In this episode, Claire meets with Simon Hunt, a Year 4 teacher at Tottington Primary School in Bury.Alongside his teaching, Simon has developed his own website ‘Mr Hunt from the front’, and built online social media feeds, from where he offers advice, resources and CPD for teachers and schools.    Although arriving in teaching slightly later than normal, Simon has taught across all phases of Primary Education, and has worked in a variety of schools as a supply teacher and a permanent member of staff.    Simon talks with Claire about how sharing some resources on a Facebook page ‘took off’ and led to him reducing his teaching hours to offer CPD opportunities and work on a number of different projects with schools and other organisations such as HP and BT.    Discussing teaching in the classroom, Simon talks about the importance of giving children a purpose for their work, how beneficial it can be to take risks in teaching, and how technology can be incredibly useful if used well.   Simon shares exciting stories from his career including how a video of him ‘flossing’ went viral, and how a unit of work in class around the film ‘Blackfish’ eventually led to him taking a group of children to Brussels to deliver a petition to the European Parliament, attend a red-carpet film premiere, and take on representatives from SeaWorld in a question and answer session.       KEY TAKEAWAYS

Never be afraid to take risks and give things a go.The best lessons and most valuable learning experiences can follow from activities where a bit of risk is involved. Being risk-averse can also inadvertently mean we put a ‘cap’ on where activities might go without considering what could actually be achieved. Taking risks does, of course, mean that things might go wrong or not work, but it’s worth remembering that usually a lot will go right. 
Remember that teachers should be facilitators of learning.In an ideal lesson, teachers should be able take a ‘step back’ with the children doing the work. While teachers do still have a role teaching and helping to guide what happens in their lessons, with a little groundwork, children can usually confidently guide themselves in their learning more than we might think. 
There are no limits to where lessons can take you.By allowing children to take more of a lead with their learning, a lesson’s direction can go in an infinite, and exciting, number of ways. It can be surprising and enlightening to see where children can take the direction of a lesson and what learning opportunities present themselves.
Teaching children how to be resilient, to think critically and how to analyse arguments are incredibly valuable skills in the modern world.With almost constant social media exposure and pervasive factually incorrect reporting, giving children the skills to critically analyse what they are told and be resilient enough to deal with negativity is crucial. While there are many valid reasons for us to be wary of, and keep a watchful eye on, use of social media, it should not be something to shy away from using as it does offer many opportunities both through opening up teaching and learning points, but also for building links with other individuals or organisations who can offer valuable opportunities.
Work with a purpose.Keeping the work that children do purposeful and valid will be a powerful motivator for them to continually do their best. Writing to or messaging real people or companies (in particular authors) who can look at the children’s work, give interviews or write back to the class will give the children a reason for their work and encourage them to put their best into tasks knowing that the result might be seen by others outside the school.
Learn from mistakes.Things do go wrong or just don’t work as intended – particularly where risks are taken. Teachers can be especially self-critical, but we need to learn to be ok with it when this happens. Even things that go wrong are learning opportunities and, as long as you’