We look at improvement in English schools over the last twenty years, interviewing the key thinkers, policy-makers, and leaders to find out what's changed, how things have improved, and why.
Improving Teaching: Chalk and Change podcast with Harry Fletcher-Wood
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8 episodes
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Podcast Overview
We look at improvement in English schools over the last twenty years, interviewing the key thinkers, policy-makers, and leaders to find out what's changed, how things have improved, and why.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
10/25/2025
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Recent Episodes
June 13, 2026
Lucy Crehan
<p>Lucy Crehan</p>
May 16, 2026
Dan Moynihan - getting qualifications in kids' hands
<p>"You can have a lovely building but if the teaching's no good, the thing's not going to work."</p><p>In this episode, we speak to Sir Dan Moynihan, CEO of the <a href="https://www.harrisfederation.org.uk/">Harris Federation</a>. Beginning as an economics teacher in Tower Hamlets in the 1980s, he became a head teacher in 1999, and the principal of what was then the Harris City Technology College in 2005. The Harris Federation was founded the following year, and now runs 55 schools. He has spent twenty years overseeing its growth.</p><p>We discussed:</p><ul><li>London schools in the '80s: " Nobody could imagine that it was as bad as it was back then."</li><li>The difference the Education Reform Act made to leading schools</li><li>How he turned around his first school: "Sounds obvious now."</li><li>Why he moved to Harris City Technology College and how he began building a trust</li><li>How Harris balances prescription and autonomy in school improvement</li><li>The role of the the headteacher: "You can have a hero head - the problem is that's not sustainable."</li><li>How he keeps improving, and what he's working towards now</li></ul><p>Dan's career encapsulates the dramatic improvements in English schools, and the underlying changes which have made them possible. The authority with which he can speak about turning around one school - and leading fifty - made this a particularly interesting interview.</p>
April 11, 2026
Michael Gove - being as demanding as possible
<p>"I hate the idea of settling for mediocrity."</p><p>In this episode, we talk to Baron Gove of Torry. Entering Parliament in 2005, as MP for Surrey Heath, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gove" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Michael Gove</a> was Shadow Education Secretary from 2007, and Secretary of State for Education from 2010 to 2014. His subsequent government roles included being Minister for Justice, and Secretary of State for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. Standing down as an MP in 2024, he now edits <a href="https://spectator.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Spectator</a>.</p><p>His tenure proved controversial among teachers, and consequential for the education system. As <a href="https://improvingteaching.co.uk/2025/12/07/chalk-change-3-daisy-christodoulou-saying-knowledge-is-good/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Daisy Christodoulou</a> put it, he "set the contours for the next half century." In this interview, I wanted to understand the contours he aimed for, how he sought to pursue them, and what he had learned from the experience.</p><p>We discussed:</p><ul><li>His diagnosis of the challenges facing English schools in 2010</li><li>How he sought to make the Department for Education deliver his agenda</li><li>The curriculum review, and why he became closely involved in it</li><li>The balance between autonomy and prescription</li><li>The goals of the academy programme</li><li>What he took with him to the Ministry of Justice and DEFRA</li><li>His reflections on the process, and his approach</li></ul><p>Unbowed in his belief that "knowledge should not be restricted to an elite, and that the best that has been thought and written belongs to everyone," he reflected also about how picking his battles, and "a greater degree of imaginative sympathy for people on the other side" might have helped.</p>
8 total episodes available
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