Long-time podcast listeners may remember our review of Lucy Crehan's bestseller Cleverlands, in which the author outlined her insights into leading education systems of the world. Crucially, Lucy had actually got on a plan and travelled to the countries, living with teachers and speaking to people involved in education, and so her conclusions about the features of high-performing education systems of the world had more weight behind them. It also helped that her final chapter was crystal clear in summarising what she saw as the common features of world-leading education systems.

So you can imagine how excited we were to be able to pack up our wires and microphones and hit the road - not only were we taking the podcast for the first time since Covid hit in 2020, but we had an invitation to Lucy Crehan's house for a long chat about her work supporting teachers in implementing the new curriculum for Wales!

Our discussion turned out to be an honest and serious evaluation of how things are going in what should be the final stages before the new curriculum is rolled out in Welsh schools. Are we ready? Are there cautionary notes to be drawn from Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence? How can teachers fill in the gap between the 'big picture' aspirations of the curriculum documents and the nuts and bolts of subject disciplines?

All is revealed in this extended interview with Lucy Crehan, and we hope you find the insights useful, no matter where in the world you're listening.

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Recorded in Swansea on 16th February 2022