This episode looks at how to embed high-impact routines into your classroom and your teaching. We ask which routines or learning habits are the most successful and how can they be established in order to make teaching and learning more efficient and effective.

We ask three key questions of our experts: Why are classroom routines so important? How can we establish classroom routines? What routines do we want to establish – which ones matter the most and will help to ensure that our classroom is an effective learning environment?

What are the most useful habits and routines to introduce to facilitate teaching and learning? We offer some concrete ideas and suggestions.

We discuss how we can decide upon, create, and establish these routines, including a seven-step process for creating and embedding routines.

We talk about how routines can lessen cognitive load in lessons for students, the importance of consistency and efficiency in the routines we create, and what we do when students don’t get the routines right.

This episode is hosted by Matt Bromley, an education advisor and author with more than 20 years’ experience in teaching including as a secondary headteacher and MAT director. Our guests are:

  • Sara Alston is an experienced SENCO and safeguarding lead who also works as a SEND, inclusion and safeguarding consultant and trainer. Sara’s book Working Effectively With Your Teaching Assistant will be published in February 2023.
  • Paul K Ainsworth has held director of school improvement roles in four multi-academy trusts and currently works with Infinity Academies Trust in Lincolnshire. He has supported leaders of small rural secondary schools to large 11 to 18 urban ones, working intensively with those in Ofsted categories. He is the author of No Silver Bullets: Day-in, day-out school improvement and a TEDx speaker.
  • Jon Tait is Deputy CEO and Director of School Improvement at a multi-academy trust comprising of three large secondary schools and sixth form colleges in North Yorkshire.

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For details about The SecEd Podcast, or to suggest future topics, email editor Pete Henshaw at editor@sec-ed.co.uk