Inclusion Is the System, Belonging Is the Experience with Dr Nicole Ponsford, Mind the Gap, Ep.131 (S7,E4)
Mind the Gap: Making Education Work Across the GlobeShow Notes
On this episode of Mind the Gap, Tom Sherrington and Emma Turner are joined by Dr Nicole Ponsford, teacher-turned-researcher, EdTech founder, and Founder & Director of Research & Impact at Kaleidoscope, for an exploration of what inclusion and belonging really look like in schools, and how we can move beyond good intentions to understand pupils’, staff members’, and families’ lived experiences. Drawing on six years of doctoral research and data gathered from tens of thousands of people, Nicole challenges the limitations of traditional measures such as attendance, attainment and behaviour, arguing that they often tell us what has happened without explaining why. The conversation unpacks her five lenses for inclusion - identity, experience, voice, social capital and environment - and explores how schools can use them to make something as apparently intangible as belonging more visible, measurable, and actionable. Along the way, they discuss hidden voices, socioeconomic disadvantage, representation, trust, transitions, staff retention, and the danger of tokenistic approaches to inclusion. Rather than offering simplistic checklists, Nicole makes the case for listening carefully to the people in our communities, interrogating the differences hidden beneath headline data, and designing schools around what people actually experience rather than what leaders assume they need.
Dr Nicole Ponsford FCCT is an award-winning educator, researcher and EdTech innovator, and Founder & Director of Research & Impact at Kaleidoscope, an independent research and innovation organisation supporting schools, trusts and education systems to strengthen inclusion, belonging, equity and participation through lived-experience insight. She is also Founder & CEO of the Global Equality Collective (GEC), a global inclusion community and Kaleidoscope’s knowledge partner. Previously an Advanced Skills Teacher and national Achievement Coach with Achievement for All, Nicole has spent over two decades working across Early Years to Post-16 education supporting leadership teams with school improvement, inclusion strategy, and digital innovation. Her work sits at the intersection of education, technology, and equity, with a particular focus on how data can be used more ethically and effectively to support students and staff. Nicole is the creator of Kaleidoscopic Data™, a doctoral research framework designed to help education leaders interpret lived-experience insight alongside more traditional datasets. Find out more about Nicole and Kaleidoscope at https://kaleidoscope-research.org/ Tom Sherrington has worked in schools as a teacher and leader for 30 years and is now a consultant specialising in teacher development and curriculum & assessment planning. He regularly contributes to conferences and CPD sessions locally and nationally and is busy working in schools and colleges across the UK and around the world. Follow Tom on X @teacherhead
Emma Turner FCCT is a school improvement advisor, education consultant, trainer and author. She has almost three decades of primary teaching, headship and leadership experience across the sector, working and leading in both MATs and LAs. She works nationally and internationally on school improvement including at single school level and at scale. She has a particular interest in research informed practice in the primary phase, early career development, and CPD design. Follow Emma on X @emma_turner75
This podcast is sponsored by Teaching WalkThrus and produced in association with Haringey Education Partnership. Find out more at https://walkthrus.co.uk/ and https://haringeyeducationpartnership.co.uk/
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