Mindful Learning with Francis Gilbert
Conversations and ideas for creative, compassionate education
✨ Welcome
I set up the Mindful Learning podcast as an informal, honest space to reflect on key ideas in education, creativity, and life. As a writer, teacher and Head of Subject at Goldsmiths, I’ve spent years thinking about how we can teach and learn more mindfully — not just in theory, but in everyday conversations, classrooms, and relationships.
This podcast isn’t polished or scripted. It’s real. I record most episodes on Teams or Zoom — just talking, listening, thinking aloud with people I admire: students, teachers, colleagues, friends, and family. We explore how learning actually happens — emotionally, socially, reflectively — and how we can create more space for care, curiosity and creative risk-taking in education.
It’s part of my wider Mindful Learning project, which includes books, blogs, teaching resources and mentoring. But the podcast has a special place: it’s where I let ideas breathe, ask difficult questions, and celebrate the messy, meaningful parts of education.
You can listen via this site or via YouTube.
🎧 The Podcast
Listen to honest, unscripted conversations about education, creativity, and life.
Each episode is recorded informally — often on Teams or Zoom — and captures the flow of thought, laughter, disagreement, and discovery that makes learning truly alive.
Latest Podcasts
Five Ways Arts Practice Can Facilitate Social Change
🎙️ I wrote this blog and recorded this Mindful Learning Podcast episode because I believe the arts are a powerful, often overlooked force for real social change. In conversation with Dr Miranda Matthews, we explore how creative practice can help us respond to the climate crisis, amplify marginalised voices, and transform education from the ground up. We talk about art as participation, not performance; about murals in schools and selkie suits in seal sanctuaries; and about how storytelling and small actions ripple outwards. 🖼️ This one’s for teachers, artists, students—and anyone wondering how creativity can make a difference. 👉 Read the blog and listen to the podcast:
Five Ways Arts Practice Can Facilitate Social ChangeIf you’re reading this on Instagram, please paste the link into your browser to access the full article and audio. #MindfulLearningPodcast #ArtsForChange #CreativeEducation #FrancisGilbert #MirandaMatthews #EcologiesInPractice #Goldsmiths #ArtsAndLearning #ClimateJustice #CriticalPedagogy #StoryOfChange
What’s the Best Education for Your Child?
I recently recorded a very special episode of the Mindful Learning Podcast with my son, Theo. We went on a long car journey and ended up reflecting deeply on his education—from private prep school to state primary, local comprehensive to sixth form college, and beyond. He’s now a singer-songwriter and on the Civil Service Fast Stream. We talked honestly about bullying, creativity, great teachers, and why change can be a good thing. I also wrote an accompanying article exploring six key lessons I’ve learned as a parent navigating the education system. It’s one of the most personal things I’ve done—both as a father and as an educator. If you’re wondering what the “best” education really looks like, I hope it offers some helpful insights.
Other podcasts:
Five Ways to Help Teenagers Love English and Learn to Grow as People
✨ How Can We Help Teenagers Love English? Too often, English is taught as a subject to pass—not a space to grow. But what if we reimagined it as a place for empathy, identity, and critical reflection? 📚 In my latest blog and Mindful Learning Podcast, I share 5 creative, inclusive strategies that help teenagers engage deeply with English through: ✔️ Reflective writing ✔️ Drama and performance ✔️ Racial and linguistic justice ✔️ Funds of knowledge pedagogy ✔️ Real-world empathy-building tasks These ideas are drawn from my chapter in Secondary English for Generation Alpha (Routledge, 2025), edited by the brilliant Lorna Smith—and my decades of teaching, writing, and listening to students. 🎧 If you’re a teacher, trainee, or parent looking to humanise your English classroom, this episode is packed with actionable inspiration. 🙏 With gratitude to Dr Maggie Pitfield (Goldsmiths) for her invaluable support and insight. 👉 Read the blog | Listen to the podcast | Share if this resonates #MindfulLearning #EnglishEducation #GenerationAlpha #LinguisticJustice #RacialLiteracy #DramaInEducation #CreativeWriting #TeacherLife #FrancisGilbert #InclusiveTeaching #Goldsmiths
✍️ Why “Mindful Learning”?
Because education is too often rushed, reduced, and reactive.
Because we need spaces to pause, reflect, and reconnect.
Because learning isn’t just what happens in classrooms — it happens in bodies, in conversations, in the quiet moments of truth-telling.
This project builds on the ideas explored in The Mindful English Teacher and The Mindful Creative Writing Teacher, but opens the door to wider voices, topics, and forms.
🤝 Work with Me
I offer mentoring, talks, workshops, and consultancy for educators, parents, writers, and organisations.
→ sir@francisgilbert.co.uk
🧭 Stay Connected
Subscribe to the podcast, read the latest posts, and follow the journey.