Monthly Archives: December 2025

Creativity, Enrichment, Learning, Personal Development, Taskmaster, Taskmaster in School, Teaching, Teaching and Learning, Teamwork

WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT TASKMASTER CLUB? LEADERSHIP

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Week 5 — Leadership: Guiding, Listening and Adapting

Leadership is often misunderstood as something reserved for a few confident individuals at the front of the room. In reality, leadership is a set of skills and behaviours that can (and should) be developed in young people through practice, reflection and collaboration.

Taskmaster Club offers exactly that kind of environment.

Across each session, pupils take on leadership roles both formally and informally. They communicate ideas, negotiate approaches, make decisions under pressure, bring others with them, and adapt when things don’t work as planned. Leadership here is not about authority – it’s about influence, responsibility and collective success.

What Do We Mean by Leadership in Education?

Educational research increasingly views leadership as:

  • shared rather than hierarchical
  • situational rather than fixed
  • relational rather than positional

This idea of distributed leadership – widely discussed in education research – recognises that leadership emerges through interaction: listening, coordinating, motivating and guiding others toward a shared goal.

Crucially, leadership is not something pupils simply “have” or “don’t have”. It is learned through experience, especially in group-based, problem-rich environments.

Why Developing Leadership Skills Matters

Research and policy consistently highlight leadership as a vital life skill:

  • The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) links leadership-related skills such as self-regulation, communication and metacognition to improved academic outcomes.
    https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit
  • UK educational leadership scholars such as Professor Alma Harris and Professor Christopher Day argue that leadership capacity should be developed early, through collaborative practice and shared responsibility.
  • Ofsted has increasingly emphasised personal development, teamwork, communication and responsibility – all closely tied to leadership behaviours – as part of what schools should be cultivating beyond exam outcomes.
  • Research on youth leadership development shows that pupils who are given structured opportunities to lead develop greater confidence, resilience, and engagement with learning.

In short: leadership skills support success in school, work and wider society – and they don’t develop by accident.

How Taskmaster Club Develops Leadership Skills

Taskmaster Club creates repeated, authentic opportunities for pupils to practise leadership in action.

1. Shared Decision-Making Under Pressure

Teams must make decisions quickly: which idea to pursue, how to use their time, who does what. Someone often needs to step forward to synthesise ideas and move the group on.

Research into leadership development highlights decisiveness and clarity – especially under time constraints – as core leadership skills. Taskmaster Club provides real, low-stakes practice.

2. Communication, Negotiation and Compromise

Leadership in Taskmaster Club is deeply communicative. Pupils must:

  • articulate their thinking
  • listen to others
  • negotiate disagreements
  • compromise for the good of the team

Research on collaborative learning and leadership stresses that effective leaders are strong listeners who create space for others’ voices – not those who dominate discussion.

3. Ensuring Everyone Is Heard

Successful teams are rarely led by the loudest voice. Instead, effective leaders notice who hasn’t spoken, draw out quieter ideas, and help the group weigh different contributions.

This reflects research on inclusive leadership, which shows that teams perform better when leaders actively foster participation and psychological safety.

4. Evaluating and Adapting Approaches

Leadership isn’t just about choosing a plan – it’s about recognising when it isn’t working.

Taskmaster Club tasks often require leaders to:

  • reassess strategies mid-task
  • respond to setbacks
  • adapt roles or approaches
  • keep morale high when things wobble

Educational research links this adaptive leadership closely to metacognition (thinking about thinking) which the EEF identifies as a high-impact teaching approach.

5. Rotating and Informal Leadership

Leadership in Taskmaster Club is fluid. One pupil may lead planning, another execution, another presentation or reflection.

This mirrors the distributed leadership models advocated by education researchers, which argue that rotating leadership roles builds wider leadership capacity and avoids reliance on a single individual.

Why Taskmaster Club Is an Ideal Leadership Environment

Taskmaster Club supports leadership development because it is:

  • Low-stakes — mistakes are safe and often humorous
  • Collaborative — leadership is social, not solitary
  • Time-bound — decisions matter
  • Varied — leadership takes different forms each week
  • Reflective — teams should evaluate both outcomes and processes

Most importantly, leadership is practised authentically, not simulated.

Practical Ways to Make Leadership Explicit in Your Club

If you run a Taskmaster Club, you can strengthen leadership development by:

  • Rotating team roles deliberately (planner, coordinator, presenter, reviewer).
  • Asking teams to identify who helped move the group forward – and how.
  • Highlighting good leadership behaviours in feedback, not just good results.
  • Encouraging reflection on decisions: What worked? What would you change?
  • Valuing listening and facilitation as much as bold ideas.

Final Thought

Leadership is not about standing out – it’s about bringing others with you.

Taskmaster Club gives young people repeated chances to practise leadership in its most meaningful form: guiding discussion, making decisions, adapting strategies, and keeping a team moving forward together. Through communication, compromise and reflection, pupils learn that leadership is not a title – it’s a skill.

And if they learn that while managing a ticking clock, balancing wildly different ideas, and rescuing a plan that’s gone slightly off the rails?
That’s leadership worth developing.

Taskmaster Club materials:

Further posts in the ‘What’s So Good About Taskmaster Club series:

Creativity, Enrichment, Learning, Personal Development, Taskmaster, Taskmaster in School, Teaching, Teaching and Learning, Teamwork

WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT TASKMASTER CLUB? PROBLEM SOLVING

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Week 4 – Problem Solving: Thinking Flexibly, Together

Problem solving is one of the most frequently cited “essential skills” in education, and one of the hardest to teach well. It’s not simply about getting the right answer, but about how learners approach unfamiliar challenges, adapt strategies, and apply thinking across different contexts.

Taskmaster Club is particularly powerful here. Each session presents teams with unusual, open-ended problems that must be interpreted, planned for, tested and revised – often under time pressure, often collaboratively, and often with unpredictable results. This repeated exposure to varied problems helps young people build transferable problem-solving habits, not just isolated techniques.

What Do We Mean by Problem Solving in Education?

Educational research defines problem solving as a process, not an outcome. It typically includes:

  • understanding and defining the problem
  • planning an approach
  • selecting and testing strategies
  • monitoring progress
  • adapting when things don’t work
  • reflecting on outcomes and processes

Crucially, strong problem solvers are not those who memorise solutions, but those who can transfer strategies to new situations — a key focus of current UK educational research.

Why Problem Solving Matters (Research & Policy Context)

Problem solving has become increasingly prominent in education policy and research:

  • The OECD highlights problem solving as central to preparing learners for complex, uncertain futures, particularly when problems are ill-defined and collaborative.
  • In England, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) identifies metacognition and self-regulation – closely linked to problem solving – as having a high impact on pupil attainment.
  • UK cognitive science research (including work synthesised by Dunlosky et al., widely used in teacher education) shows that learners improve problem solving when they are explicitly taught how to plan, monitor and evaluate their thinking.
  • Research from the University of Cambridge on dialogic learning demonstrates that reasoning with others improves individual problem-solving ability over time.

Together, this evidence points to a clear conclusion: problem solving improves when it is modelled, practised across contexts, and supported through structured talk and reflection.

How Taskmaster Club Develops Problem Solving Skills

Taskmaster Club is particularly effective because it exposes learners to many different types of problems, requiring flexible application of strategies rather than repetition of a single method.

1. Interpreting Ambiguous Problems

Task instructions are rarely straightforward. Teams must read carefully, clarify meaning, challenge assumptions, and agree on what the problem actually is.

This aligns with research showing that expert problem solvers spend more time understanding a problem before acting — a skill that can be taught, modelled and practised.

2. Strategic Planning and Time Management

Once a task is understood, teams must decide:

  • what their goal is
  • how to use limited time and resources
  • which strategy is most likely to succeed

This reflects research on metacognition, which emphasises planning and monitoring as core components of effective problem solving. Taskmaster Club provides repeated, authentic opportunities to practise these skills.

3. Collaborative Problem Solving

Most Taskmaster Club tasks are approached in teams. Participants must:

  • share ideas
  • justify their reasoning
  • negotiate disagreements
  • compromise and adapt

Research into collaborative problem solving (including studies on dialogic teaching) shows that explaining thinking aloud and responding to others’ ideas strengthens reasoning and improves solution quality. Taskmaster Club embeds this naturally.

4. Trial, Error and Productive Failure

Many Taskmaster attempts fail — sometimes spectacularly. But failure here is informative, not punitive.

Educational research on productive failure shows that struggling with a problem before reaching a solution leads to deeper understanding and better long-term transfer. Taskmaster Club normalises iteration: test, fail, adapt, try again.

5. Questioning and Information Seeking

Successful teams often:

  • ask clarifying questions
  • look for hidden clues
  • check interpretations
  • seek additional information

Inquiry-based learning research consistently identifies questioning as a key driver of effective problem solving. Taskmaster Club rewards curiosity and strategic questioning rather than blind action.

6. Reflection and Transfer

After each task, teams can reflect on:

  • what worked
  • what didn’t
  • why
  • what they’d change next time

Reflection is critical. EEF guidance highlights that metacognitive reflection helps learners transfer strategies to new problems. Taskmaster Club allows this reflective loop into every session.

Why Taskmaster Club’s Approach Is So Effective

Taskmaster Club creates ideal conditions for problem solving because it is:

  • Low-stakes — failure is safe and often funny
  • Varied — problems differ from task to task and week to week
  • Social — thinking is shared and challenged
  • Time-bound — encouraging prioritisation
  • Engaging — motivation remains high

Most importantly, students encounter problems that don’t look like school problems — which is exactly what helps problem-solving skills transfer beyond the classroom.

Practical Ways to Make Problem Solving Explicit in Your Club

  • Ask teams to articulate their plan before starting.
  • Pause mid-task to encourage strategy review.
  • Highlight good questions as much as good answers.
  • Celebrate effective adaptations, not just success.
  • End sessions by identifying one problem-solving strategy teams would reuse elsewhere.

Final Thought

Problem solving is not a single skill but a habit of mind – one that develops through varied practice, collaboration, reflection and the freedom to fail safely.

Taskmaster Club offers young people repeated, joyful opportunities to practise this habit. By tackling strange, unpredictable challenges together, they learn not just how to solve a task — but how to approach problems wherever they appear.

And if they learn that while racing the clock, negotiating with teammates, and defending a slightly ridiculous plan?
That’s problem solving at its best.

Taskmaster Club materials:

Further posts in the ‘What’s So Good About Taskmaster Club series:

Creativity, Enrichment, Personal Development, Taskmaster, Taskmaster in School, Teaching, Teaching and Learning, Teamwork

What’s So Good About Taskmaster Club? ORACY

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Week 3 — Oracy: Speaking, Listening & Thinking Out Loud

In education, we often celebrate reading, writing, arithmetic – but too often we forget the power of talk. That’s where oracy comes in: the ability to express ideas clearly, listen deeply, reason with others, and adapt language to different contexts. For many young people, that’s just as important, if not more so, than any other skill.

With its team-based, often chaotic, always creative structure, Taskmaster Club offers a brilliant environment for oracy to flourish. Teams must plan, defend, revise and sometimes persuade one another that their strange idea is “the one.” In doing so, they practise real-world communication and develop confidence, clarity and collaborative thinking.

Below: how Taskmaster Club builds oracy — and why growing oracy skills matters now more than ever.

What is Oracy — and Why It Matters

  • The term “oracy” was coined in the UK in the 1960s by the British educator Andrew Wilkinson. The idea was to give spoken language skills equal status with literacy and numeracy.cambridge-community.org.uk+1
  • According to the most recent report from the Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England (2024), oracy should become the “fourth R” of education — as vital to children’s development as reading, writing and arithmetic.oracyeducationcommission.co.uk+1
  • Oracy means more than just speaking: it encompasses reasoning together, listening, adapting communication, arguing respectfully, and engaging in collective thinking.Artis+2Research Schools Network+2

In a time where clear communication, empathy, argumentation and collaboration are increasingly vital (in school, society and future workplaces), oracy is something we cannot afford to neglect.

What Research & Policy Are Saying (UK Focus)

  • According to the University of Cambridge’s educational research, when students are taught to reason together — to use talk to think with others — they become better at reasoning individually too.University of Cambridge
  • Studies show that purposeful classroom talk and oracy-recognition improve academic achievement, support social and emotional development, and build skills essential for life beyond school: confidence, expression, civic engagement and agency.ESU+2Research Schools Network+2
  • Recent national-level reviews (like that of the Oracy Commission) argue for integrating speaking & listening — across all subjects and extracurriculars — to prepare young people for a world where communication, discussion and collaboration are key.sec-ed.co.uk+2oracyeducationcommission.co.uk+2

In short: oracy isn’t just “nice-to-have”. It’s a foundational competence – socially, academically, professionally.

How Taskmaster Club Nurtures Oracy in Every Session

Here’s how the Club’s structure naturally builds oracy – often without students realising they’re “learning”.

  • Constant justification & persuasion: Teams discuss how to approach tasks, negotiate ideas, and defend why one plan is better than another. That builds clarity of thought — and the confidence to express it.
  • Collective reflection: After every challenge, participants talk through what worked, what failed, and what they’d do differently. That encourages listening, evaluation, and shared understanding.
  • Role-sharing & leadership language: Teams rotate roles — planners, doers, presenters — which gives everyone a chance to speak, lead, or support. That variety cultivates flexible communication styles.
  • Spontaneous collaboration under pressure: Many tasks are time-pressured, chaotic or absurd: teams must think quickly, adjust plans, and communicate on the fly. That helps build adaptability and real-world readiness.
  • Inclusive, low-stakes environment: Because tasks are playful and creative rather than “test-based,” students are more willing to experiment with ideas, make mistakes, speak up and learn from each other.

Why Oracy — and thus Taskmaster Club — Matters More Than Ever

  • With the recent push (via the Oracy Commission) to recognise oracy as the “fourth R,” schools and educators are being encouraged to embed speaking and listening skills across all areas of learning. Taskmaster Club is already doing this — in a way that feels fun, not forced.
  • As workplaces, communities and societies become more collaborative, global and fluid, strong communication, confidence, and the ability to reason with others are increasingly vital. Oracy helps equip young people for that reality.
  • For many learners — especially those less confident in writing or those from under-resourced backgrounds — oracy provides another route to express their thinking, show their knowledge, and contribute meaningfully. It’s equitable, empowering, accessible.

Practical Ideas to Boost Oracy in Your Club

If you run a Taskmaster Club (or are thinking of starting one), here are some concrete ideas to make oracy explicit — and build it intentionally:

  • At the end of each task, spend a few minutes debriefing: ask each team member to say one thing they liked about someone else’s idea, and one improvement they’d suggest.
  • Run tasks that require verbal presentation — so teams have to pitch their ideas out loud, describe their methods, or explain their thinking under a time limit.
  • Rotate roles deliberately — ensure quieter students get a chance to lead discussion, speak, or summarise the group’s thinking.
  • Encourage discussion of choices: when a plan fails, ask teams to reflect aloud on why, what they might do differently — celebrate “good thinking, even if the result was exactly what was hoped for.”
  • Use mixed media: some tasks should require strategy talk (planning, reasoning), others storytelling or performative explanation — giving varied opportunities for oracy development.

Final Thought

Oracy isn’t a luxury. It’s a human right: the right to think aloud, to express, to reason, to contribute. And in a world increasingly shaped by communication — between communities, workplaces, nations — oracy is as vital as reading, writing or arithmetic.

With its blend of teamwork, challenge, play and reflection, Taskmaster Club gives young people a rare gift: regular, joyful, purposeful opportunities to speak, listen and think together. It doesn’t just help them win silly tasks — it helps them find their voice.

Taskmaster Club materials:

Further posts in the ‘What’s So Good About Taskmaster Club series: