It's half term, and we're letting our hair down (metaphorically in Tom's case) as usual with some random contributions. Tom's fired up the LinkedIn Translator Tool and Emma's face is a picture...

THIS FRIDAY: We make no apology for returning to one of our obsessions - planning. We've got a deep dive into a fascinating paper about how student teachers learn to plan and plan to learn. It's a tricky process and one we all need to think about and support!

THIS WEEK: We hear from Scott Norman-Stephenson about the creative approaches he uses to support persistently absent children to come to school - and why it matters. Tune in bright and early tomorrow!

THIS FRIDAY: what are the individual stories behind the post-Covid attendance slump in our schools? We welcome Scott Norman-Stephenson, who works with families to try and address persistent attendance issues, to find out all about it. Tune in!

Check out our PISA special today, in which we report that Wales will see a curriculum review before the end of the year... Watch this space!

Our PISA special is up - we hope we've had a proper run around the issues, come up with more than 'this is a total disaster' while not sugar coating the need for something to change, and soon. In the process, Tom waves his arms around a lot...

TUNE IN TOMORROW: our special episode on Wales's PISA results. Where do we go from here? We cover the results, the commentary and try to work out what our new Plaid Cymru government can do to turn things around...

We're working away to bring you an analysis of Wales's PISA results, which were published today, as an extra podcast episode. But they've landed right in our busiest teaching period of the year! Hang on for a couple of days and we'll be with you...

TOMORROW: Tune in for our first episode of the new year, with Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies from Dysgu. As part of our chat, we asked: do we need to be more explicit that there are some good things to be taken from the education system in our nearest neighbour, England?!

We're back with a bang this Friday for our 9th season! Tom's been out to interview Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies, CEO of the government's new professional learning organisation, Dysgu. Will teachers at the coal face see a difference?

THIS FRIDAY: for the final episode of season 8 (yes, 8!), @thomasbreeze.bsky.social is joined by Dr Louise Allen-Walker to turn our podcast big guns on the end-of-level boss of neuromyths: learning styles. Tune in as we take on the neuromyth that just won't die.

TOMORROW: Tune in for our discussion of Joe Brown and Tim Clark's new book 'Debating Childhoods'. Here's Joe telling individual teachers that we do in fact have lots of power to change the lives of the children we work with!

THIS FRIDAY we're Debating Childhoods, which also happens to be the title of a new book by Joe Brown and Tim Clark. Here's Joe giving some advice for policymakers: listen to children more!

Another journal article staggers into the sunlight at last... Thanks to lead author Dr Emma Rawlings Smith for keeping the faith over nearly 3 YEARS of writing, rejections, revisions and radio silences! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Understanding mentoring conversations in initial teacher education: a systematic review of the literature

In the context of an increased attention on mentoring in Initial Teacher Education, this systematic literature review aims to identify empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals that exp...

tandfonline.com

Don't scrap Curriculum for Wales, says Finola from @impactwales.bsky.social - give teachers more detail and support to make it work. Tune in tomorrow for our full Senedd Elections roundup episode.

Plenty of the party spokespeople in our Senedd Elections Special series name-checked more professional learning for teachers as a promise. Here's @garethdjevans.bsky.social saying we need to get real about supporting teachers properly. Tune in on Wednesday for more!

Here's Finola Wilson from @impactwales.bsky.social on the hard decisions our next Welsh Government will need to make in order to make sure what money we have gets to where it's needed. Tune in on Wednesday for more!

Here's @garethdjevans.bsky.social on what he hopes the next Welsh Government will do to support teachers implementing the Curriculum for Wales. Tune in next Wednesday for more round-up as the election approaches!

Stand by for the round-up episode of our Senedd Elections Special series next Wednesday. @thomasbreeze.bsky.social is joined in the studio by @garethdjevans.bsky.social and Finola Wilson to chew over what we've found out from the six parties.

Phew - after all that political content, it's time to relax for the Easter break with our traditional 'light' episode. By the magic of pre-recording, we welcome back Emma this week, and @thomasbreeze.bsky.social is off on one again...

Very enjoyable Thursday morning recording a podcast episode with Dr Viv John in the studio and Dr @ehmacgregor.bsky.social (+ Walnut the dog) in Oxford. Plenty of critique for the National Plans for Music Education of both England and Wales!

Tomorrow, I'll be joining @ehmacgregor.bsky.social & Viv John to present our work comparing the Welsh & English National Plans for Music Education. Cardiff Met colleagues please come along if you can! Article here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🔸 Open Access - Wales Journal of Education 26.2 🔸 'Are we nearly there yet? 25 years of initial teacher education policy in Wales' by Trevor Mutton and @thomasbreeze.bsky.social Read: journal.uwp.co.uk/wje/article/...

Are we nearly there yet? 25 years of initial teacher education policy in Wales

Initial teacher education (ITE) policy in Wales over the past 25 years has, in many ways, reflected wider global concerns around the need to produce sufficient high-quality teachers to ensure that pup...

journal.uwp.co.uk

I've mainly been shocking and offending journal peer reviewers this year rather than students. Can we warn them too? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Be ready to be shocked and offended at university, students told

Guidance has been published by the Office for Students on new free speech rules coming into force this year.

bbc.co.uk

Very much looking forward to presenting two papers at #RiME2025 this Thursday and Friday! I'll be drawing on my postdoctoral research @somervillecollege.bsky.social and some recent work with the Group for Research in Music Education at Cardiff Metropolitan @thomasbreeze.bsky.social

Always nice to get something out of the door: article about student teacher transitions between placements published in the Oxford Review of Education with colleagues Emma O'Dubhchair & Sioned Dafydd, and it's open access so free for anyone to read. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Holistic, aspirational professional standards as a boundary object between communities of practice for pre-service teachers

This article reports on a research project which seeks to understand how pre-service teachers and their school-based ‘mentors’ use a holistic, developmental set of professional standards as a tool ...

tandfonline.com

Teacher recruitment and retention is a hot topic at the moment, so it was a timely visit by Professor David Egan to our studio to discuss his recent report into the issues. Tune in on Friday! Here's a taster, and you can read the report here: issuu.com/cardiffmet/d...

This week we welcomed some school colleagues to our studio to create multimedia resources to support school-based teacher educators in making student teachers’ observations of lessons more focused and purposeful. Huge thanks to them, and the team from C.Met Sport Broadcast & Media for their help!

Nice to see this article (open access and available in Welsh!) out today, lead-authored by Professor Trevor Mutton from @UniofOxford who kindly asked me to help out. It was a great learning experience. journal.uwp.co.uk/wje/article/...

Are we nearly there yet? 25 years of initial teacher education policy in Wales

Initial teacher education (ITE) policy in Wales over the past 25 years has, in many ways, reflected wider global concerns around the need to produce sufficient high-quality teachers to ensure that pup...

journal.uwp.co.uk