The Staffroom

We call it ‘The Staffroom’ because staffrooms are the places where the best professional learning conversations take place, in an atmosphere which is relaxed and open. In each episode, we invite colleagues to discuss how they came to be in the position they are in, the challenges they are currently grappling with, and how best to solve them. The podcast allows a window into the realities of classroom life, supporting us all to make meaningful connections between research and practice.

Episodes

Season 01

• The game's always changing, so keep playing it: keeping a focus on professional learning
• Dilemma-based facilitation: experienced facilitators share what goes wrong for them… and what they do about it
• Taking risks: ECTs trying something new and not being afraid of it
• The 'we are in it together approach' to facilitation: keeping an eye on ECTs’ welfare
• Taking ownership of their own learning: mentoring on Year 2 of the ECF programme
• Doing a week in a day: practitioner inquiry for busy Early Career Teachers
• Breaking the cycle of inequality: making space for LGBTQ+ issues on the ECF programme

Season 02

• ‘Sometimes it can feel like we have to pick up the pieces and do things for ourselves'
• Top advice from our education coach: Remember you’ve got a body… and listen to it
• The distinct skillsets of good mentoring
• Context is king: how ECTs are affected by the conditions they are working in and by their own personal dispositions
• Everything Everywhere All At Once: The life of a Year 1 ECT
• One Hundred Years of Gratitude: 4 old teachers walk into a staffroom
• Making mentoring meaningful: not just ticking the box

Season 03

• What teaching does to people as people: What can ECF Providers learn from ITE?
• Taking the Staffroom on the road: Gate-crashing an Induction Tutor conference in East London
• ‘Be unapologetically yourself’: ECF Director Hilary Adli shares her recipe for success
• ‘Speak up and speak out even if your voice shakes’: Anti-racism is too important to leave to chance
• ‘Giving ECTs springs to run a marathon’: Louise Dwyer’s enthusiasm for UCL’s ECF programme
• Fostering strong professional relationships: Find your staffroom friends
• ‘Be ambitious and fail, but don't fail to be ambitious'
• "If participants don’t value their learning, then what is left?"

Season 04

• Thinking about life through all of their eyes
• Lessons from Catalonia
• The happy teacher: ECT Emily on the importance of relationships
• “Beware of anyone who claims to know it all.”
• What happens to the ‘could have beens’ who decided not to teach?
• From the early years school to the research school

Special edition

The ECF Staffroom brings you this special ECF Staffroom episode, with Simon Herdman, an ECT at the Blanche Nevile School for Deaf Children:

Podcast team

• Elaine Long is a programme leader on the UCL Early Career Teacher Development programme, responsible for delivery and quality assurance.
• Mark Quinn is the content lead for the same programme.

Based at the UCL Centre for Educational Leadership, Mark and Elaine between them have chalked up 40 years in teaching, and mentored dozens of new teachers in their respective schools, bringing a unique experience to the ECF Staffroom.

More IOE Podcasts

Be part of the conversation

We are always delighted to hear from our listeners and keen to welcome a range of voices into the staffroom. If you would like to be involved in the podcast (whether this is as a guest, to suggest an idea or simply ask a burning question), please get in touch.

#BePartOfTheConversation