Um, and then think about your future options and as I say, learn from that. I think when I've worked in places
• 40:00 - 40:30 that actually when I look back were not that healthy. No, I learned a lot about my next move and did worked really hard. I think it's really important not to just run away from something and go from the frying pan into the fire, you know. So, know your value and find that place where you can really I think for myself, I also then struggle like, oh, have I made an impact on my name in a negative way? My brand obviously what I do is all about you know it's my name so you overthink everything but then actually some things are not even about you
• 40:30 - 41:00 sometimes not even thinking about you really so it's just about understanding your value and I think even for teachers in schools um you definitely like need to go to somewhere you enjoy working and the schools that I'm I'm working at at the moment are absolutely incredible. I said, "Yes, you've got the investment of giving me money to come in, but also if you provide me with the investment of the time with a teacher, the data, everything, your experience is going to be 10 times better. I am not a magic pill." Absolutely. And like then all of
• 41:00 - 41:30 a sudden you put that out there. Um, and that's exactly what you kind of you kind of get, I think. Do you experience that? I was going to say, I guess we're both lucky because the people that invite us in to work with them absolutely want to connect with what we're doing and are really bought into it. And I have to say that's what makes my work a real pleasure. And I'm sure I can see it's the same for you because you really feel like they care. They're passionate. They want your expertise. They want to create better places to work and they'll go with you on the journey. And I love that. Um I mean you asked me earlier,
• 41:30 - 42:00 you know, what about when they don't feel that way. I very rarely have to experience that which is the joy of which is the blessing of how far you've come I guess. Yeah. That's amazing. So like what where do you want to take it over the next couple years? Obviously, we talked about the introduction of AI. Things might change. Things might be a little bit different. Do you have a vision for what you're doing? Is there like a purpose you're really working towards at the moment? Yeah, there is. There's a few things for me. And you you you start to get to a certain age where you think about legacy, right? I'm 32
• 42:00 - 42:30 and already doing it. Yeah. See, you know, oh gosh, I'm not going to say how old I am. Uh but you definitely do. And the one there's a really important thing for me is that I want to be I love what I'm doing and I'm I'm working with all sorts of um uh parts of the sector. But I I do want there to come a point where the sector doesn't need me anymore, you know, because this this thinking is so embedded. It's the way we do things. So for example, one of the things I'm doing at the moment is I'm helping bring in a whole new cadra of HR talent and
• 42:30 - 43:00 developing HR professionals to bring in this expertise to the sector because HR as a profession has been very traditional in schools very behind the curve very paperbased transactional so bringing in a whole raft devel recruiting developing because I'd like to feel that you know there comes a point where I know um leaders are really engaged they've got good professionals working alongside them they don't need me. You don't need me. So almost do your business out of, you know, and I'll then
• 43:00 - 43:30 think about doing something else. Um, so there's that on my mind over the next few years. And, um, also maybe how digitalization might help my reach, you know. Um, you can only be in one place. I can only be in one place at one time. And for some schools that might not feel affordable. So is there a way of digitalizing what I do so that, you know, the reach can be bigger? I'd love to do that. Um and uh the other thing for me is we talked earlier about developing leadership people leadership
• 43:30 - 44:00 skills. So I'm launching my new program right now on that the inclusive people leader. I want that to become a a big thing in the sector. I want the sector to recognize that leaders are not born, they are made and to put effort into developing great leaders because that's what's going to retain staff ultimately. So I really want to make that a big impact in the sector over the next few years and become a bigger part of what I do. It's a tiny part at the moment, but really build that. What do you do to look after yourself?
• 44:00 - 44:30 Well, I am much better at that than I used to be. Golf on the weekend with your 13-year-old son. Well, yeah, that wasn't really good for my well-being cuz I really did my shoulder in when I tried to play nine holes of golf. Um, it's not good for my temper that I don't think. Yeah, I He's the golfer, not me. Um, so what do I do? Well, I uh I do yoga. You look after yourself. I do. I do yoga twice a week. Um, and I fit I was telling you earlier about, you know, John Murphy laughs at me because I'm so
• 44:30 - 45:00 clear with him when I'm available and when I'm not. To be fair, he was like that with me. Not free then. Won't be free then. I'll be free in four months. Should we book this day in? And I never used to be like that when I was in a job because you have to do whatever your boss asks you to do, right? I'm my own boss. So I'm only accountable to myself and I do love that. So I do prioritize my yoga classes and getting out for a walk every day is really important to me and I feel that if I don't manage to do that because I've taken on too much work and I do sometimes do that. I'll go
• 45:00 - 45:30 through periods where I've taken on too much. I feel my own well-being suffering a bit. I I do the work because I care about it but you think am I really being my best self because I'm not getting the break I need. So, um, I do that and it's it's important because, you know, I'm running a busy business, but I'm also a mom with a lot of responsibility for that. And you can lose yourself quite easily, I think, if you're not careful. And I've definitely done that at times in my career. I can imagine doing what
• 45:30 - 46:00 you do. I certainly do it when I run programs in schools. I put a lot of pressure on my shoulders. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, like I can imagine when you go into schools, you you really take a lot of pride in the work that you're doing and you want to see impact. You want to see change. Um, and it's hard to say no, isn't it? I'm sure you're the same because you know the people ask me to work with them. I always want to say yes. Like I do that sometimes. Oh, I've seen you done a a parent session in a school. Um, how did that go? Yeah. Yeah,
• 46:00 - 46:30 it was good. And they're like, oh yeah, we're thinking about doing. I said, you know what? Like I'm doing six days a year. The next visit I'll do it for free for you. And I'm thinking, what am I doing? What am I doing? I'm going to be staying until 8:00 at night in the school and I still got a 3-hour drive to go back home. But so it's like I'm always trying to give as much as I can and add as much value as I can, but also I think it comes back to the leaders. It comes back to anybody who works within education. You also got to look after yourself. And I think when I'm not
• 46:30 - 47:00 exercising, I'm really miserable and I it affects my eating and everything. But like mental health does need physical support whether it is just going on a walk or whatever. But that's also that that builds longevity. And I know it sounds basic, but it's I know firsthand as soon as I stop exercising, everything just goes downhill. And for me to be the best I can, best dad, best own business owner, best coaching speaker in a school, we need to be on it. Well, we
• 47:00 - 47:30 all need to look after ourselves, don't we? It's the whole oxygen. Oh, you did it. Everyone loves that one, don't they? But you know what strikes me about that? Every I don't know if everybody does this as a parent, but whenever I'm on a plane and they start going on about that, you have to put yours on before your child. I have this whole would I actually be able to do that in an emergency? Would I actually be able to put myself first in that moment when every instinct in my body would be to put the child first? Wow. I do. I overthink things. Maybe I do. But and I
• 47:30 - 48:00 think though when you think like that that we do apply that every day, don't we in the workplace where we are constantly putting everybody else's mask on and not our own and not taking that step back and recognizing that that's a that is a choice and it's a choice that at some point has some implications for you. It's quite a big thought really isn't it? Another quick question. How can schools avoid creating like an echo chamber of like just hearing what they want to hear, just being told what they want to be told, not actually opening up
• 48:00 - 48:30 to what's actually going on and and helping. So I feel like sometimes education runs a risk of being an echo chamber. And I think sometimes we don't listen to the external factors of what's really going on. Yeah. Like how can you avoid creating an echo chamber? How do you avoid it in your business? But what Yeah. How do you see it? There's nothing more dangerous, I think, for a leader than a a yes culture. And I think recognizing that, you know, uh that
• 48:30 - 49:00 creates a huge amount of risk because you won't know what's going on. You won't know the reality. You could miss really important things if people just feel like they can never say what's troubling them, worrying them. Um, and I remember when I first worked in the health service, I walked into a team that had a real yes culture in it and there was loads of things not right. Um, and as a leader, it didn't feel comfortable that cuz I thought, well, I'm responsible for those things. I need people to be able to tell me when they're not right. I need to know. I need to fix them because, you know,
• 49:00 - 49:30 there's implications of this stuff. So, I think if a leader recognizes that, then it is about working hard to make it psychologically safe. Talk a lot about that, don't we? psychologically safe and it's how you respond, isn't it, when people give you bad news, how you deal with that. Um what's your response in the moment? How do others see you respond? Um and if they see you respond positively, okay, I'm really glad you told me that. Yeah. Let's talk about it. Uh that's a very different way, isn't it, to sometimes we see leaders just not
• 49:30 - 50:00 want to hear things. So quickly then before we wrap this up if there's anything what can school leaders head teachers CEOs if they if you don't have the capacity to go into their school see first buy the book right but secondly what what what is the first step they're like we need to we need to improve this and make a a greater place to work what is the first thing they need to do first thing they need to do is talk to the staff ask them you know and and do that in a way that will create proper bring
• 50:00 - 50:30 an external person in to do that. I personally think start with a survey, but do an external validated survey. People get very suspicious of, you know, something that's done internally on like that head teacher trying to change the and you hear some horror stories. I I have heard horror stories of somebody sat in an office looking at who said what in the survey. It happens. So, you know, telling your staff, I genuinely want to know this is confidential. We're bringing in experts to help gather your feedback. We're going to then talk to you about the results. We don't just
• 50:30 - 51:00 want to look at the data. We want to then have conversations and being curious about what you're doing well because every school will be doing something well but being open to you know this isn't such great news and talking to people then about what would help make this better. can't always wave a magic wand. Managing expectations can't change everything overnight. But what are the three things we could start to do differently that would just make your working life better? And I think if they can do that, it can take you an awful long way to starting to create a really healthy culture. Sometimes change
• 51:00 - 51:30 just feels impossible. So I think sometimes people don't even try. I remember I did a a whole day for V Virgin Media um years ago and um they said, "Yeah, this whole day is great." Like they the staff said, "You're great. This is amazing." But now when we go back, the workload is going to be five times what it was this morning because we've been out all day. And it's like, how do you how do you have that as a balancing act, I think. But yeah, amazing. So, last
• 51:30 - 52:00 question. If you could sit down with anybody, you should know this one if you've watched a John Murphy. I knew you were gonna ask me this one. Well, I gave John five people. Or did I give him three? Did you said five? Five. So, I'll give you three then. Why not? You if you could sit down with any three people, dead or alive, what three people would you sit down with? Okay. So, there are some people that might be a bit obvious, but you know, who doesn't want to sit down with Nelson Mandela? Who doesn't want to? and just talk to him about his
• 52:00 - 52:30 life and his sacrifice and how he feels about what he achieved. Do you have any Nelson Mandela quotes for us? Oh, no. Oh, God. Now you're really putting me on the spot. Yeah. Do I have He's education. I just say he's a lot of beautiful quotes about education and important and he really did believe in education, didn't he? And that ability to forgive and, you know, move forward. Incredible. So, he would be an absolute must. Um, I really loved uh Michelle
• 52:30 - 53:00 Obama's book and I thought I'd really love to sit down with a glass of wine with her and and just chat that through. Um, and then you know what? The third one isn't even a real person, right? I just Okay, Dave, get ready to cut. I just read uh I just read a novel, okay, called um Lessons in Chemistry. And uh I've got I've got the book with me. And the character in this book I've got the person with me in my bag. I've got the book with me. The character in this
• 53:00 - 53:30 book, she's she's called Elizabeth Zot, and she's a chemist in the 1950s. Uh, and of course, such a different world for a woman to be a scientist. Um, and she it's just about her story and she's just such this formidable, amazing character that when I got to the end of the book, I was reading this book on holiday, I actually felt, oh my gosh, now I finish this book, I miss I miss this character. I miss this character. And I have never felt that. That's amazing. At the end of reading a book. So I highly recommend
• 53:30 - 54:00 the book and I'd love to sit down with a fictional Elizabeth Zot. Amazing. Brilliant. And she she's a great cook. So that would make it fantastic. Do you like cooking? I like to be fed. You like to be fed but not like cooking. Cooking for me. That's amazing. But anyway, Manny, where can people find you if people want to know out like find out more? Where where can they find you? Yeah, so there's the website um talentarchchitects.org.uk. UK. Um, which says a little bit about what I do. Um, good website by the way.
• 54:00 - 54:30 How to contact me. Oh, thank you very much. It actually needs a bit of updating, I think. So, needs a little bit of updating your blogs. Yeah, a bit old, aren't they? I need to do a bit more writing this year. It is on my list of things. You ever tried AI with your blog? I'm going to find an AI thing and just talk to it and then it'll create the blogs, won't it? Put your whole script in and say, "Create me 10 blogs of this." But that's where you can find me. And I've now got my little task to do to update my website a bit. But yeah, that's how people can find out more mainly. Oh, just drop me a line. I I just Amazing. You're also on Twitter or
• 54:30 - 55:00 X. It's called X. I still can't get used to that. I'm on X. I'm on LinkedIn. What do you call a tweet on X social? I know. Is it still a tweet? I know. Yeah, I think it is. Why do you have to change the name? What? I don't know. Well, X. I don't like change like that. Change for the sake of Well, you should be because you're about greatness in schools and that requires change. change that matters. But that just didn't matter, did it? Maybe it mattered to Elon Musk. Okay, but anyway, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for making this happen. I really enjoyed it. There is
• 55:00 - 55:30 another episode of the school podcast. Make sure you like, comment, subscribe, do all the good stuff. Also, grab yourself a book. Who would you recommend should read this book? If you said, would it be just SLT? Would it be just SLT? be uh those leading trusts, head teachers, SLT um and HR professionals in the sector, business managers in schools, that kind of group. So, grab yourself a book. I'll put a link on this video because I'll make sure I get commission off of it after. And uh there
• 55:30 - 56:00 you go. Thank you, and I'll see you on the next episode. Bye-bye. My name is Sha Lord and I help deliver the girls growth program. A program that helps deliver impact for teenage girls, ensuring that they're happier and healthier on their school journey with a big focus on relationships, friendships, body image, self-esteem, mental health, and mindset. I'm Natalie. I'm one of the leaders for our girls growth program where we discuss important issues such as self-esteem, diet, exercise, and confidence. Think of three unhealthy
• 56:00 - 56:30 habits that you have for yourself at this moment in time. And when you don't get enough sleep, it's harder to regulate your emotions, and small problems can seem much bigger than they are. Exercise isn't just about looking good or staying fit. It's vital for your mental health. So get in touch today to get the support that your girls need now.