Our Podcast

Featured Podcast: Communication and Confidence: Lifelong Learning and a Route into the Speaking Profession

I Need A Speaker is a simple concept.

The brainchild of Tricia Richards-Service, the platform connects speakers with audiences. Unlike most speaker platforms, I Need A Speaker is not for past presidents, famous after-dinner speakers or expensive performers. I Need A Speaker is for everyone. Everyone with a story.

Tricia has a fascinating story to tell, and Tricia's message for all educators is: communicate your story and you will raise those around you.

We are delighted to welcome Tricia onto the Qualified Tutor Podcast, not least as it's the most effective medium for Tricia to communicate her story to our community.

“Communication is like a Swiss Army knife”

Chronic Disengagement - Changing the World for the Better

For A Life Worth Living.

The foundational concept of Nudge Education is simple: no child is left behind.

The Founder of Nudge, Diego Melo, shares a powerful belief that chronic disengagement can be overcome by passionate and targeted support. Whether the system accepts or rejects a student, Nudge Education are there to provide for their needs.

We speak to Diego about the philosophies that have got him this far, experiences from his years in the sector and his visions for the future, however ambitious.

Action Tutoring NTP Tuition Partner - On Delivering Online Interventions in Schools

As one of the lead organisations in the National Tutoring Programme, Action Tutoring are right at the centre of changing lives for disadvantaged students in the UK.

The Programme kicked off in early November and, since then, thousands of pupils across the country have benefitted from one-to-one, one-to-two and/or small-group tuition. With lockdown affecting many students, the shift to online tutoring has been complex.

Action Tutoring have been leaders in online tutoring support for years and their online tutoring pilot this summer revealed a great deal about the most effective methods for schools in how to implement online tuition should it be required.

Learning and Living Differences: Nina Jackson and How to Help your Student Thrive

Nina Jackson is not Nina Jackson.

Nina Jackson is The Ninja, moving in mysterious ways and bringing about effective change out of the limelight.

Nina has worked in the area of music and education for well over a decade and in almost every country you can think of, and has built up a unique style of bringing out the 'fizz' in both students and teachers.

An inspirational speaker, as you can tell, and a highly engaging writer, as you will soon find out, Nina has a different take on how we should approach our work with children (hint: it's not the current system ...)

“Labels are for tins, and not for people.”

Can You Put a Price on the Value of Tutoring, with Mike Michalowicz

What would it take for you to view yourself as a business?

Tutors are a business. An incredibly important business, for many students. The most successful tutors are those that take the greatest care of their own business. To maximise your students' learning and ensure you can focus on their needs, you have to be safe in the knowledge that your financial future is secure.

Mike Michalowicz is a world-famous speaker and author in the field of small businesses and entrepreneurialism, building his knowledge off the back of losing it all and having to walk the path of recovery. He knows a thing or two about starting from the bottom.

Mike now leads a series of inspiring communities of motivated entrepreneurs and small business owners, led in their practice by the business techniques laid down by Mike over 15 years of expertise in the industry.

Anxiety and Barriers for School Attendance: Interview with Fran Morgan

Fran Morgan has spent over a decade changing the lives of children who do not 'fit the system'.

Last year, Fran set up Square Peg, a company that works to help nurture the talents and passions of those children that the education system has rejected.

The conversation here is moving and important. Never before has the lack of support and infrastructure for students who don't fall neatly into line been so exposed and it is in this time that children with special educational needs require the greatest care.

Bramble #2: The Largest Ever Study into Online Tutoring, Explored

"You've taken us, as a profession, to another level."

The scale and detail with which Bramble conducted their recent survey into online tutoring is quite incredible. The report on the survey was published recently (you can find it here) but this is the first time they have been able to discuss and explore it in a collaborative environment - Qualified Tutor is delighted to be part of such an important step in this industry's development.

As lockdown takes over the education sector once more, we must all learn the lessons from this spring and ensure that no student is left behind. The National Tutoring Programme is going a long way to achieving this but we have to maintain that classroom experience and consistency for all students, including in their online learning.

Interview with Matthew Hood: Principal of Oak National Academy

20 million lessons delivered, 15 million hours of video already created and published ... and we're heading into a second lockdown.

The Oak National Academy was created in spring 2020 to seamlessly deliver virtual lessons as if school had never been disrupted. They have achieved this aim and much, much more - teachers have noted a hugely reduced workload and a markedly improved quality in teaching and learning for students and teachers.

Matt's background as a classroom teacher, coupled with his unique ability to bring people together, has allowed the Academy to flourish and the platform has endless possible opportunities for growth, from recorded sessions, to SEND specialisms to bearing some of the burden of oversized classrooms and students who don't suit the classroom model.

In this fast-paced and hugely informative episode, we speak to Matthew Hood, the Academy's Principal, about his hopes for the future and how classroom teaching may have already changed forever.

TutorCruncher: Facilitating Tutors and Agencies to Take Charge of their Own Service

Here at Qualified Tutor, we are constantly striving to make tutors aware that their job is a professional role.

Too often, tutors are undervalued and underrepresented, seen as a bit-part role that does not carry a professional standard to it.

The team at TutorCruncher share this same vision. Their business management platform for tutors and agencies allows all parties, tutor, agency and client, to benefit from the efficiency and time-saving automation that the software provides.

Bringing together reports, billing, payments, analytics, teaching tools, website integration and more, this all-encompassing approach allows tutors and agencies to spend more time on doing what they love: improving outcomes for students.

Founded in 2013, the platform continues to take on new clients quickly, being used by many of the industry's biggest and most successful tutors and agencies. Listen in to find out more about the insights from their recent anonymised survey into the use of the platform in the UK and US.

“Companies that we see doing very well are those who take an active role in their client-tutor approach”

The Power of Thunking: How We Can Stop Students Settling for ‘I Don’t Know’

We continue the theme this week of hearing from true experts in the field of education.

Ian Gilbert has been one of the foremost leaders internationally in the field of curriculum change and advocating for a system in which students think and learn for themselves.

Founder of Independent Thinking, a platform that serves the most innovative and creative minds in education, Ian's works cover a range of topics, aimed at students themselves, those involved in the teaching of students and everyone in between.

This roundtable discussion, alongside Qualified Tutor's Founder, Julia Silver, and Lead Facilitator, Adrian Conway, brings out the most important and most topical conversations at this time, with a real focus on challenging the norms in education and how we must alter the way students view their education.

“If your thoughts count, you count.”

In Conversation with ... Qualified Tutor Tier 1 Graduates #6

There is so much to learn from those who've taken part themselves.

Our flagship course, the Qualification for Tutors, continues to grow thanks to the contributions and feedback of our motivated and enthusiastic participants.

There has never been a better time to get into tutoring - Qualified Tutor allows you to build your business alongside industry experts and tutors just like you.

Hear from those in the know about what impact the course had on their confidence and ability and why every tutor should be striving to seek out training and level up.

QUALIFIED TUTOR AND BRAMBLE #1: THE POWER OF ONLINE TUTORING

Bramble are a force to be reckoned with.

With over half a million hours of online tutoring completed on Bramble by some of the world's leading tutoring organisations, Bramble possesses the scale and expertise to revolutionise online tutoring forever.

Every single session is recorded and then made available for both student and tutor, and with AI-driven transcription of every piece of content covered and the Smart Search tool, nothing is missed and everything can be reviewed for revision, for safety and for quality assurance and self-assessment.

And if that wasn't enough, Bramble conducted the UK's largest ever online tutoring survey this summer - the insights are fascinating and reveal an unexpected attitude amongst tutors and students.

This new podcast series will bring together Qualified Tutor, providers of high-quality tutor training, and Bramble, the leaders in online tutoring, to pull together two of the most important aspects in tutoring at this time. Tutors and agencies across the board are beginning to realise that training is an essential piece in the puzzle, and no tutor can do their job effectively in this climate without the skills in and knowledge of the online learning environment.

HIGH CHALLENGE, LOW THREAT: HOW TUTORS & TEACHERS CAN MAXIMISE STUDENTS’ LEARNING - AN INTERVIEW WITH MARY MYATT

Mary Myatt has changed the way we think about schools and our approach to developing children, both academically and cognitively.

Mary has produced an extraordinary range and wealth of literature on the subject, and it informs and inspires us in every part of the QT course and our vision for how to improve students' ambitions and success. 

The QT Podcast itself is changing the way tutors level up their service, hosting interviews and roundtables with many of the sector's leading voices - this is tutor training while pottering around your kitchen or going out for a jog...

• To discover more about Mary's commitment to removing 'redundant principles' in schools, do check out her new book, Back on Track: Fewer things, greater depth.

• To explore Mary's research on how we can refine the school curriculum, check out her book: The Curriculum: Gallimaufry to coherence.

• For further discussion on the 'how' and, importantly, the 'why' of what we do, and how it can inspire change, Mary has a book for that too: Hopeful Schools.

“If I were to wave a magic wand, I would ensure that every professional involved in children’s learning had access to the high-quality evidence from the cognitive science that really makes a difference”

IN CONVERSATION WITH ... QUALIFIED TUTOR TIER 1 GRADUATES #5

This course is powered by the participants.

The richness and depth of discussion that we see week after week, breakout after breakout, is such a powerful force for us tutors. It's not often that we get to witness, let alone be part of, a group of such motivated and enthusiastic tutors gathered in one place, sharing knowledge and understanding from their experience.

We know that the Qualified Tutor Community provides the 250-strong group with daily support, advice and a space to meet and connect with other tutors, but it's never more rewarding than hearing it from the tutors themselves.

The most recently graduated QTs who joined us in this cohort were:

Aatteeqa Karim
Ashley Hsu
Charlotte Eastwood
Edward Cooper
Irene Bird
Leona Potter
Manasvini Moni
Nada Baessa
Pavlina Kruzikova
Riani Kenyon
Robert Ward
Sophie Mosselmans
Victoria Campbell

INTERVIEW WITH DAME ALISON PEACOCK, CEO OF THE CHARTERED COLLEGE OF TEACHING

Our growing relationship with The Chartered College of Teaching takes its next steps here, as the QT team chats to Dame Alison Peacock about how experience of working with tutors and how Learning without Limits is really at the core of what teachers and tutors alike should be aspiring towards.

Dame Alison has over 30 years of experience in the field and joins QT here at a time when tutoring is right on the cusp of taking a central role in the education system.

We support and inspire a large number of motivated tutors and this conversation represents a new level of expertise and advice that we are both extremely proud of and grateful for.

“I would like all schools to be places where there’s no limit on what you can achieve”

SMALL GROUP TUITION, AN EXPERT Q&A SESSION WITH QUALIFIED TUTOR

No two episodes are the same.

Moving away from our interview- and roundtable-style episodes, this week, we chat to our inspiring Community members and tutoring friends we've met along the way who discuss with us several key topics currently most prevalent in the field of tutoring.

How do we maintain engagement over the online learning space? Many of us have watched slick how-to videos or read eloquent blog articles on the matter, but there's no substitute for collaborative learning and live discussion. In this Q&A session, we pose our participants some (admittedly) tricky questions and respond in-depth to subsequent queries and questions.

Qualified Tutor has always been a hive of topical discussion, placing itself at the cutting edge of pedagogical research and the rapidly-evolving nature of tutoring in this country, and beyond. 

If you want to have your voice heard and participate in engaging discussion while meeting other, like-minded tutors, visit www.qualifiedtutorcommunity.org and join the conversation today.

PS. Catch the welcome video by Dame Alison Peacock, CEO of The Chartered College of Teaching, which introduces the College’s relationship with Qualified Tutor.