Today Femi and Matt discuss their career changes, both recent (in Matt's case) and forthcoming (in Femi's) and how they are thinking about teaching and learning, and education going forward. This context should throw some light onto some of the conversations they have had recently or that are coming up.

The discussion today was prompted by a listener question about students being late to lessons, so Matt and Femi each give their take on that. They discuss what they think the relevant psychology is and how they each handle this situation. They talk about whole-school policies and dealing with a culture of lateness as middle and senior leaders – and different ways that schools approach the starts and ends of lessons, as well as transitions. Femi and Matt also muse on some of the interesting situations they’ve faced in which the more effective approach contradicted school policy.

The topic of today’s discussion is Matt's visit to Ark Soane Academy, and in particular the impressive whole-school culture and the remarkable impact of that on student behaviours, attitudes and learning. Femi and Matt talk about the best science lesson Matt has ever seen, and wider discussion about starting and running schools and embedding shared routines across the school.

As always, all questions or comments welcome: @beyondgoodpod on X.