When Sam Gibbs asked, "Are we any further forward in honestly trusting the teaching profession?", she hit on something uncomfortable. In too many schools, we've slipped into what Sam calls toxic accountability. Sam, Director of Education at Greater Manchester Education Trust and co-author of The Trouble With English, argues that school leaders need to start from one simple assumption: teachers are professionals who want to do right by children. This conversation gets into why we've become unhealthily dependent on external products, how to use evidence without ignoring what teachers know works in their classrooms, and why that matters for actually changing practice.

When Sam Gibbs asked, "Are we any further forward in honestly trusting the teaching profession?", she hit on something uncomfortable. In too many schools, we've slipped into what Sam calls toxic accountability. Sam, Director of Education at Greater Manchester Education Trust and co-author of The Trouble With English, argues that school leaders need to start from one simple assumption: teachers are professionals who want to do right by children. This conversation gets into why we've become unhealthily dependent on external products, how to use evidence without ignoring what teachers know works in their classrooms, and why that matters for actually changing practice.

When Sam Gibbs asked, "Are we any further forward in honestly trusting the teaching profession?", she hit on something uncomfortable. In too many schools, we've slipped into what Sam calls toxic accountability. Sam, Director of Education at Greater Manchester Education Trust and co-author of The Trouble With English, argues that school leaders need to start from one simple assumption: teachers are professionals who want to do right by children. This conversation gets into why we've become unhealthily dependent on external products, how to use evidence without ignoring what teachers know works in their classrooms, and why that matters for actually changing practice.

When someone says “have you got a moment?” your instinct might be to say yes — and then lose 20 minutes, your focus and whatever calm you had left. This solo episode shows you a practical, repeatable way to handle those knocks so you protect your attention and still serve your team. Shane introduces the five-second “doorway decision”, explains how essentialist thinking underpins the approach, and shows how to set a clear 15-minute container for short conversations so they’re focused and useful.

When someone says “have you got a moment?” your instinct might be to say yes — and then lose 20 minutes, your focus and whatever calm you had left. This solo episode shows you a practical, repeatable way to handle those knocks so you protect your attention and still serve your team. Shane introduces the five-second “doorway decision”, explains how essentialist thinking underpins the approach, and shows how to set a clear 15-minute container for short conversations so they’re focused and useful.

When brilliant teachers become exhausted leaders, it’s usually not because they lack ability — it’s because they’re cognitively overloaded by the basics. In this solo episode Shane explains what that overload looks like (the story of “Sarah” who dreads Monday evenings), why common leadership programmes often skip the fundamentals, and how cognitive load theory helps explain what’s going on. If you’re struggling to hold difficult conversations, run useful meetings, or make decisions without second-guessing, this episode focuses on a practical, sequenced fix rather than another strategic to-do list.

When brilliant teachers become exhausted leaders, it’s usually not because they lack ability — it’s because they’re cognitively overloaded by the basics. In this solo episode Shane explains what that overload looks like (the story of “Sarah” who dreads Monday evenings), why common leadership programmes often skip the fundamentals, and how cognitive load theory helps explain what’s going on. If you’re struggling to hold difficult conversations, run useful meetings, or make decisions without second-guessing, this episode focuses on a practical, sequenced fix rather than another strategic to-do list.

This conversation dives into what formative action is, why Valentina Devid and colleagues reframed formative assessment as an action-oriented practice, and why that reframing matters for school leaders trying to get useful classroom evidence turned into immediate, high-impact teaching moves. Valentina walks through the five-step action-oriented investigation process (orient & predict; think & generate; interpret, communicate & decide; informed follow-up; verify, reflect & predict), gives concrete classroom examples (history teachers checking the five causes of the First World War using mini whiteboards), and warns about common “mutations” — for example, when formative work is dumped into a learning management system as a grade with zero weight and loses purpose.