The Leading, Language and Literature Podcast

In this episode I am speaking to Dr. Claire Badger. Claire is the Head of Teacher Professional Development at InnerDrive, a UK-based education and coaching company that specialises in bridging the gap between cognitive science, psychology, and the classroom. She is also a former assistant head and now specialises in helping schools develop their evidence-informed practice.
Claire has also co-authored a book entitled Creativity for Teachers: A Cognitive Science Approach. It was this book and the discussion of creativity in schools that prompted me to contact Claire and arrange what proved to be a fantastic conversation.
We discuss:
1. The varying definitions offered up by all sections of society regarding creativity and what it actually means in academic terms
2. What different manifestations of creativity look like on a global, professional and educational level
3. How knowledge and creativity are akin to the amount and type of lego blocks a child owns and what this, therefore, means for curriculum design
4. How domain specific creativity is and whether it can be achieved through interdisciplinary projects
5. What 'Legacy Projects' are what they require to be done well
6. And finally, the extent to which we need to be planning with creative opportunities in mind and how much of it will come out naturally as a matter of teaching a knowledge-rich curriculum
Thanks again to Claire for taking the time to write the book and talk with me about it today. Creativity, as we discuss, is such a valuable and necessary part of everyone’s experience in education or their profession, so helping to dispel the myths from the meaningful evidence makes her work exceptionally useful.
If you’d like to be kept up to date on when chat like this happens, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and follow me on LinkedIn @chrisjordanhk or X @chrisjordanhk
Additionally, if you would like a head start on learning how to prioritise your middle years English curriculum, head to the bottom of this podcast’s show notes or top of my stream on X to find a beta copy of my forthcoming book: Reinforcing Middle School English You can read as much as you want and even highlight elements that you like, dislike or find confusing to help make it better.
Links:
Beta version of Reinforcing Middle School English
Claire’s book: Creativity for Teachers: A Cognitive Science Approach

In this episode I’m talking with Gaurav Dubay. Gaurav is a Trust Director of English and Evidence Lead in Education based in Birmingham, England. He is an active and passionate voice both online and in-person when it comes to enhancing all students outcomes through the Key Stage 3, literacy, oracy and much more.
I have followed Gaurav for a long time now but what prompted our chat was a post I recently wrote regarding the intersection between English disciplinary skills and the vast background knowledge that also needs to be understood for kids to access many texts. This prompted an exchange between Gaurav and I that has led to this week’s episode.
We discuss:
Where Gaurav stands on recent advice to shift towards a concept-led curriculum in English
Where he sees oracy playing a role in this or other forms of curriculum design
How departments can supplement their curriculum with the vast background knowledge needed to make meaning from texts in language and literature
And finally, Gaurav’s thoughts around AI implementation in the classroom and around the curriculum

Thanks again to Gaurav for taking the time to chat about all things English as well as all the fantastic sharing he has done over the years on X and beyond.
If you’d like to be kept up to date on when chat like this happens, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and follow me on LinkedIn @chrisjordanhk or X @chrisjordanhk
Additionally, if you would like a head start on learning how to prioritise your middle years English curriculum, head to the bottom of this podcast’s show notes or top of my stream on X to find a beta copy of my forthcoming and newly renamed book: Reinforcing Middle School English You can read as much as you want and even highlight elements that you like, dislike or find confusing to help make it better.
Links:
Beta version of Reinforcing Middle School English

In this episode, I’m explaining What I Learnt From: Making Good Progress? The Future of Assessment for Learning by Daisy Christodoulou. This is the fourth episode that sees me go through my annotations and notes for a book that explores an area of English teaching or leadership.
This time, it’s a text that I think is absolutely fundamental to understanding assessment and therefore curriculum design in our schools. Even better, it is written by Daisy Christodoulou MBE, a former English teacher and one of the most prominent and important voices in education from the past twenty years. Much of the examples that she offers are written through the lens of her time as an English teacher and are therefore very instructive when it comes to improving our approach to teaching and learning.
Expect to hear:
Why assessment for learning or formative assessment has failed in many schools
The fundamental differences between summative assessments and formative assessments
Why descriptor-based assessments are problematic
How to create a model of progression in our curriculum
And finally, how to create the best system of integrated formative and summative assessments

This is an absolute monster of an episode and I did consider dividing it into two parts. However, as a regular listener of podcasts myself, I know that depending on everyone’s respective listening habits you will choose to either listen and relisten to the whole thing as desired or break it up according to your commute, runs, walks or whatever you do whilst listening.
If you’d like to be kept up to date on when chat like this happens, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and follow me on LinkedIn @chrisjordanhk or X @chrisjordanhk
Additionally, if you would like a head start on learning how to prioritise your middle years English curriculum, head to the bottom of this podcast’s show notes or top of my stream on X to find a beta copy of my forthcoming and newly renamed book: Reinforcing Middle School English You can read as much as you want and even highlight elements that you like, dislike or find confusing to help make it better.
Links:
Beta version of Reinforcing Middle School English
Making Good Progress? by Daisy Christodoulou

In this episode I am speaking to Gemma Keating. Gemma is a specialist in IBDP Mathematics, EdTech enthusiast and public speaker here in Hong Kong.
Our chat is the sixth conversation ina series of discussions designed to learn more about secondary subjects and their possible interdisciplinary links with English. My intrigue in doing these is to see whether there are possibilities for connections across subjects that are at least shared in passing during class or actually and more excitingly, the basis of complex interdisciplinary units.
We discuss:
The products, processes or texts that are at the heart of studying Maths
The deep concepts that an expert in Maths uses to make meaning from these phenomena
The potential links that Maths and English share from a conceptual or disciplinary point of view
And lastly, possible projects that students could work on to better understand both subjects, simultaneously.

Thanks so much to Gemma for walking me through the basics and higher order concepts of Maths, so that we could consider interdisciplinary links. Whilst I’m walking away with a better appreciation of the likes of probability and geometry, Gemma did message me afterwards and explain that she could’ve covered the concept of ‘number’ too but felt I’d probably heard of that one already.
If you’d like to be kept up to date on when chat like this happens, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and follow me on LinkedIn @chrisjordanhk or X @chrisjordanhk
Additionally, if you would like a head start on learning how to prioritise your middle years English curriculum, head to the bottom of this podcast’s show notes or top of my stream on X to find a beta copy of my forthcoming and newly renamed book: Reinforcing Middle School English You can read as much as you want and even highlight elements that you like, dislike or find confusing to help make it better.
Links:
Beta version of Reinforcing Middle School English

In this episode, I’m speaking to Richard Wheadon. Richard is a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching (FCCT), a former senior leader and author of Learning Habits: How to Develop Independent and Successful Learners.
It was regarding this book that I most wanted to chat with Richard in the first place. For a while I have been considering the role of metacognition and self-regulation in the classroom and Richard’s book was released in a timely manner for me to further my knowledge on this emerging aspect of school instruction.
We discuss:
The cognitive processes we need to be explicitly teaching students so they can harness such methods themselves
Why assemblies before Year 11 study leave are simply not enough when it comes to kids learning how to learn
How we implement such a programme in a pastoral and/or subject specific context
The role parents play in habit forming behaviours
And finally, Richard’s case for choosing this focus as a whole-school focus on improving students' learning

Thanks again to Richard for writing what is an excellent and instantly practical book as well as taking time to talk about implementation and lessons learnt in a insightful manner.
If you’d like to be kept up to date on when chat like this happens, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and follow me on LinkedIn @chrisjordanhk or X @chrisjordanhk
Additionally, if you would like a head start on learning how to prioritise your middle years English curriculum, head to the bottom of this podcast’s show notes or top of my stream on X to find a beta copy of my forthcoming book: Make Middle Years English Matter. You can read as much as you want and even highlight elements that you like, dislike or find confusing to help make it better.
Links:
Learning Habits: How to Develop Independent and Successful Learners by Richard Wheadon