What I wish I knew with Stephen Saunders

If your job is to eat a frog, what do you do first thing in the morning? Eat the frog of course. What's that got to do with teaching I hear you ask? Well listen to the podcast and you will find out. It is just one of the many words of wisdom that Stephen Saunders shares with us. Having trained in Manchester University, he moved to Essex to take up his first teaching job and he has been here ever since. When his current school achieved an outstanding grade from Ofsted the report stated that, ‘The deputy headteacher provides a very strong teaching role model’. And that is why we are talking to him today. He is an expert teacher and he has so much to share.

In this podcast we discuss ...

• The importance of starting in a school that fully supported his development as a new teacher played a key part in him becoming the great teacher he is today.
• Why you should not believe everything you are told, even if it is your most skilled colleagues telling you. The book by David Didau, 'What if everything you knew about education was wrong?' was inspiring and led Stephen to challenge his beliefs about what made outstanding practice.
• Your ability to respond to the children's needs in each lesson is essential for their progress and your development as a teacher. If you learn the skills to adapt what you are doing to match what children need they will learn very effectively.
• Tough days and long days all become worthwhile when children get those light bulb moments and truly enjoy their learning. That feeling that you have made a difference is what makes teaching special and great teachers get that feeling alot.
• Dealing with parents was a challenge when Stephen first started teaching, as he didn't always let parents finish speaking before becoming defensive about what had happened. He soon learnt that he needed to let parents talk, find out what the problem really was and then decide how to progress.
• The benefits of taking risks with teaching to get better learning far outweighs the drawbacks, so never be afraid to try new ideas that you think will improve what you do. Inexperienced teachers are often overly scrutinised and this can make them feel there is only one way to do something. This can be very restrictive to developing highly effective pedagogy.
• The value of working walls is greatly enhanced if they provide a scaffold for children's thinking. This ensures the children can use their working memory for the most challenging aspect of a task.
• Set your expectations high. Teachers must have a relentless drive and an unshakeable belief that every child can achieve, for only then can all children reach their potential.
• Why is there a red table/group, a blue table/group, a green table/group? And why do the children on the red table (lower attaining) always stay on the red table? Surely this can't be right?
• Children can do some remarkable things. If they are working at the edge of their comfort zone, encouraged, supported and challenged they will definitely achieve success. Make no excuses for children underachieving as it does them no favours.
• Find the time to keep reading yourself so you can continually extend your subject and pedagogical knowledge. Continually developing yourself is essential so you can do the very best for your class.
• Reflecting on what you could have done better in each lesson will lead to your rapid development as a teacher. As you build up your experiences of teaching sequences you will quickly build effective practice. Keeping a notebook of what went well and what didn't go so well will help you to do this in the quickest time.
• And finally ... eat the frog! To find out more, you'll have to listen to the podcast if you haven't heard this phrase before, but it's a great bit of advice!