Now back into full swing in Season 2, Bill, David and Tim take a look at the latest in the world of Education News in the third episode! This week's topics of discussion include looking at the reasons why there are increasing numbers of Teachers are leaving the profession, the large number of allegations (a high percentage of which are unsubstantiated) by pupils against Teachers in Wales, the outstanding performance of some schools such as Byron Primary in Bradford that perform fanastically well despite extraordinarily high percentages of EAL students, and whether it is hypocritical for Head Teachers to take term-time holidays?!<< MORE >>

In Episode 2 of Season 2, Bill, David and Tim take a look at the latest in the world of Education News! This week's topics of interest (possibly?!) include Gove's Westminster lunch calling for people to be put in the firing line, Pupil Premium and possible abuse of the system, Steven Twigg's new concept for education improvement (possibly not a new concept for listeners of Season 1!), student pranks and removing slang from use in schools to prepare kids for the workplace.<< MORE >>

After a 2 month break, Bill, David and Tim return for Season 2 of The EduCast! In a spur of the moment decision on recording day we decided to change the format to offer up a range of educational discussions each week instead of the previous 1 topic per episode model we did for Season 1. Did it work?! . . . . hmmmm, we'll let you be the judge of that! All feedback welcomed as always. Send any comments to info@theeducast.com, or just publicly shame us on Twitter, FaceBook or LinkedIn!<< MORE >>

In this, the final episode of Season 1, the three amigos give thanks to all our wonderful and loyal listeners and followers by giving an insight into the world of The EduCast. With outtakes from the season, Bill spills the beans on what might appear to be a well thought out and well researched conversation, but is in fact a snap shot of a what is often an hours worth of recording on the topic of discussion! Thank you all for listening, we do hope everyone has enjoyed this, our first season - you honestly make all of this truly worthwhile! Have a fantastic holiday and we will be back with you with Season 2 in the new year! Warning: What we find as humorous outtakes may just be annoying for a first time listener, or even a more avid fan! :-) This week’s highlight (lowlight?!): A poor attempt at humming a Christmas Carol, precedes a rather irritating clucking voiceover, before launching into the outtakes!<< MORE >>

In the absence of Bill for a second week running, Tim take the reins, and he and David chat with Ben Lees-Boywer, a recent University Graduate. Tim and David pose a number of questions to Ben in exploring the importance of completing a Degree, employment options on completion of a course and with rising costs of tuition and debts for graduates soon to average over £50k, is it actually as worthwhile as it once was. As GCSE pass rates continue to increase, as do A-Level pass rates; and the numbers of people going to University continue to rise, but for fewer available jobs at the end of it, is University still the best route into employment? This Week's Highlight: After completing a 3 year Degree and mounting debts, and the sole destroying realisation that actually it may be been a better option to gain work experience of completing a Degree, Ben gives the youth of today the benefit of his experiences.<< MORE >>

In the latest episode of The EduCast, Tim and David are joined by Alex Green, an NQT who qualified in July, but who was unable to find a permanent teaching role in September. Alex, Tim and David discuss working towards QTS via the GTP route, the options that are faced by newly qualified teachers from an employment perspective, as well as the problems with going into new schools and teaching for the first time as a supply teacher. Alex also offers advice to other NQT's who are currently going through the same process that she did, as well as for people who are qualifying this year. This week's highlight: David and Tim get musical talking about "Smoke on the water" - Alex has banned this and Celine Dion in her classes - "When you have 6 classes of year 8 kids playing that song, day in, day out, you just want to slit your wrists!"<< MORE >>

Bill, Tim and David decide to take a look at the subject of parents being teachers, and the influence that an active involvement in the teaching of a child that a parent can have; and almost more importantly, what is the outcome of not having that involvement. With PISA suggesting that those children coming from high-income households, and those from households where education has begun at home from an early age, will have a greater level of education and therefor prospects in life; now more than ever parents must increase their involvement in educating their own children. This week's highlight: After explaining the quasi-In Loco Parentis discussion, Bill, Tim and David all agree that levels of child performance don't all rest on the teacher, but is categorically also the responsibility of the individual parents.<< MORE >>

In this episode, Bill, Tim and David discuss sex education, a topic which is being quite the political hot potato of late, with discussions about lowering the age at which sex education is taught, the introduction of a new sex education board game, rising teenage pregnancy figures and the BNP deciding that teaching sex education at a young age in tantamount to paedophilia. Exploring a variety of different topics from what is taught in schools, to what should be taught in schools, when and how it should be taught and what are the implications for not teaching it, Bill, Tim and David ultimately reach the same conclusions, but what to do you think? This week’s highlight: Maybe it is the children, the pregnant teenage children and those who unfortunately catch diseases at an early age from unprotected sex, who should be teaching their generation about sex education?<< MORE >>

In this episode, Bill and David are joined by Kati Pilkington to discuss the decisions that must be undertaken by any new parent. Many of these decisions take place even prior to birth and the three of them explore the rationale between staying at home or returning to work, which nursery to send your child to, the costs of bringing up a child, right through to choices for secondary school and training for parents. Addressing these factors and more, there is obviously more to explore in terms of educational decision making for a new parent than someone who has not had a child might think! This weeks highlight: David is so shocked by the the cost of sending your child to a private nursery he remains unusually quiet!<< MORE >>

In this week's episode, Bill, Tim and David look at Financial Education, with particular reference to the teaching of Financial Education in schools. With the world economic climate in a state of disarray, record levels of unemployment, rising levels of personal debt, and increasing numbers of people declaring bankruptcy, why is there not more being done to educate the youth of today on how best to manage their finances? This weeks highlight: "Greeks are better than Romans"…at managing money?!…maybe they need to learn from Tim and play more computer games! << MORE >>