Written by Claire Banks and Mick Waters, A Curious Curriculum: Teaching foundation subjects well details the insightful and transformational steps that a school can take towards designing and delivering a rich, rigorous and wide-ranging curriculum. 

Before becoming Director of Education for The Olympus Academy Trust, a cross-phase multi-academy trust in north Bristol, Claire Banks was a head teacher for nine years in an inner-city primary school. Throughout her career she has been interested in social and emotional learning and school climate, which has led to her work on leadership culture. Claire now works on curriculum design and school improvement in a system leadership capacity, offering school-to-school support to school trusts. Her passion for succession planning for the profession has led to her coaching and mentoring on aspiring heads and women in leadership programmes.

Website

www.crownhouse.co.uk

www.crownhouse.co.uk/a-curious-curriculum

Social Media Information

Twitter and Instagram: @CrownHousePub

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrownHousePub

Details of the NAPE Primary Education Summit can be found at www.nape.org.uk/summit

Sam Kendall leads all of Eden’s work with schools, young people and their teachers and has done so since 2010. Eden’s Schools Team design and deliver programmes and projects for children and young people and offer training, consultancy and resources to schools towards Eden’s vision for children and young people who are motivated and equipped to create, and flourish in, a better future in which all living things thrive within planetary boundaries.

Sam has been a member of Eden’s Education Team since the project opened in 2001, establishing Eden as a must-go school visit destination for schools across the UK and maintaining a focus on high quality teaching and learning across Eden’s learning programmes – at Eden and online. Following a first degree in Natural Science at Jesus College, Cambridge, she qualified as a primary school teacher, with science specialism, in 1997 and worked in schools in Bristol, Cornwall, Karachi and South Africa prior to joining Eden in 2001. In 2021 she completed an MSc in Environment and Human Health.

Website

www.edenproject.com/learn/schools

Social Media Information

@edenschoolsteam

Resources Mentioned

Can We Be Happier – Richard Layard

Sharing Nature with Children – Joseph Cornell

www.sharingnature.com

Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – 2023

Get access NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit

The Literacy Lab Appoints Johnathon Hines as the First National Education Ambassador for its Leading Men Fellowship. Georgia’s first Black male Pre-K Teacher of the Year hopes to inspire other young Black men to pursue teaching as a career.

The Literacy Lab is a national non-profit organization that provides students – in communities experiencing racial and/or economic inequities – with evidence-based, culturally responsive literacy instruction as preparation for academic, professional, and personal success. The Literacy Lab partners with school districts to help close the literacy gap largely by embedding full-time, rigorously trained tutors in early childhood centers and elementary schools.

The Literacy Lab’s Leading Men Fellowship creates opportunities for young men of color and increases representation in the field of education. Leading Men Fellows are young men of color who have recently graduated from high school and participate in a year-long, residency-style experience in which they provide evidence-based literacy support to pre-kindergarten students while receiving robust coaching and professional development and gaining valuable experience.

 In this episode I chat to Johnathan Hines and Ivan Douglas, National Director of the Leading Men Fellowship.

Website

www.theliteracylab.org

Social Media Information

www.facebook.com/TheLiteracyLab

twitter.com/TheLiteracyLab

www.instagram.com/the_literacy_lab/

Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – 2023

Get access NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit

Punchdrunk Enrichment is a charity creating transformational theatre for education, community and family audiences. Their immersive experiences for schools are designed to inspire and engage the imagination, inviting pupils and teachers on an adventure with a lasting impact. I’m joined by Peter Higgin – Artistic Director and joint CEO.

Peter has been involved with Punchdrunk for his entire professional career. In 2000 he graduated from Exeter University and went on to become a founding member of Punchdrunk. He was pivotal in establishing the company’s early work during their rise to critical acclaim and global success.

In 2008 he co-founded Punchdrunk Enrichment and led the development of Punchdrunk’s signature practice in community and educational settings. Since 2016, he has been joint CEO of Punchdrunk’s charitable arm, and in 2021, as the charity rebranded as Punchdrunk Enrichment, Peter became Artistic Director.

Peter’s early work for Punchdrunk Enrichment focused on primary educational settings. Working with a core team of Punchdrunk creatives, these projects established a formula for the company’s practice and importantly uncovered and demonstrated a need for this type of intervention.

Since these early beginnings Peter has led on all of the company’s artistic activity spanning family shows, participatory performances, ambitious R&D experiments in digital technology and international collaborations.

Peter has a powerful belief in the transformative power of engaging with the arts and creativity. He believes in the power of imagination as one of our greatest tools and has witnessed how access to immersive experiences can unlock our innate creativity.

Website

www.punchdrunkenrichment.org.uk/

www.punchdrunkenrichment.org.uk/schools/

Social Media Information

@PDEnrich

www.facebook.com/punchdrunkenrichment

www.instagram.com/punchdrunkenrichment/

Resources Mentioned

Sir Ken Robinson

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SYMMETRY Neuro-PT, founded by a Mom on a Mission Dianne Kosto, makes neurofeedback accessible and easy. They are a growing company with team members located in various states across the globe, seeking to further their mission while developing a company culture of integrity, mission-driven focus, service for others, and excellence in all that they do.

Families are traumatized when a loved one is struggling. Not knowing what is wrong, or how to help, leaves you feeling hopeless with an ache in the pit of your stomach.

Anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness can be from brainwave dysregulation. Neurofeedback helps the brain learn to better regulate. When the brain is functioning better, hope and relationships are restored. Life is brighter.

At SYMMETRY Neuro-Pathway Training, they empower people by providing neurofeedback services & systems that help the brain better regulate, because everyone deserves the opportunity to thrive.

Website

www.symmetryneuropt.com

Social Media Information

www.facebook.com/SymmetryNeuroPT/

twitter.com/symmetryneuropt

www.linkedin.com/company/symmetryneuropt/

www.youtube.com/channel/UC52hEehDheZTZ3NrzIWmHOQ

www.pinterest.com/symmetryneuropt/pins/

www.instagram.com/symmetryneuropt/

Resources Mentioned

Healing Young Brains

Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – 2023

Get access NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit