Teachers Talk Radio

What does it mean to teach with your heart truly in it? This week on The Late Show, Tim Smale and Khanh-Duc Kuttig are joined by the amazing Christian Mba, vice principal, middle leadership developer, and author of Teach Like Your Heart Is On Fire.

Together they explore the questions at the heart of Christian's book: why you became a teacher, whether knowing your purpose changes what happens in the classroom, and what it really takes to sustain genuine passion across a career.

Nearly one million young people in the UK are currently out of education and work. Alan Milburn’s explosive new report warns of an "economic catastrophe" driven by lockdown scars, social media rewiring, and a broken welfare system. In this show, join JP, Rae, Carl and Jo as they ask the tough questions. Are schools doing enough to build resilience? Has technology created an anxious generation that the system is simply giving up on?

Darren explores the relationship between test anxiety and school avoidance, examining how anxiety around exams and assessment can contribute to absenteeism, emotionally based school avoidance, and disengagement from learning. Drawing on current educational and psychological research, he discusses the warning signs teachers and parents should recognise, the impact of exam stress on student wellbeing, and the practical strategies schools can use to support anxious pupils before attendance becomes a wider concern.

In March, Index on Censorship reported on a school in Greater Manchester that had pulled 200 books from the school library shelves after the Head raised an issue with one book.

With huge parental pressure in the US to censor young people’s access to certain literature, particularly that relating to race, gender and sexuality, is the UK following suit in this worrying trend?

In a world where our young people carry access to a whole world of unrestricted material in their pockets, why has the war been waged on literature rather than smartphones and social media?

Louise Pickering meets with Vivienne Porritt OBE to discuss:

The concept of masculinity

The impact of social media on boys and men

The research/evidence behind the concerns

How misogyny and sexism manifest in schools

How schools can design effective systems and establish a healthy culture that safeguards girls and women