Episodes

Join our WhatsApp community for episode links, future episode polls & priority question submission: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s We are back answering our lovely listeners' questions! From teachers recognising toxic red flags, to life after teaching, we cover loads in this one. Join our WhatsApp community to submit questions and get messages directly from us! https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcas...

Join our podcast WhatsApp community for direct messages from us, links to new episodes, polls on future epsiodes & priority question submissions. https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s We dive into the confirmed Ofsted changes & discuss the impact that these changes will have on schools... If any... Check out Schools Week for the most up-to-date education journalism: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast Follow us on TikTok: ...

We answer your questions on the best thing we learned as teachers, feeling guilty about taking sick leave, how to stand out for promotion without giving up your life, breaktime snacks & what jobs we'd have if it wasn't teaching! Join our WhatsApp community for free to get episode links, Q&A submission priority, polls on future episodes & sneak peaks! https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s Follow us on: Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast TikTok: www.tiktok.com/tea...

We sit down with Greg Jenner, historian, bestselling author and the resident historian on Horrible Histories. He tells us what it was really like working on the iconic show, why history should be about more than memorising facts, and the one thing he thinks every child should learn about the past. Greg also talks about his amazing, funny series of children's books, Totally Chaotic History, which cover key eras of history in the national curriculum! Find the latest book, The Stone Age Runs Wild...

Another episode where we go through your listener questions! We chat about loads, including: private school ethics, climbing the teacher payscale, the UPS debacle, becoming a school leader, and a whole mix of extremely random hypothetical questions! Send us your questions for future episodes here: Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcastTikTok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

September is upon us & the new school year has arrived (unless you're in a place that has already gone back...) Here, we lay out our top tips from 20 years of experience teaching in primary schools that will help you smash September! Sit back, relax, and let us know if we have missed anything out. Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast TikTok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

We are back with another episode answering YOUR questions on all things education and teaching! Accents, teacher gifts, after-school clubs, teaching abroad.... The topics are endless. Get in touch with us if you have any submissions you'd like us to answer in the future. Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Join us for a dive into the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill that is currently making its way into law in the UK. We discuss school uniform, teacher pay and a stripping back of academy freedoms. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? A mix? Let's find out together! We will be covering homeschooling in the future, btw.... Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

In this episode, we answer your teacher questions - from our most controversial opinions about education, to how a TA should really be used in the classroom, our top tips for moving up with your class, and how pointless assessment can be. Expect a mix of honest takes, practical advice, and a few spicy confessions along the way. Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast TikTok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Starting your first year as a new teacher? It can feel exciting, overwhelming, and just a little bit terrifying. In this episode, we share our top tips for new teachers to help you survive (and actually enjoy) your first year in the classroom. Plus, we share some honest stories from our own early years in teaching: the wins, the fails, and what we wish we’d known sooner. Whether you’re about to start teaching or are in the thick of your first year, this is your practical, no-jargon guide to su...

Why Aren’t Children Reading for Pleasure Anymore? 📚 Reading for fun is at an all-time low and the stats are sobering. In 2025, just one in three children said they enjoyed reading in their free time. That is a 36% drop since 2005. What is going on? In this episode, we talk about what we have seen across our teaching careers, the barriers stopping children from picking up a book, and the cultural shift that is turning reading into “work” instead of leisure. From the fact that one in seven prim...

Yes. Hayden has an auto-focus square on his head. Enjoy it! As always, like clockwork, when the summer holidays roll around, we are bombarded with opinions on how they are TOO LONG! We talk about it. Are they too long? Is the cost of childcare too much? Is there a solution? Who is to blame? Is being bored bad? We'd love to hear from you. www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

This week, we chat about how in so many schools, creativity is disappearing in two major ways. Firstly, the arts themselves are languishing. Huge drops in children taking subejcts at GCSE like drama and music. Why is this happening and why is it bad? Secondly, in the classroom itself. Top-down strict rules for every lesson to look the same and fidelity to boring schemes is building a recpie for misery. Get in touch with us through our socials. www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcas...

This week, Dylan clears out his teacher cupboard and uncovers some absolute treasures: an inflatable flamingo, old class photos, and three brilliant books every classroom should have – The House with Chicken Legs, The Book with No Pictures, and One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab. But the big chat? That’s all about the brand new DfE Writing Framework, dropped this July. We give our honest reaction to the changes – the controversies, the good parts and our opinions on writing young Then we’re joi...

It's our last week as teachers... and it's all starting to feel very real. In this episode, we look back on the moments that made us -the unforgettable classroom highs, the amazing people we met, and the exact point we knew we couldn’t keep going. We’re asking ourselves the question we’ve been avoiding: have we made a huge mistake? Honest, emotional, and (as always) a bit chaotic—this one's for every teacher who’s ever felt torn between staying and going. Hayden also dives into his recent ...

It’s the end of the school year, which can only mean one thing: performance appraisal season. But with targets that feel random, policies that haven’t caught up, and a system still obsessed with spreadsheets… we’re asking: Do schools even value great teaching anymore – or just good data? In this episode, Dylan and Hayden unpack: What appraisals are supposed to be vs. what they’ve become The 2024 rule change that schools are quietly ignoring (hint: appraisals shouldn't affect your pay ...

The hidden crisis closing schools, cutting jobs, and reshaping teaching This week, Dylan and Hayden dive into a topic that’s flying under the radar but changing the future of teaching forever. UK birth rates have fallen to historic lows – and now schools are feeling the impact. From empty classrooms and school closures to teacher redundancies and disappearing job ads, this episode uncovers how a quiet demographic shift is creating a very loud crisis in education. 🔍 We unpack: The huge ...

Last week, we shared the biggest news of our careers: we’re leaving teaching. In this episode, we dive into what comes next. We're joined by Sophie Hayes, a former teacher and founder of StoryZoo - a brilliant initiative helping schools spark a love of reading. Sophie opens up about her own leap out of the classroom and how she turned her passion into a thriving business. We also reflect on the emotional toll that teaching took on us - the constant pressure, the mental exhaustion, and the ...

BIG NEWS - We are stepping away from teaching. This has been a long-time coming & is a huge, difficult decision. You can't do a weekly education podcast without being passionate about it, but as you've seen form previous episodes... There's a lot wrong with the system. We dive into why we have taken the decision to step away from teaching & how we plan on staying in education and still getting into the classroom to do the bits we love. Oh and... the podcast isn't just staying - it's ...

Hello Teach Sleep Repeaters! This episode is an eclectic mix of laughs, rants and putting the world of education to rights. We talk about why term-time holidays are so appealing for so many reasons, discuss some toxic story write-ins with a twist, and finish off by addressing some of the crazy teacher trolling we have seen on TikTok this week. It's a goodun! Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast Follow us on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

In this episode, we dive into two hot topics every primary teacher is thinking about right now: ✏️ Writing Moderation Is it fair? Is it consistent? Or is it the biggest postcode lottery in primary education? We share our own experiences of moderation, discuss how useful (or not) it really is, and ask the big question nobody likes to say out loud: how many people are bending the rules when it comes to writing levels? 🤖 Using AI to Write Reports End-of-year reports are here — but can AI actually...

This week, we’re joined by teacher, education writer and Learning by Questions legend Sophie Bartlett for a full-on SATs debrief! We take a deep dive into the 2025 Year 6 SATs papers – English, GPS, and Maths – and break down what really stood out. We chat about: Recurring question strands and skills being tested Some wildly harsh mark scheme moments Questions we thought were genuinely clever and well-designed What this year’s papers might tell us about where primary assessment is heading ...

In this episode of Teach Sleep Repeat, we dive headfirst into the absolute state of spelling in schools right now – and why teaching it (and English in general) feels harder than ever. We chat about the importance of reading, the pressure to teach perfectly, and how it’s all become a bit of a mess. Then, it’s time for some hilarious listener stories – including a few accidental classroom swears that had us howling (and hiding from SLT). Finally, we wrap things up with a chaotic Q&A where we tac...

It’s SATs week – and we’ve got thoughts. In this episode, Dylan and Hayden share their top tips for teachers to survive the chaos, keep kids calm, and not lose their minds during one of the busiest weeks of the primary calendar. We also talk about cheating...... Then, we switch gears for a big question: Should we still have faith schools in the UK? We unpack the arguments for and against – from community cohesion and parental choice to inclusion, funding, and what a “neutral” education really m...