Frank and Stan Chat No. 251

Rebecca Leek, poet, musician, former Headteacher of three schools, broadcaster and author of The School-Ready Governor returns to the chat. She was a guest in March 2025 and made a very favourable impression, bringing a wide range of insights on education and leadership. It's a timely chat with World Book Day on Thursday 5th March.

Rebecca explains how her life has changed in some respects since our last chat and how she is engaging in so many more things. These include;

- creating a podcast that focuses on poetry called 'The Ditty Bag' https://rebeccaleek.substack.com/podcast

- learning to play the accordian, and;

- performing it in a band. She continues to be involved in the Suffolk Primary Headteachers' Association.

This week's chat starts with Stan explaining why Martin's Law continues to be an issue, which he feels isn't getting sufficient attention. He draws on some interesting examples of how schools have tried to be innovative in addressing possible risks to pupil and staff safety. Rebecca makes clear that risk assessment and mitigation are proactive and positive measures.

Rebecca then considers the implications for SEND within the recent White Paper. She is concerned about the sense of universality that embraces the report and the difficulties in managing parent and carer expectations moving forward. We also discuss how effective a national training programme for SEND will be and the implication it conveys, that schools are not effective in managing the issues.

Frank completes the discussion by considering what he learned from 4 months of interim CEO work for a small trust in Greater Manchester.

An interesting and broad ranging discussion. Sorry, it went over the 35 minutes limit, but we felt it was worthwhile. We hope you agree.

The various links Rebecca referenced in the chat can be found below

www.rebeccaleek.com

Podcast: The Ditty Bag

Author: The School Ready Governor - Bloomsbury

Exec. Director: Suffolk Primary Headteachers' Association

Find Rebecca on X and Instagram

And a new project she is crowdfunding for: 'Elizabeth Fry Stops By'

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elizabeth-fry-stops-by

Enjoy

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