Spotlighting educators who make a difference to learners every day.
The Education Heroes Podcast shares the stories of heroic educators with a focus on their professional journey. Our guests share insights, ideas, opinions and stories that will resonate with our listeners and hopefully inspire some new ideas or make professional decisions easier. We invite education heroes from around the world and from many different roles including principals, head teachers, leaders, teachers and ed-tech leaders.
Hosted by Paul Sibson, Co-founder and CEO of Hero, a software solution for schools with a mission to foster student agency, communicate learning and encourage best practice pedagogy.
Lessons in Leadership from 2023's Education Heroes
Welcome to the Education Heroes Podcast, spotlighting educators who make a difference to learn as every day. Hosted by Paul Sibson, Hero Co-founder and CEO, this special episode brings you the highlights from the 2023 heroes that have featured on the podcast.Guests featuring in this episode:Jase Williams - Principal of Henry Hill school in Napier, NZ, and winner of the the 2021 Prime Minister's Education Excellence award in the Wellbeing category. Listen to his full interviewNikki Bonus ...
29 Nov 2023
Joe Mitchell - The Power of Connection for Learning
In this episode of the Education Heroes Podcast, Paul is joined by Joe Mitchell. A seasoned educator in the UK, Joe has moved through the ranks as a Pupil Achievement Lead, Deputy Head, Head Teacher of three schools, and is now a School Improvement Lead Head Teacher in West Yorkshire.Joe reflects on his schooling experience and journey into teaching, which began with a twist of fate from a school work experience day. He shares how teaching has evolved throughout his career, the im...
22 Nov 2023
Kerry McConaghy and Jenny Washington - Two Sisters, Two Principals, Two Countries
In this episode of the Education Heroes Podcast, Paul Sibson welcomes not one, but two remarkable guests – sisters and primary principals, Kerry McConaghy and Jenny Washington.Follow Kerry and Jenny's fascinating journey as they share their experiences and connection as sisters who have pursued parallel paths into education, now leading primary schools in two different countries - Jenny at Te Ara Maurea Roydvale School in Christchurch, New Zealand, while Kerry heads Cammeray Public School in ...
15 Nov 2023
Dr Phil Cummins - Game Changing Leadership for Schools of Tomorrow
In this episode of the Education Heroes Podcast, Paul is joined by Dr Phil Cummins, Managing Partner at a School for Tomorrow, an Associate Professor of Education and Enterprise at Alfacrucis University College, and the Managing Director of CIRCLE - The Centre for Innovation, Research, Creativity, Leadership, and Education. He's also the co-host of the Game Changers Podcast and has been honoured with Fellowships from prestigious organisations like the Royal Society of the Arts, the Australian...
8 Nov 2023
Doug Bailey - Choose to be Kind
In this episode of the Education Heroes Podcast, Paul is joined by Doug Bailey. A student-centred educator, Doug's passion is in cultural change and championing kindness and restorative practices. Over his extensive career, he has held the position as a Principal, Vice Principal, Head of School, Monash University educator, and most recently Head of Middle School. Doug is currently studying a Master's in Business Administration and Masters in Conflict Resolution, and lives by the maxim, in a w...
15 Jun 2023
Paul Sibson - Student-centred Leadership
Get ready for a twist in the Education Heroes Podcast as our host, Paul Sibson, Co-founder and CEO of Hero, steps into the guest seat for a special episode. From a milk monitor with a childhood passion for writing, Paul's path led him to become a primary school principal, where he championed a student-centred approach to learning right from the start. Paul reflects on his experiences in the UK and New Zealand education systems, including the most influential year of his life - his first ...
5 Jun 2023
Shelley Parkes - Embracing Authenticity to Unlock Students' Potential
In this episode of the Education Heroes Podcast, Paul is joined by Shelley Parkes, Deputy Principal, Professional Culture and Junior School at Oakleigh Grammar in Melbourne. Shelley applies her unwavering belief in the power of authenticity in teaching, creating a safe and empowering environment for her students to thrive. She shares her personal journey, from the sense of confidence her Grade 3 teacher instilled in her, through to the importance of celebrating individual achievements, and th...
29 May 2023
Karla Hull - Leading a Beach School
Today’s guest is Karla Hull, Principal of Te Puru School. Karla has a strong connection with her community and this really shines through in her leadership and drive to make a difference for her learners. From paddle-boarding and fishing at lunchtime, to developing their own beach school curriculum based on Maramataka (moon phases), Te Puru School fosters exploration through hands-on, outdoor learning experiences.In this episode of Education Heroes, Karla tells her journey to becoming a Princ...
22 May 2023
Ben Witheford - Values-aligned Leadership
Today’s guest on the Education Heroes Podcast is Ben Witheford, Principal of Shotover Primary School in Queenstown. With over 25 years in the education game and the last 16 as a Principal, he has a keen interest in creating environments that enable professionals to do their work. Ben is highly skilled in building effective teams, coaching, authentic curriculum design and building coherent, learning-focussed cultures, which all shine through in this conversation.In this episode, Ben chats to P...
15 May 2023
Nikki Bonus - Measuring Individual Wellbeing
Today’s guest on the Education Heroes Podcast is Nikki Bonus, the Founder and CEO of Life Skills Group. Nikki is a powerful storyteller with a message of leadership, compassion, hope, kindness and courage. Her humility is a strength that allows her to nurture and build stability, connection and flourishing in communities by engaging educators, leaders and government. In this episode, Nikki openly shares her story of coming from a challenging childhood, and how this has impacted on her pu...
8 May 2023
Jase Williams - Neuroscience, Wellbeing and Community
We’re kicking off Season Two of the Education Heroes Podcast with guest Jase Williams. Paul chats with Jase, Principal of Henry Hill school in Napier, New Zealand, winner of the the 2021 Prime Minister's Education Excellence award in the Wellbeing category. Jase is a certified trainer in the Neurosequential Model of Education and is the only Maori male certified trainer in the world. He also runs monthly men’s and women’s Hui, is a Ministry of Education accredited PLD facilitator,...
19 Sept 2022
Chris Panther - Leading change
Our guest today is Chris Panther.With 20 years of experience as a teacher and school leader, Chris is currently in his 8th year as a Deputy Principal of a contributing school in Canterbury. Chris’ focus is always on building strong teams, fostering and maintaining strong relationships between home and school and ensuring others co-construct the journey he is on. Chris works at one of the three original LINC-ED schools, partnering alongside us for more than 10 years. Chris’ school was the...
12 Sept 2022
Jamin Lietze - In-class flipped learning
My guest today has over 20 years of experience as a teacher and school leader and will soon celebrate 7 years as the principal of Myross Bush School in the South of New Zealand. He recently enjoyed a sabbatical which he used as an opportunity to continue his own study into in-class flipped learning.In-class flipped learning came out of the pandemic for Jamin and his school. It has been a great success amongst this Southland school's students, teachers and parents. You can read Jamin's report ...
5 Sept 2022
Michael Dillon - Supporting the next generation of leaders
I have known Michael guest since the late 1990s when we first taught together in London and studied together for our Masters's degrees. We even spent a month working in Mozambique supporting secondary school English teachers with using computers. Since then he has amassed over 25 years of experience as a teacher and leader including 12 years as a head teacher in two different Schools. He holds a Masters's degree in ICT in education and is now a qualified executive coach. In an insp...
29 Aug 2022
Jack Goodfellow - Quality Relationships for Learning
With 20 years of experience as a teacher and school leader our guest, today is currently in his 4th year as deputy principal of a New Zealand secondary school. Jack Goodfellow is a dedicated and thoughtful leader who understands the importance of strong relationships backed by clear processes. Much of his success as an educator is down to his relentless desire to remain a learner himself. A self-described shameless consumer of podcasts Jack talks about his school's project to build and...
22 Aug 2022
Lisa Dillon-Roberts - Building great teams
Our guest today is Lisa Dillon-Roberts. Lisa has over 20 years of experience in schools in the UK and New Zealand including an impressive range of principal positions. As she approaches 11 years in her current role she will share with us her journey through the education system leading schools through many unexpected local and world events as well as a full school rebuild project.Links Discover Hero for Schools Follow Hero on Twitter @Heroforschools Follow Paul on Twitter @sibsonp Connect...
15 Aug 2022
Sean Bailey - New Beginnings
Our guest this week is Sean Bailey. Sean spent 25 years teaching and leading schools in New Zealand. In 2015, he was appointed Principal of a foundation school in Canterbury specialising in designing and implementing a collaborative learning model in a purpose-built facility.In 2020, he had a change in career direction and decided to start his own leadership coaching and consulting company to continue living out his ‘why’ or purpose by empowering others.A trained ICF Executive and Organi...
8 Aug 2022
Luke Norman - Leading through the pandemic
This week Paul spoke with Luke Norman, the Principal of Oxley Vale Public School in NSW. They talked about how Luke developed from a nervous student who suffered disappointment along the way to becoming an experienced and successful educator and principal. Luke demonstrates how deeply he values connections, relationships and the importance of the people in his team, especially during the pandemic! Links Discover Hero for Schools Follow Hero on Twitter @Heroforschools Follow Paul ...
29 Jul 2022
Paul Dolan - Life after Principalship
This week’s episode featured Paul Dolan an educator with over 30 years of experience as a teacher, leader and school principal most recently at Ilam School in Christchurch where he has just stepped down following 10 very successful years.He is currently working on his MBA and recently gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Strategic Leadership.In 2017 he became a certified professional coach (ACC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and works with a range of individuals from a variety...
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