 Hello everyone, this is Ross a teacher talk at the most influential blog on education in the UK today The third time of asking I have a VIP guest Steven Sadler a man of many many different hats, but he is a guru or You know, I've got to go worldwide here Steven or maybe you can shoot me down, but I'm a world-wide reputation for his Passion with technology robotics and stem net and particularly lots of things that he does in his work Which you'll unpick in a moment and he won the award for digital innovator of the year from the teaching awards a couple of years ago Steven Years ago, so I'll let you introduce yourself to a listeners. Tell everyone what you do and then we're gonna unpick stem and robotics My street Steven Sadler Steve as people call me. I've been teaching now for what 20 years since I graduated in 96 works industry for a number of years and then came back into teaching around 2002 it was mid 2002 perhaps my old secondary school as a technician And teacher and also helping to develop the school in other areas of virtual learning But I never really intended on sort of beyond to be honest I never really intend on staying there because I was in between jobs. I've been maybe that's always the way isn't it? It's always the way For context listeners I In my role as a judge for the teaching awards I of the many schools I had to visit stumbled the prop across Steven at his school This is just before the pandemic wasn't it about It was literally October to February that window just before March 2020 where we were lucky enough to come and see you and it was Phenomenal Could you kind of give us a visual picture of the kind of things that we saw? If that's possible and I'll try and add some of my memories But what kind of things were you doing on our visit for people listening here can get a sense It's a school and hopefully you've been greeted very well by my SLT. Yes, we were Obviously the students I'd found out it was the students that actually Me and put my name for so I do yeah, the staff didn't even know about it No, there's my head of faculty So but I think by that time it got an obviously pretty serious that they had to give up Who the owner who had actually put their name forward or put my name forward sex to for the award So, you know, this is the time of the silver one. I remember actually Being at the school and my co-head of faculty came to speak to me and said are you gonna be in school on this day? And I said, um, I'm actually not and I said all we need to be No idea Um, but I generally had a book to sit my An exam because I was in the middle of doing my accreditation So I arranged to go to the all to this university in this this event for me like once a year Yeah, it's just the queen could turn up But I'd still wanted to be all this university to sit and take this I was so determined to take There's a bit of a secret going on and you Yeah, so I didn't know so So obviously one thing led to another is that when they really need to be in I don't know So not the attendance of nothing a bit. You've got a bit So eventually My head came to speak to me and said, um, are you gonna be in on this day? So you can I thought yeah, I can be here. So I think this must be pretty serious Oh, I'm kidding. I'm in trouble. So you thought you're up for a disciplinary I Generally had no idea what was going on until it was like You must have been panicking thinking Marking What we saw was, you know In summary, you'll you'll tell me off for not being as technical But you know loads of robots loads of gadgets loads of kids playing with all the different projects a brilliant DT department happy staff and just You know my DT teacher. It was just a wonderful place to be and some of the stuff that the kids were producing What will you know? It's international. It was international national, you know kind of quality material and projects Wasn't it? For the technical out there, could you give us a little synopsis of some of the kind of things they're doing the robots the programs? Yeah, well they are designing and developing Robots using a platform called Vex robotics. So Vex robotics is the educational platform that I chose to use and introduce into the school What it's maybe yeah, but ten years ago now, so it's really Drummed up through from competition. So this competition through learning aspects of Getting kids involved in STEM and you know getting other people making industry aware that there's a growing demand Obviously for all these skilled engineers and so we can try and gamify This learning in you know through this competition and really that's how it stemmed but from that the kids obviously You know developed a love and a passion for working with this hardware And that's led on to a number of students one student particular Daniel Oakley To design and develop a robot that will float on water Wow, actually And they've gone off internationally speaking in front of lots of adults, haven't they in big big kind of representations in the UK A number of occasions up to maybe seven times now the world championships in California So that in itself has been an amazing experience for numerous students That have gone on to set you know a number of different standards in their field And that's also encouraged a lot of other schools in the surrounding area in london and other feeder primary schools to also Yeah, now you'll you'll be having this but you're you're a big cheese in this sector, aren't you? Say Rumor has it. Okay. Now. I'm going to change topic Stephen Can I bring you back to your 16 year old self? You know, what was life for you as a young black man? you know school education career paths role models all that kind of Dialogue give us a kind of little whistle-stop journey Well, I'd say my role model. I have to say obviously my parents my mother in particular. She was a head teacher Um, the two schools actually she used to be a head teacher at Broadwater farm for about 15 years Broadwater farm. Yeah, it's just Fantastic. Wow She took she took ownership of uh dealing with the community. Yeah, and the family. I know it very well students um, so she was there for Yeah, a number of years 16 17 years before She then was head hunted to turn around another school failing. Oh, was this what 70s 80s? When was this 80s? Yeah, this is the 80s And uh, after that she moved to F for primary school. So I had experience of yeah doing some work there as well Uh, you had the teacher talk at home all the time growing up. Yeah, so I couldn't really skype off Yeah When you've got a mother from the Caribbean lots of home work get your homework You've got to get your stuff done So, uh, so I was always I always had that a drive But I always said I'm never going to teach him because I could see the stresses and hassles that my mother had But at the same time I could see, you know, I could be shopping with her down in wood green one day And then you know a group of guys would come up and say, oh, oh, Mr. Sadler Hey We're always remembered and respected. Yeah She did what she did for them. So she was always a driver and I say a role model for me growing up at 16 So that I suppose led me to think about Yeah, having it as a potential backup plan So I mean I stand up studying at Loughborough University in Dutch technology and decided to do a course of education Instead of just a straight line of design. What year was that cup? I put you on the spot That was uh, you can guess my age. No, that was 1992 to 96 You know what a funny word. I I I miss Loughborough that exact same course. I think by one A level grade So we could have been best mates, but there you go We'll start best mate relationship now But um a great facility and did you get into sport while you were there? Um, I was into basketballs and footballs into tennis He's played a lot of tennis In north London and basket north of Finchley at the time But again, I was there really because I knew how great it was as a course for B&C and industrial design So that if you're gonna go anywhere, it was if you're gonna stay in London, you went to Brunel If you're gonna have London, you went to Loughborough That was what I attended You know, well, London's done the first place, but you know, not to say you're not gonna struggle with um, you know The issues that we're still talking about, you know, many years later What what was it like growing up for you was it? I'm sure it wasn't a smooth ride, but it was it was it was tricky. It was difficult. Well, you had to do a lot to stand out You know, there was even many things always said to you I I can even remember a time when I was just about to start the course at Loughborough right and I mentioned the cheaters name, but it's yeah saying you're gonna have to Work really really hard to make sure you can stay on this course deal I didn't really click what you know what you meant by that. I thought well Yeah, you know, I've made it here. I'm not gay anywhere. He probably didn't I was the only Black guy or Michael black person on the yes, or a number of years actually for about three or four years And it wasn't really that diverse as I suppose many things were at that time But again, I didn't really look at it. Uh, you know, look through that lens because I was really there to just focus on what I need to do You know, I suppose I always have that drive my parents and so what happened after after Loughborough After Loughborough, um, I did some teaching in Leicester. Uh, I did my training actually, um in Braunston In Leicestershire And then I came back, you know, I was working in London My mother's primary school actually a couple out there for primary school Right to get some primary training and and really, um Try to decide like you do what you're gonna do. Do you like to go straight? Yeah And I actually had you know, I was keen to work for design consultancy There's a lovely lady I used to use to actually one of my my teachers actually school Ross Lucas She'd actually put me in touch with her son Uh at the time and I was yeah in email his uh Design consultancy at the time down in Blackfriars and that was some good training Yeah, so when did you move out to the suburbs up to Barnett? Well, um, well, I lived in it and lived there in Filch And so I ended up working in Barnett just purely by accident It was a visit to pay, uh, the old school to visit just to see what's happening. Well, there you go And I guess the key question, you know, so obviously the in the I go back to Loughborough. There was obviously A design electronics robotics thing emerging here. Yes I was I suppose we were at the cusp of that era where Software was really coming into play. So yeah, I think I think back now And it was our year, you know, third and fourth year where we started to be introduced to water desk and autocad Release at least 12 it was and 3d studio max So the days of marker rendering and doing all your final presentation you remember those days you need Yeah, yeah The software came out as like well, if you're not using this software and doing your rendering in 3d No, I was looking after me. Um, I met my graphics teacher at my old school. I used to be a student at The cup of October ago actually in Fleetwood Blackpool before I moved to London to train as a teacher and we were reminiscing about orthographic projection by hand and now you can just log on to a bit computer online all those skills Um are gone. So I'm moving forward. Um, you know back to the kind of clubs or your school and robotics stuff And at what point did you start to think right robotics for kids stem club? You know developing these skills 2006 At that time I just introduced a school to a virtual virtual learning environment front So we were the first second new school. I think in the country to adopt severely Convinced right brilliant. This is the way to go. We're a split site school as well at that time. I think when you can't remember franta Yes, does it still exist? It's just we moved on since The technology's moved on so we moved all the way from it. So um, but yeah, that was great to get involved and also see Depending on you how the Scandinavians and Norwegians in particular. Did yeah Yes, there wasn't much stem. It was more focus was on technology. But at the time we were working very closely with uh, middle six university and the chat called professor john cave and Dennis Hallam, uh, who was head of faculty at the time in the associate head teacher We used to really help them develop a lot of their project work and And small scale, you know Stem kits and things we test a lot of them out with our students through systems control at the time when that course was running and dnt and Graphics, etc. So, you know, we were very close that we're affiliated with the university and the campus was basically basing up awkward So you know I could you know the days when you could lumb the students in the back of your car We're gonna go down to middle six and can do some work and work with the senior students for a while And see what's going on there and and test things out. So we had a lot of hands-on experience And then that eventually develops in to what we then introduced was our enrichment of triple E enhancement enrichment engagement. Yes And I sure would have spoken to you about how that develops over time And and that was really where we got to really trial out Things it didn't matter if it didn't work. Um, yeah We could really experiment and it was great for the design team it's hard work because we were a lot of This triple E course up at the time. Yes, as we were going on for a number of weeks But the kids love them. We've got kids that visit they're in their 30s now that come back and so yeah So in terms of what the kids get for enrichment, you know Monday to Friday will knows very busy in a school anyway But you know that after school enrichment that you offer You know outside of the statutory curriculum stuff, you know, what what does a regular week? It's one out of curriculum. So I mean, I've got for example tomorrow Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon I've got my year seven enrichment and year eight the following day And so it's great because I can pretty much Teach what I want as long as I I'm aligning it with the d&c curriculum. Yeah Allows me A summoner's into this crazy stuff to really push the envelope and Start to you know do some virtual program. How do you top up your skills? How do you keep up to date with the latest bits of software and make sure you know for you in your case? You know world leading and keeping up to what everyone else is I'm always looking at what Universities are still doing. I'm still in touch with people that laugh, but I'm still in touch with Students. I know that gone through now. I mean, I'm chatting yesterday to another students at Wolverhampton Another engineering course I'm always finding out what they're doing and what they're learning so that I can bring that back Yeah, they've got the latest kit haven't they latest bit of technology and also it means that when our students are You know when the when students are graduating that year 12 year 13 or leave at 16 They've got a real idea about what they can do or where they want to go Um, and they usually have already identified what course they want to do because we've invited some students into their talk And we sort of go from there. I mean on online resources Looking at what other people do. I mean, I'm just about to finish my main stem So that's a key. So I'm mingling with lots of other teachers and finding out their perspectives of how they Deploy them in their classroom and could you know ideas from different people? Could you just list off, you know top four or five kind of resources and things you get your kids to do? You know, I kind of think that you do every year or every term that's that Yeah, um, well VEX VR, which is an online program Which is great to get the kids into coding as well as a compute science teacher That's definitely one you want to do the curriculums all online We've also got the VEX IQ and the VEX EDR again the curriculums all online and that's well supported by the REC foundation, which is the robotics educational Competition foundation there based in the states And they obviously promote the girls in stem initiative and there's a big Yeah, no, I was just going to ask that question actually, you know, what what's your um You know How are you raising that profile and tackling stereotypes and I know the answers but just for people listening Well, in the early days, I I think for me Trying to encourage or break in that stigma, especially with I suppose it even stems down to things like open evenings at school and those parents know that their daughter can actually be involved Girls can code and things like that I mean, I've got my you know, my approach has completed them because I've got my own daughter now Who's eight, you know, she'd be praying with raspy pies and build a little raspy pie spider robots All kind of things so really I use you know, you know showcase my own my own children and what they do Um been very fortunate that I had a VEX impact a series And a series of other girl teams Invexables girlbots Um, great. They're all involved in You know, these these girls really took it under their wing to try and well, I met a lot of them when I came to visit Didn't I got to see some of them were like students coming back as well Yeah, I got to see their online ids and their online projects as well, which is fascinating Exactly And some of them have gone on certainly is eating out and a few others have gone to look at other areas of biomedical engineering As a result of being part of amazing And they would have never done that Some of them are their confidence are great in terms of presenting and And they're working and talking with you know, with judges and people like yourself at competitions and Hannah, she's just recently signed off to be a barrister, you know, Wow, fantastic. So the level of Confidence, um, yeah amongst them has been fantastic So, you know, the teacher awards was a small part of I guess that you know people It was actually a student you we said offline before that recognize you and wrote the letter and things like that and And I suspect you're a busy man before, you know getting that recognition and stuff So I guess with a teacher training hat on what kind of things are you doing to support others? Because I'm sure you're in demand. I'm sure a lot of people email you for advice and things Yeah, I mean, I always try and we've got a lot of the NQTs that come through our school And one of the things I always try to say to them as well as if they want to stand up is Don't just I know you're busy and it's it's difficult But you I think it's part of the profession. It's really good to give back An evening of your own time or two. I mean, I probably give you too much But but an evening or two of your own time where at least you can Um, you're not just putting something on for the kids, but you're learning with them something. Yeah sharing is caring, isn't it? So you have to And and with d&t, you know, you know the design is such an iterative process that you've got to be repeating What you're doing all the time to try and well, I think the nature of our subject is, you know I guess the physical structure of the department is you're always sharing resources and moving between rooms So it's always that workshop feeling all the time, isn't it? Yeah, exactly So in terms of the people that ask you for Advice or the kind of teacher training things that you've led Externally outside of your school. Give us a picture of the kind of things that you do Um, I'm also involved with the creative education project. So I that they are initiatives that promotes 3d printing in Primary schools through secondary schools. So, you know working very closely with companies like Ultimaker um, and the The initiative basically they look to obviously also give a 3d printer out free for Schools to actually test for a number of weeks six to eight weeks Michelle Other ladies there at the creative education was, you know, very kind enough to drop off an Ultimaker printer with us about 10 years ago Uh, and it accidentally didn't go to the next school Because we were doing so much work with it. I said someone forgot to check the list of the email Paying Michelle a visit at the bet show. I know if she's listening she'll probably smile But she did end up letting us keep because we did a lot of work with it But that then led us on to you doing training. Okay Training also even printing the manufacturing of some of the drones you would have seen Yeah Other projects like engineers and things like that Fantastic. Now I kind of switch in topics again, you know, the the umbrella design technology and how the dialogue of you know The e-back and everything else and how dts evolved as a subject since you and I qualified I was in a school in north yorkshire. Um before christ about november and there was 10 or 12 lathes beautiful lathes Never used huge printer in the corner kids sitting in front of computers drawing something online that the machine makes it And I know there's a space for that, but um, that's physical labor. We're still old school even today We're doing our good old uh wooden boxes and things that Could you um, give me your own perception? You know the state of dt across across the country I know you're involved with exam board stuff as well and things that Well, I think well, it's a shame because I think some When I've been to some data meetings in the past and met other teachers I found out sadly that sometimes there's only one or two teachers or there's one case one lady I met at the school and she was the only teacher in her department Trying to provide DnT as a subject for for the entire school secondary school So I can't survive I'm thinking laddiel I'm struggling for money and there's so much more I want to do How are you coping? You know, I think you know, I've got a good foundation and good support structure, but You and I both know there needs to be more work subject needs to be put on the spotlight more And this is something I mean it's You turn the telly onto nothing and you're gonna see you're gonna see Pottery shop, you know all these kind of uh competitions so in being all those all this technology in front of us and uh the dialogue and schools is Non-existent, I think in some some respects. It is and I think I don't know how You know as I'm not that high up the house. See how they're going to manage it financially, but I've I know I've got out of my way as you know I mean as an article I wrote for I I news they interviewed me where And I looked at you know over the course of the last decade how much funding I've brought in for the students and And it it masses over 80 000 quid with trips amazing And you know help with go from parents as well even on our first And second trips to the states. We didn't have any money Ross to get there. Yeah A lot of fundraising and stuff isn't it fundraising a lot of the parents helping out I mean I had one parent. So what's your secret formula? Oh, I can't tell you that Are you gonna say one we had one parent doing what? Well, one parent is actually going at the Costco buying loads of sweets and we were you know, we were selling even pennies Yeah, we tried every every method getting sponsored working with industry. I think a lot of departments now need to Yeah school and you're not linked with your Local industries. It's really important to think look at your school or your location Look at the map that surrounds Your school look at all the industrial estate. What do they do? Yeah, sometimes crazy. It sounds I've gone for you know, even when I'm living now I've gone for a drive just around industrial estate just to see what's available. Yeah What companies are any of them? Any scrap metals any any any acrylic that they get 80 teacher. There's always a resource outside, isn't there? I'll make travels to schools go on Yeah, so say and also if you find someone who's interested in what you're doing Put yourself out there and invite them in If you're confident what you're doing, which I am and you know what you're doing is good I've got the great bunch of students that are there to support it as well Absolutely Introduce myself that the kids talk to them off you go and that's all you need and We had a laugh offline about my judging process with my colleagues when we came to visit you But it's a very impressive place to to go and visit So mr. Sadler top mark so far, but I wonder if you can pass my kind of end of podcast summary What I'm going to throw loads of quick fire questions at you and you can't pause or hesitate. So let's see how you get on Right, so let's start simple. What project what projects on your desk tonight? I'll put you on my desk tonight. Do you really want to see? Here I've got the effectiveness of competitive robotics on student learning off computer science I've got another paper here to read on educational robotics in the stage of secondary education empirical study on motivation Fantastic. So what's the title of your working paper? My working paper is the effectiveness of competitive robotics and how robotics should be used as a driver for STEM learning in secondary schools Brilliant. Well, I can't wait to read that. I'm going to record for video and audio purposes You need to send me that once you've published it, please. Um, right. Okay. That was a long question What book are you reading apart from your papers? What's your book you're reading for fun? I've just bought will Okay Okay Words of wisdom from your mum head teacher. What was our famous catchphrase? Famous catchphrase Do as you're told boy For someone who doesn't know raspberry pi, what would be your top tip to get, you know, my 10 year old son? How could I get him into coding? I had to get him into coding. Head to the rcpi website and Ask for a lady called Sue. She's one of the senior directors there. I say Steve sent you can Steve sent you Well, there you go, folks Ask for Sue and then see what happens. Um, what would be your piece of advice for a new teacher in a dt department? Wow Make sure you collect the chisels in Get to know Get to know all to death software. Yeah, well, there you go. My would be count all the scalpels back here Otherwise you have the whole kids after school searching up and down the workshop Okay, biggest career achievement today. What are you most proud of? Um, I'm most proud of what my students have achieved and the fact that they all come back with a bottle of rum to say hello There you go. Yeah, I love to hear the stories of how they're They've made you know how they're progressing in life. And is there a favorite rum tipple? Um, it's the white rum the original Not Malibu Okay, um, if you weren't doing your dream job now, what would it be? What's that off the wall career? What would it be? Probably be a racing driver. I've got a thing. Yeah, what what what bikes or cars or cars cars Track track racing track racing track. Now. This is a tough question for you. What is your number one piece of CAD cam software? I'll do that one. That's fusion 360 fusion 360. Okay, all to this all to this fusion 360 Have you got a favorite drone or a robot? My favorite robot is now is the one my daughter's just built. It's a little A 3d printed family. All right, very nice. If we had 24 hours in finchly, where would we go for dinner? What will we do? What would we see? What what's the local landmarks? In Finchley or Barnett? Well, Barnett Finchley of Tottenham even I probably have to take you down to the west end to one of my clubbing spots All right, so leave leave the west end or the west end of london west end in london There's not much to see in Barnett to be fair, is there? Um, okay Basketball position Uh, always always a strike always the forward. Okay. Um, who would you recommend an interview next and why? That's a really good one. I think you should interview mr. Dennis Hallam Mr. Dennis Hallam, okay I'll look up Dennis and I'll see if I can find him Um, steven. Where can people find out more about, you know, links online, you know blogs tweets You can find me on linkedin. My twitter handle is Steve underscore fc tuning. So you're welcome to drop me a dm anytime. There you go. And uh, my last question the big one this time, um What would you hope to be your legacy? I don't have a bottle of rum to go with this question sadly, but um in 30 seconds in 30 seconds That is a really tricky one. Um To be to be remembered for the the good I've done And there you go. It was just simple. Keep it simple. Keep it simple. Keep it simple. Well, that that was good enough Well, you know, having visited and seeing you in action and seeing what the kids say Um, I think that is evidence from all the kids that visit you and all the things you do around the world Um, and although, you know, the pandemic's gotten away And I wasn't physically be able to be with you for the teaching awards It was great to see all the photographs and the videos emerge and your big cheesy smile Out there as you lifted up your award and stuff and how cruel all your school to play all that on you thinking you Might have been facing a disciplinary rather than a teaching award Uh, but can you pass on my best wishes to lian and everyone else at your school and uh, everyone for listens Steven sad that do check him out if you need help with dt or some robots or stem or whatever it is This is the man. He is the big cheese. Um, so steven. Thank you for your time. I hope to see you physically In the future soon. I'm back on the road. So hopefully I'll come and pop in soon and say hello All right, all the best