Resources and other bits

A 'free to use' landing page of content

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This page is designed as a ‘free to use’ landing page of content and resources.

Remember, you can use the search function at the top of my Substack to search for any phrase or word. This will highlight relevant posts you may want to access.

I’m sharing these resources for free.

Please do credit the source where you can and signpost others to my Substack. In doing so, I am able to publish content free of charge for you and others to use.

Thanks,

Sean (That Poverty Guy)

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My Substack (The 5 most read posts so far…)

1. Crafting an equitable curriculum with poverty in mind: The C Word

2. Extending Free School Meals: Milestone, not a finish….

3. Ten questions to ask about poverty and hardship in schools

4. Turning the page on books and inequality

5. What’s going right in the case against poverty?

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“Help! I need some reading on…”

Some signposts to specific posts I have provided on the following topics…

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Culture

• Peeling back culture: why Banarama got it wrong

• Developing a culture that takes inequality seriously

• Stories, not stuff: how child agency helped to tackle reading poverty

• Developing a school-wide language of poverty and inequality that works

Curriculum and pedagogy

• Crafting an equitable curriculum with poverty in mind: Part 1

• Crafting an equitable curriculum with poverty in mind: Part 2

• Crafting an equitable curriculum with poverty in mind: Part 3

Food and hunger poverty

• Extending Free School Meals: milestone, not a finish

• One bite at a time: why tackling food poverty is vital

• Why auto-enrolment makes a whole lot of sense in education

Partnerships development

• Partnerships, not outreach (interview with John Smith; RGS)

• Using TPADIS to support partnership development and mapping in schools

• Developing partnerships to help move from assumption to assessment

• Making strategy and partnerships ‘click’

• Ganging up on problems, not on each other

Poverty informed practice

• Poverty Proofing the School day and other approaches

• Assessment, not assumption: understanding disadvantage in schools

• Understanding and addressing links between absence and poverty

• Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools: a practical guide

• The business of tackling educational inequality in schools

• Developing a school-wide language of poverty and inequality that works

Making sense of poverty, inequality and disadvantage datasets

• Assessment, not assumption: understanding disadvantage in schools

• Making sense of poverty in your community

• Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools: a practical guide

• Developing a school-wide language of poverty and inequality that works

School development and improvement

• Understanding and addressing links between absence and poverty

• Stories, not stuff: how child agency helped to tackle reading poverty

• Setting organisational goals and outcomes

• The business of tackling educational inequality in schools

• The problem with problems in schools: and how we can address it

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Other recent research/features by Sean

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• A Lad Scene: Reflections on role models and reality (NE Bylines, 2025)

• Beyond the school gates: working with families in hardship (SSAT, 2024)

• Challenging the myths of poverty in schools (SecEd, 2024)

• Cost of Living: Response in schools (SecEd, 2023)

• Cost of Reading: Poverty informed reading in schools (HTU, 2023)

• Cost of Winter: supporting families in schools and communities (SecEd, 2024)

• Early Career Teachers: Highway code and other tips (SecEd, 2024)

• Effective mentoring in schools (SecEd, 2022)

• Ganging up on the problem, not each other - with John Smith (Edword, 2025)

• Healthy food security: how we can tackle hunger (NE Bylines, 2025)

• Measuring what matters: moving from assumption to assessment in understanding poverty in schools (SecEd, 2025)

• Misconceptions and curiosity in classrooms (SHINE, 2025)

• Nerd Fest: How comic cons are influencing the North (NE Bylines, 2025)

• PLACE to page and practice (Fair Education Alliance, 2025)

• Poverty on the brain and principles to tackle it (SecEd, 2022)

• Problems in leadership: analysis and tools (SecEd, 2023)

• Problems with research in ‘real world’ schools (Impct, CCoT, 2025)

• Research in schools: barriers and facilitators (SecEd, 2025)

• Supporting adopted children and families through education (SecEd, 2024)

• Sweating the small stuff: tackling low level disruption in schools (SecEd, 2024)

• Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools (Bloomsbury, 2025)

• Tackling the links between poverty and attendance (SecEd, 2024)

• Talent mapping and workforce development (SecEd, 2023)

• The business of tackling educational inequality in schools (SecEd, 2024)

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Podcasts

Sean regularly features on national and global podcasts. Here are some examples:

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• Game Changing: In conversation with Dr Phil Cummins (Game Changers Podcast)

• Poverty informing curriculum in schools (Northern Lights)

• Poverty informing schools and education (The RE Podcast)

• Research informed schools: how do we do it? (SecEd)

• Supporting the development of Early Career Teachers (Headteacher Update)

• Tackling the impact of poverty in schools (SecEd)

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