Sep 5, 2026 · 54 min · 10 segments
Welcome to Season 4! After brief introductions for new listeners Matt and Femi discuss the first part of Viviane Robinson's book 'Reduce change to increase performance'. In particular they focus on…
Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you're up to and so that this can kind of place your journey forward.
So I've been in the classroom since 2009, worked in six schools.
I've deliberately tried to treat my degree a bit like a medical career, because anybody who treats you in any kind of senior capacity in a hospital or a GP, you can't just...
People don't know this, actually.
You can't just do a degree and just be a GP, right? or be like a surgeon, you'll have had to do a number of different experiences, placements, work as a junior, in things that maybe you're not even that interested in for six months, for a year, to then gather that experience and then become a senior doctor.
Which I think is frustrating, and I say that because I've got a medical background, I did a medical degree, in that you can't just get a job when you qualify as a doctor and then just work there for 60 years or 40 years.
But also I think it's good, Because it means that the guy treating your young daughter who's unwell in a GP practice will have had to have done different things so that he or she... has got that background and that experience.
And I've tried to be better at that.
So I'm on my sixth school now.
I didn't, we didn't want to just be, Oh yeah.
Oh, what year are you on Jim? I'm on year 29.
What are you on? I didn't really want to be that.
Although I've got respect for those kinds of people, uh, different types of schools, one on an inner city council estate.
One was a, a 30,000 pound a year private school.
Um, Head of maths in two schools and now assistant head leading on teaching and learning, which is quite hard to do.
Because what you're basically saying is the core business of this school is the teaching and what the kids learn.
And I oversee how well that is done.
Yeah.
Yeah, and that really is the theme generally of our podcast is around that.
We should probably say we're both math teachers by trade, but the theme these days is generally around leading teaching and learning and how teachers improve and how improvement takes place in schools.
Yes, that's right, that's right.
And just to pick up on one other thing, your current school is not the private school that was your previous school.
Yeah, no, this is a school,
state school.
I'm not going to for one second, I know people do try and do this, but I'm not going to suggest it's the toughest school in the world.
Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you're up to and so that this can kind of place your journey forward.
So I've been in the classroom since 2009, worked in six schools.
I've deliberately tried to treat my degree a bit like a medical career, because anybody who treats you in any kind of senior capacity in a hospital or a GP, you can't just...
People don't know this, actually.
You can't just do a degree and just be a GP, right? or be like a surgeon, you'll have had to do a number of different experiences, placements, work as a junior, in things that maybe you're not even that interested in for six months, for a year, to then gather that experience and then become a senior doctor.
Which I think is frustrating, and I say that because I've got a medical background, I did a medical degree, in that you can't just get a job when you qualify as a doctor and then just work there for 60 years or 40 years.
But also I think it's good, Because it means that the guy treating your young daughter who's unwell in a GP practice will have had to have done different things so that he or she... has got that background and that experience.
And I've tried to be better at that.
So I'm on my sixth school now.
I didn't, we didn't want to just be, Oh yeah.
Oh, what year are you on Jim? I'm on year 29.
What are you on? I didn't really want to be that.
Although I've got respect for those kinds of people, uh, different types of schools, one on an inner city council estate.
One was a, a 30,000 pound a year private school.
Um, Head of maths in two schools and now assistant head leading on teaching and learning, which is quite hard to do.
Because what you're basically saying is the core business of this school is the teaching and what the kids learn.
And I oversee how well that is done.
Yeah.
Yeah, and that really is the theme generally of our podcast is around that.
We should probably say we're both math teachers by trade, but the theme these days is generally around leading teaching and learning and how teachers improve and how improvement takes place in schools.
Yes, that's right, that's right.
And just to pick up on one other thing, your current school is not the private school that was your previous school.
Yeah, no, this is a school,
state school.
I'm not going to for one second, I know people do try and do this, but I'm not going to suggest it's the toughest school in the world.
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