Education On Fire - Sharing creative and inspiring learning in our schools

What if there was antivirus software for what we eat? Software architect Jordan Robinson, a father of two and former lead instructor with Cultivating Coders, shares how teaching kids to code and refurbishing thousands of donated computers led him to build Piece of Mind. Anxin: Piece of Mind is an AI-powered food-safety platform. It helps families scan purchases and ingredients, monitor FDA recalls, track expiration dates, manage household food inventory, and review restaurant inspection information—bringing essential safety tools together in one convenient app.Key TakeawaysCreativity isn’t just for the arts. Technology becomes creative when you use it to solve a real problem, and the journey of building the solution is the creative part.Lego-style confidence. Building a computer piece by piece (drive, RAM, operating system) shows learners that tech that sounds hard is manageable. That first win builds the confidence to keep going.Lead with value, not “what’s in it for me.” Jordan reaches out to people with ideas that add value, and he’s heard “no” thousands of times for every “yes”. That approach brought thousands of donated Intel computers into his community, refurbished and given back.Close the “information gap.” Recalls and health inspections only help if you hear about them in time. His app scans several sources every 15 minutes, so families can avoid self-inflicted wounds like eating something recalled.AI is only as good as your prompts. His early AI-generated recipes were the worst in the world until the prompting was refined. The human behind the tool still matters.Chapters:00:03 - Introducing Jordan Robinson — Software Architect and Coding Educator01:49 - Jordan’s early life and path into computer education09:15 - How to Make Connections: Reaching Out to People and Organizations14:48 - From Coding to Creating a Food-Safety App23:05 - Dining Out Risks and Restaurant Health Inspections28:11 - FIRE — Feedback, Inspiration, Resilience & Empowerment* Website: PieceOfMind.fyi⁠* Instagram: @AnxinApp⁠* Facebook: AnxinApp⁠* X: @AnxinApp⁠* Threads: @AnxinApp⁠* Bluesky: @anxinapp.bsky.social⁠* YouTube: @AnxinApp⁠* TikTok: Anxin on TikTok⁠* LinkedIn: Jordan Robinson / Anxin Founder⁠🔥 Discover more about Education on Fire, get a FREE pdf of 10 guest resources.https://www.educationonfire.com🔥 Support the show – Buy me a coffee, Merch and Sponsorship Opportunitieshttps://www.educationonfire.com/support#EducationOnFireShow Sponsors –National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)Their Primary First Journal: https://www.educationonfire.com/napeEnglish Program for Kids – Night ZookeeperFUN: There are thousands of engaging language arts activities for Grades 1 to 6 that your child can play independently.COMPREHENSIVE: The program covers a full language arts curriculum of reading, writing, spelling, grammar & punctuation, that rewards children as they progress.TRACKABLE: A parent dashboard helps you track your child’s progress and enables you to set your own assignments.PERSONALIZED: Children get written feedback from our team of tutors on their pieces of writing- so you don’t need to be the bad guy!TRUSTED: An award winning program, used by thousands of homeschool families. Rated 4.7 on Trustpilot.http://educationonfire.com/nightzookeeper

Rob Heller is a successful entrepreneur, youth development innovator, and founder of the Boost Program, a comprehensive personal development curriculum designed to equip teens and young adults with the essential life, social, and mental health skills that traditional education overlooks. After selling his insurance firm for eight figures to a publicly held company, Rob witnessed firsthand the critical skill gaps plaguing today's youth in the corporate workplace. This observation, combined with his desire to give his own children the tools they needed to thrive, inspired him to create a solution that didn't exist.Drawing from a century of personal development wisdom—distilling the teachings of Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, and other thought leaders into accessible, actionable lessons—Rob developed Boost as the "missing course" for today's youth. Takeaways:The BOOST program to teach life skills that traditional schools often ignore.We deliver the curriculum in groups so students practice conversations, role play, and real interactions.Phone use has damaged most social and character skills and reduces face to face time.We teach resilience, mindset, and practical habits so young people learn to handle failure and grow.High engagement when lessons were made relevant to students and connected to their daily lives.We created the Boost Soft Skills Alliance to help educators share methods and scale the program globally.Simple steps like reducing phone time, videotaping practice, and creating schedules for focused social skill practice.Chapters:00:04 - Introducing Rob Heller — Founder of the BOOST Program02:04 - From Concerned Father to Founder — How BOOST Began12:28 - Launching the Boost Soft Skills Alliance23:10 - Implementing the Program in Schools30:45 - FIRE: Feedback, Inspiration, Resilience and Empowermenthttps://boostprogram.com/https://www.skool.com/boostsoftskillalliance🔥 Discover more about Education on Fire, get a FREE pdf of 10 guest resources.https://www.educationonfire.com🔥 Support the show – Buy me a coffee, Merch and Sponsorship Opportunitieshttps://www.educationonfire.com/support#EducationOnFireShow Sponsors –National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)Their Primary First Journal: https://www.educationonfire.com/napeEnglish Program for Kids – Night Zookeeper FUN: There are thousands of engaging language arts activities for Grades 1 to 6 that your child can play independently.COMPREHENSIVE: The program covers a full language arts curriculum of reading, writing, spelling, grammar & punctuation, that rewards children as they progress.TRACKABLE: A parent dashboard helps you track your child's progress and enables you to set your own assignments. PERSONALIZED: Children get written feedback from our team of tutors on their pieces of writing- so you don't need to be the bad guy!TRUSTED: An award winning program, used by thousands of homeschool families. Rated 4.7 on Trustpilot.http://educationonfire.com/nightzookeeper

James Walker is the co-founder of Young Film Academy (YFA), one of the UK's leading filmmaking organisations for young people. For over 20 years, James and the YFA team have helped thousands of teenagers develop storytelling, communication, leadership, teamwork, creative confidence and practical filmmaking experience through hands-on outreach projects, workshops and their flagship residential summer programme.YFA's philosophy is simple: the best way to learn is by making films. James has a wealth of knowledge and passion to share about helping young people discover their creative potential, pathways into the creative industries and how filmmaking can build the most essential skills for the modern world.Key takeawaysStorytelling is the way in. Film is just another medium for telling stories, and that skill matters in every career.Passion starts early. We expect athletes and musicians to start young, so take young people’s creative interests just as seriously.Ownership beats instruction. No student is handed a script. They write their own and care far more about the result.Real humans, real spaces. Doing a hard creative task in person builds the “four Cs and an R”: confidence, communication, collaboration, creativity and resilience.Learn from the edit. Students cut their own films, so they see their own mistakes and learn from them.Resilience isn’t a poster word. Every film goes through excitement, a dark patch, then “we actually did it”. Getting through it is what resilience means.Chapters:00:25 - Learning by Making: The Young Film Academy's Philosophy01:26 - Origins of the Young Film Academy10:54 - How to Get Involved with Young Film Academy18:37 - Summer School: Structure, Roles, and Hands-On Learning25:35 - A Student's Journey: From Ballet to Film (Project Paradiso)27:30 - The Young Film Academy Podcast — Opening Eyes to Film Careers34:21 - FIRE — Feedback, Inspiration, Resilience & Empowerment40:45 - Conclusion — Impact, Learning, and How to Find Young Film Academyhttps://www.youngfilmacademy.co.uk/https://www.youngfilmacademy.co.uk/podcast/@youngfilmacademy🔥 Discover more about Education on Fire, get a FREE pdf of 10 guest resources.https://www.educationonfire.com🔥 Support the show – Buy me a coffee, Merch and Sponsorship Opportunitieshttps://www.educationonfire.com/support#EducationOnFireShow Sponsors –National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)Their Primary First Journal: https://www.educationonfire.com/napeEnglish Program for Kids – Night ZookeeperAward-winning reading & writing program for ages 6-12Improves vocabulary, spelling, grammar & morePersonalised feedback on your child’s workhttp://educationonfire.com/nightzookeeper

Real estate investor Jonathan Greene grew up learning about money not through lectures, but through exposure — walking rental properties with his dad, watching cash change hands, and having open conversations about deals from the age of 10. In this episode, Jonathan and Mark explore why today's frictionless, cashless world makes financial understanding harder for kids, and share practical ways parents can bring money into everyday conversation — from allowances and borrowing to the empowering value of letting kids make (and learn from) their own financial mistakes.Jonathan is the founder of Streamline and host of the Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing podcast, he challenges hype-driven strategies in favour of discipline, integrity, and long-term thinking.Key TakeawaysExposure beats lectures. Jonathan learned about money by tagging along with his real-estate-investor father — collecting rent, seeing cash change hands — rather than through formal money talks.Make money tangible again. Digital payments have made spending "frictionless" for kids; cash, bank books, or visible transactions help them grasp value and consequence.Allowance can teach real financial concepts. Splitting weekly allowance into spend/save/invest portions introduces investing and compound growth early — and fronting money with a bit of "interest" teaches how borrowing really works.Mistakes are part of financial education. Letting kids make (and lose money on) small purchasing decisions builds resilience, judgement, and — crucially — empowerment.Everyday moments are teaching moments. Car repairs, laundry costs, grocery runs, even real estate spotted on a drive — ordinary life is full of low-stakes chances to talk about money.Chapters:00:02 - Interview with Jonathan Green: Start Money Conversations Early — A Different Approach00:52 - Welcome to Education on Fire16:05 - Real Estate as a Vehicle for Teaching Kids About Money23:22 - Everyday Money Lessons: Laundry, University and Car Costs28:49 - Valuing Time: A Laundry Lesson35:02 - Raising Financially Empowered Childrenhttps://www.trustgreene.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-greene-re/🔥 Discover more about Education on Fire, get a FREE pdf of 10 guest resources.https://www.educationonfire.com🔥 Support the show – Buy me a coffee, Merch and Sponsorship Opportunitieshttps://www.educationonfire.com/support#EducationOnFireShow Sponsors –National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)Their Primary First Journal: https://www.educationonfire.com/napeEnglish Program for Kids - Night ZookeeperAward-winning reading & writing program for ages 6-12Improves vocabulary, spelling, grammar & morePersonalised feedback on your child's workhttp://educationonfire.com/nightzookeeper

Jamie Moseley-Sarsfield is the Deputy Head Academic at Fairfield Prep School, part of the Loughborough Schools Foundation. He focuses on enhancing pupil experience and academic engagement, recently leading initiatives such as adapting IAPS pupil voice surveys for younger years and implementing STEAM-based enterprise education.Key TakeawaysHigh engagement changes what a survey means — a 90%+ response rate across 31 schools and 4,500+ children gave Fairfield genuine confidence in the results, not just a token gesture.Reading came out lower than expected nationally — prompting Fairfield to design their own follow-up survey, tailored by age, to understand why.Children who saw fewer adults reading at home still valued and enjoyed reading just as much, challenging an assumption the school expected to confirm.AI and screen-time debate is polarising schools — Fairfield's approach is deliberately cautious: gather evidence, avoid rash decisions, keep tradition and innovation both on the table.STEAM grew from a single enrichment week into a whole-school strategy — including a standalone DTE (Design, Technology & Engineering) subject and a staff-led STEAM committee.Parent-led Engineering Days work because they're personal, not prescriptive — asking parents "how did your passion begin?" builds far deeper buy-in than a generic "come and help" request.Careers work shifted from academic to practical — pupil feedback drove a redesigned careers fair connecting children with real workplace journeys, not just university pathways.Chapters:00:02 - Interview: Jamie Mosley Sarsfield — Deputy Head Academic, Fairfield Prep00:35 - Podcast Welcome & Show Overview07:09 - Unexpectedly Low Reading Scores in the Survey13:25 - Building a Reading Culture: Library, Librarian and Survey-led Initiatives23:50 - Broadening the Curriculum: Integrating STEAM and the Arts30:39 - Engaging Parents and Community in STEAM and Careers37:12 - Introducing FIRE: Feedback, Inspiration, Resilience & Empowerment42:27 - Getting Involved: How to Find Out More About Fairfield Prephttps://lborofairfield.org🔥 Discover more about Education on Fire, get a FREE pdf of 10 guest resources.https://www.educationonfire.com🔥 Support the show – Buy me a coffee, Merch and Sponsorship Opportunitieshttps://www.educationonfire.com/support#EducationOnFireShow Sponsors –National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)Their Primary First Journal: https://www.educationonfire.com/napeEnglish Program for Kids - Night ZookeeperAward-winning reading & writing program for ages 6-12Improves vocabulary, spelling, grammar & morePersonalised feedback on your child's workhttp://educationonfire.com/nightzookeeper