Episodes
July 7, 2024
Ep 70: Surviving The Summer Term, Being A "Fun" Teacher & Tory Collapse
The Tories have been decimated. Gillian Keegan has been booted out. Two lovely sentences! We reflect on the election result, talk about the line between being a fun teacher but also doing the job effectively, and share genera...
June 30, 2024
Ep 69: Alastair Campbell On Politics In School, Lowering The Voting Age & Being Optimistic
We are joined by Alastair Campbell , ex-advisor to Tony Blair in the New Labour government & host of the number 1 podcast in the UK "The Rest Is Politics". Alastair has written two books aimed at school children with the aim ...
June 23, 2024
Ep 68: Should Private School Fees Include VAT?
Join us as we discuss the imminent plan to add VAT to private school fees. Long overdue? A bad idea? What do you think? We share our thoughts & ideas alongside a bunch of statistics about the current climate. Do get in touch ...
June 16, 2024
Ep 67: Can Flexible Working Save Education?
On the first day of Teach Sleep Repeat, my true love gave to me, an episode about flexible workingggg. On the second day of Teach Sleep Repeat, my true love gave to me, a hypothetical question about Hayden becoming a dogggg. ...
June 9, 2024
Ep 66: Does Becoming A Parent Negatively Affect Your Teaching?
You can tell we've been away on holiday for a week because this episode is particularly scatty! We reflected on taking our babies away for a week, how many Kripsy Kremes we consumed in a week & the importance of sports day al...
June 2, 2024
Ep 65: Do We Need A New National Curriculum?
Join us this week as we dive into a hypothetical situation in which the next government SCRAP the current national curriculum and start again. Would this be a good idea? What would the pros and cons be? Is it even likely to h...
May 26, 2024
Ep 64: A SATs Reflection & The General Election
Well... here we go. It's general election time which means Dylan becomes insufferable! (Can you guess who wrote this description?) Join two teachers talk about all things politics and education! We also reflect on the 2024 SA...
May 19, 2024
Ep 63: A Leaving Teaching Success Story With Kate Languages
Join us as we chat with Kate about all things modern foreign languages (MFL) and her story of starting a successful education business. We also touch on the Hutchinson school outrage after being contacted by an angry parent. ...
May 12, 2024
Ep 62: Top Tips For New Teachers: 8 Things We Wish We Knew Sooner
In this week's episode, we (eventually) talk about what advice we would give brand new teachers if we had the chance. As experienced teachers, we have plenty of ideas that we wish we knew sooner, and understand how older staf...
May 10, 2024
Ep 61: Does School Prepare Children For Real Life?
You've heard it all before... School is useless! It doesn't prepare you for real life! Why don't we learn about taxes? We dive into this topic in detail. What do we teach that is pointless? What's the role of a school? What d...
May 5, 2024
Ep 60: Mr P: Transforming Teaching With AI, The Impact of Austerity & Brutally Honest Children
This week, we welcome back Lee (better known as Mr. P) who chats to us about all things AI. Lee chats about exactly what AI is, including language models and how to train them, as well as how his platform (TeachMateAI) has be...
April 21, 2024
Ep 59: Should Teachers Be Banned From Displaying Tattoos In The Classroom?
Welcome back to another episode! Firstly, we catch up about our week & the importance of enrichment to children. Dylan discusses his class taking part in a drama workshop & Hayden ponders the difference between knowledge-base...
April 14, 2024
Ep 58: The Hilarious Mrs Smith: Learning Stalks, Knobservations & Stand-Up Comedy
In our weekly catch-up, we discuss the difference between self-care and self-soothing, the fact Hayden is always ill & why McDonalds chicken nuggets taste like cardboard. Then, we welcome the awesome Mrs Smith to the podcast ...
April 7, 2024
Ep 57: Making The Most Of Your Time Off: Say NO, Prioritise Tasks & Stop Comparing!
Join us as we have a wide-ranging chat around making the most of your time off. As teachers, we get a LOT of time off. We know this isn't as straight forward as it sounds. We work HARD & have a lot to do. So, why do some teac...
March 31, 2024
Ep 56: Sophie B: SATs Insights, The Best Way To Prep & Widespread Cheating (Part 2)
Our chat with Sophie morphed into a marathon conversation, so we are back with week with part 2 that is all about the Key Stage 2 SATs. Sophie is a SATs data guru and talks us through past patterns and what we are likely to s...
March 24, 2024
Ep 55: Sophie B: Parenting and Teaching, Setting Boundaries At Work & Job Sharing (part 1)
Sophie B joins us as our first ever return guest on the podcast. Last time we spoke, Sophie was on maternity leave. Now, she has returned to work and is navigating parenthood whilst also getting back into the swing of things ...
March 17, 2024
Ep 54: Mixed Ability or Sets: Should We Group Classes Based On Ability?
Over the years, the narrative has changed as more and more research became available. The overarching thought now is that setting in primary schools is not the way forward and that instead we should teach mixed-ability classe...
March 10, 2024
Ep 53: What Children Should Be Learning At Home (& What To AVOID!)
Following on from the discussion what exactly the role of a teacher is in last week's episode, we flip the narrative this time and discuss exactly what learning children should be doing at home. Times tables? Complex problem ...
March 3, 2024
Ep 52: Brushing Teeth & Toilet Training: What Exactly Is The Role Of A Teacher?
This week, we saw a study where half of parents felt it wasn't solely their responsibility to toilet train their children. Labour want to introduce teeth brushing to primary schools. What exactly is too much to ask for teache...
Feb. 25, 2024
Ep 51: The Best Things About Teaching Are.....
Doing a podcast about education during the most turbulent year in memory (strikes, funding crisis, retention and recruitment issues) is bound to throw up some negativity. This week, we thought we'd focus solely on what keeps ...
Feb. 18, 2024
Ep 50: Top Tips To Avoid Teacher Burnout
Teaching is consistently placed in the top 5 most stressful jobs there are. Burnout feels inevitable. With the wrong school & policy in place, it's practically impossible to avoid. However.... We do have control of enough in ...
Feb. 11, 2024
Ep 49: Writing Assessment: How Many Schools Are Cheating The Broken System?
Writing assessment is broken. Ridiculously high bar for children to reach; a moderation procedure open to fudging; increasing pressure to meet certain end goals. Should we go back to formal tests? Is there a way to fix teache...
Feb. 4, 2024
Ep 48: Is OFSTED Actually About To Change For The Better?
Join us for a chat about the current state of OFSTED in schools and the committee report into what needs to happen to change the horrific narrative around school inspections. What are the main problems currently? What are the...
Jan. 28, 2024
Ep 47: The School Absence Crisis: What Caused It & How Can It Be Fixed?
School absence is at crisis-level post-pandemic and doesn't seem to be budging much.
We chat about the underlying causes, why playing the blame game won't help & what are the actionable steps that need to be taken to solve it...