In our first Futures episode, we speak with former Crystal Palace students Vincent and David, along with Rebecca Hickey, Director of Secondary Education at Harris.

This episode captures the enduring impact of their shared experiences – including visiting New York with Harris as 15-year-olds- and experiencing online learning a decade before the pandemic.

You can expect a new episode every couple of weeks – and we encourage you to join the conversation! If you'd like to be a guest or recommend someone, simply email us at [email protected]

Oliver speaks with Harris Federation Executive Principal and author James Handscombe about his book 'A School Built on Ethos', which critics have described as "inspirational" and "a model of how school leadership enriched by a deeply human hinterland can transform students, teachers and a community." Listen as James discusses the importance of carefully planning and successfully delivering assemblies, how and why it is important to create a shared language in school communities, and much more!

Oliver speaks with returning guests Amy and Stuart, who discuss their most recent instalment in their Ready to Teach series: Ready to Teach: A Christmas Carol. Along the way they reveal their favourite parts of the novella that they spent time researching, they make a strong argument for A Christmas Carol as a challenging 19th Century curriculum text-choice, and they explain why they consider Dickens' gothic novella to have such relevance to the lives of our young people today.

Oliver speaks with educational writer Dr Megan Mansworth about her bestselling book: Teach to the Top, a "thoughtful and practical research-informed guide to aspirational teaching."  Along the way, Megan discusses why she believes that subject knowledge is the "beating heart" of a lesson, how we can strive for "accessible challenge" in the curriculum, and how she believes that challenge can manifest itself through both traditional and progressive teaching methods alike.

Oliver Blagden speaks with the host and creator of the award-winning ‘Women & Shakespeare’ podcast, Dr Varsha Panjwani.  Varsha discusses why we should approach Shakespeare's works with an anti-prejudice pedagogy, explains how we can diversify our 'traditional' interpretation of texts, asks us to reconsider how we teach Lady Macbeth, and teases her exciting new book: 'Podcasts and Feminist Shakespeare Pedagogy.'

Oliver Blagden talks with education legend Mary Myatt about her bestselling book 'Huh: Curriculum conversations between subject and senior leaders.'  Mary unpicks why curriculum conversations can be so tricky, explains how we can approach them constructively, and reveals why it is that for her, the most valuable time we can spend outside of lessons is on developing teachers' subject knowledge.

Oliver Blagden returns to where it all started as he speaks with international education guru Tom Sherrington.  Tom was our very first guest on the podcast, and we are lucky enough to have him join us again to look back on the impact ‘Teaching Walkthrus’ has had in the world of education, but also to discuss his recently released second and third volumes.  Tom also tells us about his exciting membership offering that accompanies his books, designed to maximise their impact in schools.

Oliver Blagden talks with Literacy researcher Kathrine Mortimore as they review her influential 2020 book 'Disciplinary Literacy.'  Kathrine discusses what Disciplinary Literacy is and why it is needed, whilst along the way sharing experience of her own implementation of explicit vocabulary instruction, student work-booklets, reading intervention strategies, the hotly debated 'library lesson' and much more...

Birna Helgadottir speaks with renowned literary critic and theorist Professor Robert Eaglestone, as they discuss his new book 'Literature: Why It Matters.' Described by Barbara Bleiman as "ground-breaking," this book is an argument for why English Literature is special, how it is different to other subjects, and why we might need to challenge and change the way it is currently taught in schools.  Along the way Professor Eaglestone discusses how we must prioritise students' emotional connection with texts, why the knowledge-rich curriculum poses problems for English teaching, and shares his thoughts on the skills students develop when studying Literature that will take them forward into their careers and future life.

Oliver Blagden speaks with Teacher Tapp founder Rebecca Allen, as they they discuss her new bestselling book 'The Next Big Thing in School Improvement,' a book about "educational fads, why they arise, and how we might learn to live with them."  Essential reading for leaders in education, Rebecca's book sets out to help us to find better ways to improve our schools.