Case Study | Our Lady of Hartley Primary School

How Topical Talk can build teacher confidence through a bespoke partnership

In 2025, TEEF developed a partnership with the Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership (KCSP) focusing on building primary teacher confidence and practice. The collaboration has provided bespoke training, supported classroom action-research projects and engaged over 300 children.

Activities included in-person teacher training, supporting ten classes to participate in the Topical Talk Festival and a summer oracy project featuring six Topical Talk Headlines. The training focused on facilitating child-led discussions and tackling challenging topics. Teachers reported that it boosted their confidence and prompted deeper engagement with the content. Teacher B reflected that it encouraged them to “look deeper, do their own research, reflect more deeply” while Teacher A said it “really got me going and made me feel confident to teach the news” helping her feel “really prepared.” The training empowered teachers to be bold in choosing complex topics.

The impact on students reinforced teacher confidence. Lessons on social media, doomscrolling, Syria and Elon Musk were highly engaging and showed teachers the effectiveness of the resources. Teacher F, initially anxious about the Syria lesson, found her fears unfounded: “I was worried before teaching the Syria lesson as I thought the topic was too big, too complex and I was a bit nervous also not knowing a lot about the topic. But it was my students’ favourite. I’ve learned to have faith in the resources and TEEF really know what they’re doing, picking just the right amount of content to access the topic, picking an angle that is appropriate and navigating towards empathy.”

Lessons also helped students develop nuanced thinking and respect for diverse perspectives reinforcing teacher confidence in facilitating discussions. The Elon Musk lesson encouraged students to move beyond initial strong opinions and consider other viewpoints. Topical Talk created a safe space for students to share their thoughts. In one class a student refugee felt comfortable sharing their experience highlighting the programme’s ability to support inclusive discussion.

Through this bespoke partnership Topical Talk strengthened teacher confidence in delivering current affairs and facilitated meaningful discussions on complex topics.