In this episode, I’m talking about choosing the right interventions for pupils - and especially for pupils with SEND — and why, in so many schools, it can start to feel confusing and over-complicated.

In lots of schools, staff are doing a huge amount. And yet, when leaders are asked a few simple questions — Why this intervention? Why this pupil? What exactly are we trying to improve? How will we know if it’s working? — things can start to feel less clear.

This episode is about making better leadership decisions with the support and staff you already have. Because every intervention has a cost. And leaders need to be confident that what pupils gain is genuinely worth what they miss.

What we explore in this episode In this conversation, I talk through:

Why interventions aren’t neutral — and why leaders need to be honest about what pupils give up when they leave the classroom

What the research actually tells us about deploying teaching assistants most effectively, and how school systems shape impact

Why matching interventions to labels is often unhelpful — and what it looks like to match support to specific barriers to learning instead How pupil voice, family insight, classroom observation and assessment can sharpen intervention decisions

Why many interventions fail in practice — not because the idea is wrong, but because delivery isn’t protected or consistent

What effective intervention delivery really requires: time, training, clear roles, and strong links back to classroom learning

Real examples from schools where leaders tightened systems, reduced unnecessary withdrawal, and improved outcomes for pupils with SEND

A set of practical questions leaders can use to check whether their intervention offer is actually doing what it’s meant to do

This is about clarity, not compliance. And about making thoughtful decisions in schools where staff time and capacity are already stretched.

A key idea to hold onto: Interventions have to earn their place.

They should compensate for what pupils miss — and be strong enough for leaders to stand behind with confidence.

If interventions currently feel messy, this episode will help you understand why — and what to do next.

🎧 For Premium Members Premium members also get practical resources to help use this thinking with leadership teams and colleagues.

This includes:

A full set of training slides to support staff discussion and development

A facilitator script to guide reflection and professional dialogue

Tools to help leaders:

think more clearly about matching pupils to the right support deploy teaching assistants effectively and purposefully review interventions honestly and decide when to adapt or stop

👉 Become a Premium Member here: https://the-leadership-lens.mykajabi.com/premium-membership

SEND has rightly been reframed around 'inclusion' and the Ofsted toolkit echoes this approach through every evaluation area.

In this episode, we explore how leaders can ensure that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities are fully included in classrooms, learning alongside their peers, accessing ambitious curricula, and being supported through careful scaffolding, adaptation and high-quality teaching.

We delve into the common reasons why inclusive practice can feel strong in some classrooms — but fragile in others.

In this episode of The Leadership Lens, we move beyond principle and into practice and system design.

Drawing on evidence from the SEND Code of Practice, the Education Endowment Foundation, and cognitive science, this episode explores:

- Why inclusive SEND practice succeeds or fails at classroom level - The importance of teacher responsibility within inclusive systems

- How adult deployment can either support inclusion — or unintentionally undermine it

- Why Quality First Teaching is the most powerful SEND strategy schools have - What responsive and adaptive teaching actually looks like in practice

- How strategies like scaffolding, explicit instruction and flexible grouping support pupils with SEND — without lowering expectations

- Why sustainable inclusion depends on systems, clarity and shared understanding, not heroics

Throughout the episode, anonymised examples from real schools and trusts are used to illustrate how leaders have redesigned systems to strengthen inclusive practice and improve outcomes.

What will premium hub members receive?

For premium members, this episode is accompanied by a tried and tested SEND Audit Tool aligned to the renewed Ofsted framework, designed to help leaders evaluate inclusion at classroom, leadership and system level — not for compliance, but for clarity and improvement.

If you would like to explore premium hub membership, please click here:https://the-leadership-lens.mykajabi.com/premium-membership

Personal development is one of the judgements school leaders talk to me about more than any other — and often with the most uncertainty.

Not because schools aren’t doing good work.

Not because leaders don’t care deeply about children.

But because this judgement sits across everything.

Curriculum.

Safeguarding.

Character.

Enrichment.

Pastoral care.

And unless it has been deliberately designed, it can feel surprisingly difficult to explain — particularly in an inspection conversation.

In this episode, I break the whole thing down.

I take us back to the Ofsted School Inspection Toolkit and unpack what inspectors are actually evaluating when they make a personal development judgement — and then I walk you through how we’ve designed this in practice, and why we’ve made the choices we’ve made. Because once you stop seeing personal development as “extra things that sit outside of everything else” and start seeing it as a curriculum, everything becomes clearer — and far calmer to articulate.

In this episode, we explore:

- Why personal development is a stand-alone judgement, not incidental evidence

- What Ofsted means by a planned and coherent programme

- Why personal development must be taught, reinforced and sequenced

- How PSHE and RSHE form the taught backbone of personal development

- Why moral reasoning and understanding consequences need to be explicitly taught

- How safeguarding knowledge is revisited and deepened over time

- How character development can be planned, mapped and progressed - What meaningful assessment looks like without data or tests

- How protected characteristics and British values become curriculum, not compliance

- Why pastoral care is integral to personal development — not separate from it

- How leadership and careers education prepare pupils for life beyond school

This episode is about moving from “We do lots” to “Here’s our thinking.” Not to perform for inspection — but to design something coherent, intentional and defensible for pupils.

🎁 For premium members

Premium listeners receive practical resources that remove uncertainty and save time, including:

A full personal development curriculum map

Character progression statements from Early Years to Year 6

Half-termly mapping of safeguarding, protected characteristics and British values

Sequencing rationale explicitly linked to the Ofsted toolkit

Leadership language you can use confidently with staff, governors and inspectors

These resources aren’t about adding workload. They’re about helping you articulate what you already do — clearly and calmly.

✨ Explore the premium membership here:

👉 https://the-leadership-lens.mykajabi.com/premium-membership