Hoops of Steel

Chris talks with Mel about how high expectations and genuine relationships can transform lives and classrooms. The founder of the Stronger Smarter Institute shares the power of storytelling, challenging low expectations, and helping students see themselves in English. From Shakespeare and Animal Farm to community connection and cultural identity, this conversation is a powerful reminder of why teaching matters.
Dr Chris Sarra is a Gurang Gurang and Taribelang Bunda man, founder and CEO of the Stronger Smarter Institute, and a nationally respected education reformer. For more than 30 years, he has championed high-expectations leadership, Indigenous education, and positive change across schools, communities, and government.

Show notes:
Stronger Smarter – Educational Institution
Good Morning, Mr Sarra – Dr Chris Sarra (memoir)
Julius Caesar – William Shakespeare
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) – George Orwell
From Little Things Big Things Grow – Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody
In this episode, Dr Chris Sarra acknowledges the powerful influences of his parents and teachers; Dr Gary MacLennan (teacher educator and mentor to Chris); and the work of artists Deborah Mailman, Wesley Enoch, and Tara June Winch.

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Haley talks with Mel about what it takes to make English classrooms inclusive for students with language and attentional difficulties. This episode is packed with actionable strategies to transform access for students who struggle to translate ideas into words, without adding to the pressure of your already too-busy working life.

Show notes:
Find out more about Haley’s scholarly and professional work here.
Purchase the Accessible Assessment Pedagogies book  here. You’ll find loads of resources along with the accessibility of pedagogy scale.
Find out more about learning and memory by exploring this range of handy explainers.

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Jane Harper speaks with Julie Arnold at the ETAQ State Conference about all things gothic and crime, story and language. From her debut The Dry to her popular forward catalogue of the Aaron Falk and standalone novels, we learn about what makes her tick as a writer and how English teachers can make the most of popular fiction in the senior English classroom.
Bio:
Jane Harper is internationally bestselling author of the The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and The Survivors. Her books are published in forty territories worldwide, and The Dry has been adapted into a major motion picture starring Eric Bana. Jane has won numerous top awards including the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year, the Australian Indie Awards Book of the Year, the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel, and the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year. Jane worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK, and now lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.
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Joanna Erskine talks with Mel about why we must bother with the Bard and lifts the curtain on the emerging Bell Shakespeare method — a joyful, practical, deeply human way to engage students with English’s most revered playwright’s oeuvre. If you’re ready to ditch the 40‑slide PowerPoint and teach Shakespeare with purpose and power, this one’s for you.
Joanna Erskine (she/her) is an award-winning playwright, producer, speaker, teacher and arts education specialist. Joanna is the Head of Education at Bell Shakespeare, working with the company for 18+ years overseeing artistic direction and delivery of its renowned national education program.
Show notes:
Plays mentioned: The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello 
For all things Bell Shakespeare including the National Teacher Mentorship and the Bell Shakespeare method, head to the education section of the Bell Shakespeare website.
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Why do big feelings matter in English, and what happens when teachers make space for them?
In this episode of Hoops of Steel, Mel is joined by educator and researcher Alice Elwell to explore the transformative potential of emotional inquiry in the English classroom. Alice frames affect not as something to manage or minimise, but as a vital force. Students’ (and teachers’!) emotions can be an energy that fuels student agency, deepens interaction, and opens up new pathways for learning about human experience.
This episode invites English teachers to step boldly into affective work, to refuse dispassionate analysis, and to recognise that in English, thinking and feeling are never separate.
Bio:
Alice Elwell is a full-time school leader who teaches Language and Literature, Global Politics, and Theory of Knowledge at The Queensland Academies Creative Industries — known locally as QACI. She is a PhD candidate whose work explores emotional inquiry through literature in the classroom.
Show notes:
Elwell, A. (2023). "Student Voice, Choice, and Agency: The Benefits of Co-designing English Curriculum." English in Australia 58(2): 47.
Elwell, A. (2021). Critical affective literacy, feminist pedagogies, and democracy: exploring possibilities for the high school English classroom. In New perspectives on Education for Democracy (pp. 138-152). Routledge.
Macmillan, D. (2025). Every brilliant thing. Bloomsbury Publishing.
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