Ep 149: Listener Questions: Teacher Acronyms, Encouraging Reading & Involving Your Union!

0:00 Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Teach Sleep Repeat. My name is Dylan and my name's Hayden. This week, we're back again with your questions. Hayden, where can they submit their questions? They can submit the questions through the WhatsApp community, which they should join down below. There's a link in the episode description. Join. It's free. You get messages from us, you get links for new episodes, and importantly, you get that form to submit your questions where every single one of these questions has come from today. First things first, elephant in the room. What are you doing? I'm I'm recording a podcast right now you. Yeah, but why are you wearing that tie? Oh. Someone online said I didn't look smart enough for it to be a teacher so I thought I'd up my game. Unlike some who are sat here in their shorts and T-shirts, I'm wearing lovely chinos and a tie.

0:41 I tell you what, I'm going to instantly take you much more seriously now. So important. You always have a tie on, is it? No, Right. Anyway, First things first, I've kind of hijacked this slightly because I did a little quiz for you. So I'm like. You so I. I read last week that bar for me talking was quite high. So back to media the questions this week. So you get a. Chance I get a chance to talk. But I've made a quiz for you. I want people to play along at home. It's an acronym quiz. So as we know, teaching is full of these different letter acronyms that mean different things. Yeah. It's like watching an episode of Line of Duty. Half the time just HG 12 into this and the other. So I've got some of the most used teacher acronyms. Oh, God, I'm going to put one minute on the clock. Oh, no.

1:22 And I'm going to read to you. Yeah, these acronyms. And what I want you to do is if you know what it is, shout out. And if you don't, you have to just say pass and we'll move on. We'll see how many you can get. OK You ready? OK. I feel like can you predict? I want you to predict one that's going to come up. PPA. OK, cool. Right, let's find out. So one minute, play along at home, see how many you get. 60 seconds, Let's see how many you can get through. OK, I think I've got about 22. Oh, no, it's, I'm gonna. I hope I don't embarrass myself. I think I will. This. Is where we find out you actually have never. Thought I just say that I just, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get that done. I've got no idea what they're talking. About. Well, let's find out. Ready. Yeah, I'm ready. Off we go. One minute starts. Now PPA, OK, planning, preparation and assessment ECT means new.

2:07 Oh my God. What is it? Yeah, early early careers teacher, correct QTS, qualified teacher status, ITT, initial teach training, CPD. Oh Oh my God. I don't know. It means the PD means professional development career paths. PGC. Postgraduate certificate in education. Correct Sen. Special educational needs. Correct HLTA. Higher higher learning is it higher? Higher learning TA higher learning teaching assistant TLR teaching and learning responsibility correct SLT senior leadership team. Good. PTFA parent, teacher, parent and teacher. Oh my God I don't know.

2:50 I don't know what the F is. Parent and teacher form trust No PSL designated designated safeguarding lead Good SAT standardised assessment tests. That's your time man. I had a load more. What is PTFA? Parent Teachers friends Association. Friends, I've realised you know you like I've just, I've never thought about the F, I've never thought by the F. Brilliant. I, I had so many more. I'm really over it. How many you've had? No. So that's really interesting and let me know how you got on at home. That was my first one there. I think you did a solid 6 out of 10 job there. Yeah, I mean, what did I actually get? I don't know. I wasn't currently more than find out in post production.

3:31 We might not. We might never know. That's a good quiz. I felt really. I felt really on the spot. I'm glad I knew most of them. Yeah. I feel like I should have known all of them. I definitely should have known all of them. But. You know, yeah, it's the thing with acronyms. Sometimes they become like words. Yeah. And even if you don't necessarily know what they mean, I know the meaning of it. Gotta know what it is. Like, yeah, it's like a thing. Exactly like ECT was the perfect example. Yeah I know ECT's. We weren't ECT's, we're at NQT's and I bet you could. Probably tell us newly qualified teachers. Right. So that was that was that. Was really funny. I suddenly realised that yeah, ECT replaced newly qualified teacher in my head. Yes. And I was like, he doesn't mean newly qualified teacher. I was like, I don't actually know what that means, and then I have to think about it. Careers teacher. Yeah. Anyway, hey, did you're gonna read us the first one? I'm, I'm gonna read, don't worry. This week, I mean, you're doing well in your progress, but why don't you read us the first question from one of our listeners?

4:18 Hopefully it's better than last week as well. So here we go. What? You're reading or the questions. My reading and also my ability to input in the conversation if you don't just talk for the entire time. Well, I thought you were ripping our lovely listener. Questions. Absolutely not, I'd never do that. Off you go, Here we go. How do you get parents to read with their children? Reading has the biggest impact on children's learning and it feels like once they hit key stage 2, parents stop caring. We've tried parents meetings showing them the impacts but for one reason or another, some legit but mostly because they can't be bothered, they will not read with them. Whisper whisper gold, you can solve. It wait OK I whisper gold if I can solve it. Yeah, I think so, yeah. I'm going to solve this immediately. That's all I've ever needed. Ten years of teaching. I'm worrying how to get kids to read at home. If you dangle a whisper gold in front of me and.

4:59 Maybe that's a solution. Yeah, with everyone. That's it. That's it every book whispered God next question Cadburys get on the blower. We're going to make it happen. My my first thought to this is always just this is from Bob of when you read questions. Hey, and you say? Yeah. Well, Bob Cherry, thank you. Just, you know, I, I would say to this person, the fact they're doing all of this is almost enough. And it's really, really frustrating. I'm sure it's not what you want to hear, Bob, when when you're asking for help. And we can go through a million different ways of, you know, incentivizing reading, etcetera, giving children the opportunity to read as much as possible, exposing them to different genres, loads of stuff we can do and accepting reading in its different forms. You know, we've always talked about reading. I used to love reading reports from the football at the weekend that was reading Sat and read my newspaper. Yeah.

5:44 Yeah. But yeah, I don't know. What do you think? Like my my gut with this is always that it's such an easy thing for teachers to beat themselves up about when they do genuinely not have as much control as we'd like. Yeah, I I can summarise your answer with an acronym for a star. IDK that still is that long winded way of saying no idea mate. Actually Bob crack on doing what you doing 'cause I don't have anything else to input NGL. IMO in my yeah, yeah. No, in all seriousness, I'm going to join in now and also make myself look like a fraud because I think realistically there is just a cap. Like you said. I think the best thing you can do as a teacher is just foster that love of learning in your classroom. You cannot control the home. You just can't. Like there is, you're not actually the parent. I know sometimes we feel like it because we're so involved in in the children's lives and we do so much for them and we and we are so genuinely like interested in developing them. But there is a limit like you can do the parents evenings. If they don't show up, they don't show. You can't go to the parents house and be like, wait, get to this parent meeting.

6:43 I'm going to tell you how important reading is. There is just a point where you can't do anymore. So all you can do is what you can control, which is in the classroom. Make make reading the forefront of everything you do. Make it an amazing thing. Encourage kids to enjoy reading as much as you can so that they can go home and hopefully develop that love themselves. And just you know, it's it's regardless irregardless almost of other factors and parents and things. I always, I cringe a little bit, and I'm sure you do too, because you've said before how when you were younger you didn't really like reading. Not really. And we've spoken a lot about can we make people love reading? No, we just can't. Like, if you really don't like it for every reason, that's fine, that's OK. But yeah, it's, it's an academic thing.

7:24 It is just rooted in fact that the more you read, the more likely you are to succeed academically and get on in life with your qualifications, etcetera. And we want children to read as much as possible. I am. I always found in my whole time teaching, the people who cared the most about the kids, the people who understood how important reading was, the people who pushed themselves to their limits, try and get kids to do as much as possible. We're the ones who are already doing enough were the ones who were already by definition cared so much that they'd beat themselves up over stuff out of their control. And it's such like I hate that the fact that the people doing the most reading and the people who end up annoyed at themselves because they think, what else can I do? And it's really hard to let go sometimes and just say this is all I can do.

8:09 I am doing what I can do. And yeah, when the outcome is children don't read as much, that's frustrating. But I think I honestly sometimes realistic just to say we're doing this, this, this, this and this. What more can I do guys? Yeah, I agree. But there's still levels to, you know what I mean? Like, you know, you sort of said, we've said before that you can't, you can't make someone love reading. You can't actually like do that, you know, but what you can do is, is foster an environment where they're the probability of them liking it is as high as possible. So that's kind of if you can just accept that, that you're just, you're just increasing the probability. It's never going to be 100%. It's impossible to be that, but but do as much as you can. Do those parents evenings have awesome library trips in your school in within your school or even to your local library. Have a really cool book corner and get the kids to write reviews and, you know, recommendations for certain books and just really foster a love of of reading. And you're just going to increase the probability that those children, regardless of their home life, will pick up a book and enjoy reading.

9:08 And you know, as a teacher, that's a good thing. And the set. The sad thing is when you do all of that stuff, you feel like you're not quite there still. I think everyone feels that always. And then you think, well, what's the point? Then I'll cut back. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, because then you're lowering that possibility again. So I mean, not getting 100% doesn't mean you aren't doing the right thing. I think that's what I'd say to you, Bob. And I hope, I hope I've qualified for a whisper gold because I've not had a Whisper Gold in a few weeks now. A. Few weeks, yeah, isn't that that sounds like. Oh, you like you said that as if that's such a tragedy. A few days. I've not had a whisper gold in a few weeks. Also sorry, can I just reference this again? I'm sorry people that aren't watching. Why are you you. I've never seen you drink. I've just realised you're drinking a cup of tea. You'd never drink tea. Why are you drinking a cup of tea?

9:49 What? I've put a tie on and you think, oh I better drink a cup of tea then. What you doing? Listen, we've been told that it's not very professional, certainly. And what did what did teachers do other than wear ties and drink tea? My whole my whole life as a teacher, always people would like, they just assume you have hot drinks like that's how you get by. What hot drink do you have? Oh, I don't really hot chocolate I don't have. And yeah, I just felt a bit rough this morning. Felt it rundown and I thought I need something warm in me. Tea like, doesn't taste good. But I, you know what? It's warm. Yeah. And the problem is I'm like, I'm 15 years behind here. I'm 32 years old getting to the point. I'm like, oh, tea does get cold quick, doesn't it? All them teacher means of like, haven't got a chance to drink my tea.

10:30 And I was always like, I get it. This is cold tea. And it's like it's served its course. Finally gets it. You make no sense though, because because simultaneously you're drinking hot tea because you've got to be warm. You're in short shots. Sure you are. They're short. I can see a lot of my thigh, right? There we go. Here we go. I'm gonna stand up. No, no, I'm gonna stand up. Anyone watching? Are these short shorts? Hey, then talk us for it. Yeah. OK. What makes these short shorts? Dylan, stand OK? Oh, fine. They're not sure. Right. Look, he stood up and they've dropped down. They've drooped down to his knees. But when he was sat there I could see his thighs all the way up to right to the bit where it like starts becoming your skin gets a bit lighter. Don't pretend you. Didn't I can see it again you just I don't know if you just see your skin get lighter, you know the. Sun's never seen there. There's a bit of your thigh where it's like. Aiden's seen more of my leg than the actual sun. Yeah, but could you be getting cold tea? You wouldn't want to get cold, would you? In your shorts and T-shirt in this cold. Room.

11:20 My throat needed to be warm, my knees didn't. All right, shorts and hot tea, right? Next question. Last time you had that mug, there was Fanta in there. Fanta. There is genuinely tea and I'm starting to regret my choices. Anyway, next question, what's the strangest thing you found in your teacher bag at the end of the week? Bonus points if it's not yours. Well, there's a bit of a There's a bit of a problem with this question. All of you to assume I had a bag. Yeah, I did have a bag for my maybe my first. Year of teaching for that bag. Huge bag. Like the lever folds thing. Yeah, like folds up. And it just had honestly like just rubbish in it. I remember there's just got to a point after my first year of teaching, I was like, why have I been taking this bag in every day? Because it's got like random paper in it and notepad that I don't use like and my diary.

12:08 I can just leave my diary here. Like night pedal, all the acronyms in the all the acronyms learning them. And so basically I spent vast majority of my career not actually bringing in a bag in any way. I just bring in my lunch, Chuck it in the fridge. I'm playing up right to the school. How many people would be like, where's your bag? So that one, yeah, that one was what's what's in your bag? And they were like, Oh my keys, not my keys. Yeah, it's in my pocket. I've got this. I've got this important thing. OK, Mine's on my desk. Yeah, my laptop stayed at school. Yeah, I've. Got all the policies that I need to read for the school court. I don't read the policies. I don't do, I don't do that. I don't do that. You've got this policy. Decide that the same sheet of paper that you've had for every year for the last six years, that's 84 pages long. Yeah. Have you read all that policy? That is so funny, I tell you.

12:49 I tell you what though, I can think of something for you that's you know doesn't answer this question, but it makes me laugh because the amount of times. What a theme in this question and answer yeah, when someone asks a question and we answer a completely different thing that we want to talk about, What's the weirdest thing you found in your bag and. It's something completely unrelated. It's something that I feel like you can't. You're going to agree because you go home with something. It's not in your bag, but you, you go home with something all the time. And I always think, what is wrong with him? Why does he not remember this? Dylan goes home with a pencil or a pen, sometimes 2 on his ear slash ears. Honestly like 3 out of the five days a week when we were full time. It's it's it's every day. Why don't you? Why is it on your ear all the time? First thing, you never know when you're going to need a pen. As a teacher, you never know when you're going to need a little pen.

13:33 Just oh, let me. Just I can accept that. So that's my that's my kind of nod towards live feedback in the moment, because I wish I could write this down right now. I can because I could go to my ear. Boom, pen. Yeah, sometimes you don't want a pen, you want a pencil. That's where the other ear comes. So you got, we got a pen on one ear, pence on the other ear issue came when we marked in green pen in our school, specifically green pen. And if a lesson was covered, we had to mark it in black pen. You remember it was just so you could just see if the teacher was out or not. And I, my job share what a test is. I remember sending my job share a picture 1/2 time where I was like, I'll just sort through some stuff. And I'm, this is not exaggerating. I had 23 green pens, 2323 green beds in my home and my car that I put together my God, because every single day it came to the end of the day when I wanted to do some marking. I said I got a green pen.

14:25 I have to go and get a green pen for someone, put it in my ear, go home, leave it at home, obviously, because I had my evening and then I go back the next day. But green pen, I have to go and find a green pen. I reckon, You know, I've not worked in that school since July now. I reckon I've still got at least 15 green pens somewhere in this house. Probably, yeah. I probably walk around and just find some. Yeah, I'll do it after this and I'll take them all back. In fact, the other day I wrote, I wrote something on my calendar and green pen and there's only one page green pens coming from, yeah, the school. That's actually called theft, so I don't know why you're laughing. I don't think that's funny. I don't think that's funny. Schools, the budgets are already low and you're sat here on a podcast joking about how you stole all that pens. No. No, listen again. Disgusting. Everything I do is packed up by my belief in that. Yeah, all right. Written markings. Pointless. And what and what colour you're marking doesn't matter. Yeah, because I used to mark sometimes in a green pencil. I find a pen.

15:09 You couldn't find it. I couldn't find a green because they were all. Because they were all on your ears. And if I couldn't find a green pencil, I just marking whatever was there. That is another thing, by the way, the amount of times you have said to me you got annoyed because you get frustrated because you can't find your pen and it's literally on your ear at the time. Yes, annoying. Oh. Have you seen my pen? Didn't look at your face. I love how you invented. But you wore trousers, right? But you invented pockets on your face. No, no, no, no. You were like, no, no, no, I can't. I can't. I couldn't possibly have a pen in the pocket that's designed for it. I need to put it on my face pocket, which is my ear. And forget about it. When my colleagues used to say he wore dresses, they're like dresses never have pockets. I was like, I don't use my pockets. Yeah, on my ear. Depends on there is. Used kids in my class who'd roll their sleeves up and put something behind their ear and go around saying I missed the price because I used to always roll my sleeves up at the top of my ear. So there was one point where I I went to see how far I could go with putting stuff by my ear in the lesson. We probably should have been doing geography or something. Yeah, but it's boring.

16:02 Let's do something else. So I got the pen out and I put a glue stick by my ear. Also a big pretty stick. Stayed. Stayed. And they were like, what? End up trying to put books on there and stuff didn't work. And then it finished with me taking a make and I picked up my teacher chair and pretended to put my ear. Nice. Cute. They were orcust laughter. Didn't get any work done. Went time happy jobs. Are good all back in at break time tomorrow. Finish your work. You've been ridiculous. You've not worked hard enough today guys. Turn it all back on them. Toxic So what is the weirdest fit you've found in your future? Well, again, I don't have teach about I'll tell you what. Do you remember the knife? This is to do with a bag. Do you remember the knife incident? It was a few years ago. It sounds really dramatic, me saying the knife incident. Well, I think it's. Just kind of trying to get any. Less dramatic. Yeah, it is. But I mean, nothing crazy happened. But I taught a kid this must be like 5-6 years ago now and they came in and in their school bag it turns out they had a knife.

16:50 That alone you you make sure you think, Oh my God, this is awful. This is like police involved. What kind of knife? Like not a butter knife. No, like a proper, like a proper kitchen knife as in like, you know, you might be slicing a steak with or something like that. I don't know why I thought of a steak, kind of a bit of meat or something. And it turns out though, like Long story short, this child bought in a knife because. Their. Mum had pissed them off so much that they would they and they read this clip was really clever but they wanted to get their mum in trouble. I wanted to get. They knew having a knife in their bag would would be like a phone home and this is awful. That's the reason they did it. I'll tell you what, horrendous. I know. Like that's all. But like, I know looking back as nothing happened and it was fine, et cetera, Yeah, it is quite a funny story.

17:32 But like, holy moly, it's a one of a bare phrase. Like I did just bring a knife. Yeah, I know. Yeah, we took, I mean, it doesn't matter. I don't want to play down how seriously we took. We took it unbelievably serious because we took it at the time as when a child said someone's got a knife in their bag of we immediately thought, OK, well, knives, people take knives places to do really bad things with them. So we assumed that was going to be the the motive. And yeah, yeah, you know the intent. Of it almost doesn't matter. The fact is there was a knife in the school. Even if the knife was bad, There's a kitchen knife in the school. Yeah. Yeah. In the same way you know you're doing cooking or something in the afternoon, you just leave a knife on the side no matter what the intention was. It's just stuff that's wild. I don't really remember that being the reason.

18:13 Remember it vaguely happening and it by now. So this, this kid, this kid had done something like that before. Like they were unbelievably clever and they just knew they would just trump. Admit. Yeah, literally. But before. They'd done it before, but not with a knife. They'd done it with the TV remote, so the same. Thing that got. It was really funny though because she basically said yeah, Mum's been, well, annoyed because she really wants to watch a programme this morning and I've set the TV remote so she can't turn it on. Now that is more harmless and funny. That's so funny. And obviously you can't. You've got to take it serious at the time, but. You're taking your car keys or something? Cracked me up. Yeah. Literally just to annoy my money, yeah. I'm going to start taking stuff for yours just to. You do already. You already do.

18:53 Oh my God. Dylan comes around. I'm sorry. I'm just vent now about Dylan. I've we've got, we've got a little sign on, you know, on our wall, right? OK, context. This. The reason I do it is to teach you a lesson. Don't have any of this live laughs love stuff nonsense. You're you're not that kind of guy. Love, it says. Let's stay home brilliantly. I love how you got it in COVID time as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's stay home. Hardly go choice mate. We had to. Is there anything you could buy actually doing really well flying off the shore? It was actually government propaganda you got for free. Yeah. From Boris Johnson. But anyway, it's three separate pieces for each word. And every time Dylan comes around, at some point after he's gone, I realise that one of the three pieces is just not on the wall anymore and he's hidden it somewhere. He's taking it. Yeah.

19:34 Bloody noise. It's more funny when I take it because you look for it and. It's funny the first just 4 for times. Because when I do something, I have to keep doing it. Yeah, after the 20th time, while she's like making marrow noises on the way out, I'm like, Dylan, let's home Dylan. Stay home. Let's Yeah, you've done every combination. Every combination. You're a mudge of that meme of Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park when he goes Welcome to Jurassic Park, welcome to Park. That is one of the all time best memes I've. Made to home, let's home. Brilliant. So yeah, Richard Amber is the weirdest thing I found on my bag. Yeah, the same. Next question, have you ever had to involve your union in your career?

20:18 I've been a member of the NEU since I was training and never needed them in my 8 years in the trust. My MAT is very anti union but I'm having an issue for the first time in my career so I have reached out. They are offering to contact my head and CEO for me but I'm scared to actually involve them in case it makes my workplace a harder place to be because of it. Any advice? Thank you for writing that in because that I think is something a lot of people will resonate with. And I'm not going to say that it's not hard for. So firstly, I've, I've never had, I don't, I've never had to use the union in my, in my career, but I know people that have and obviously we've spoken to lots of people that have as well. I completely understand. And I, I, it's so easy.

20:58 Sometimes me and Dylan will sit here. But yeah, just do this black and white thing. They've done something wrong. Get your union involved. But it is more complex than that because you do know that when you get union involved, obviously they're going to take it. They're going to take it some way, aren't they? Particularly if the map is already very anti union, which already screamed alarm bells at me. I'm not going to, I'm not going to lie to you. Like that would almost make it easier. I think in my head because I'd be like, OK, I can justify this is this is a toxic place to work. If they're already anti union. Like I'm not, I'm not, I'm not bowing down to this. This is rubbish. I'll I'll show them, I'll teach them, I'll get the union involved. I get it. I think you should do it though. Like my honest advice there is don't be like you're if if you back out because you're like, I don't want them to react weirdly to me. I'm like, you're basically just falling in line to what they're like, they're anti union for a reason. Yeah, like you kind of almost need to absolutely not do that. You need to be like, no, I'm getting unions. I don't care if you're anti union because they're nothing to do with you.

21:47 They're to do with me. You're anti union because you want to control me. I'm saying no thanks. That's why I'm getting them involved. So I would do it. You know, maybe you just need to have a tricky conversation with the CEO and be like, look, I had to get my union involved for this reason. You're going to, they're going to be in contact with you because they know what they're talking about. But you know, I appreciate you might not, might not like this interaction, but I'm also not liking the insert, whatever it is that you've had to get your union involved over in the 1st place. And just you've got to have that. You've got to be brave for a bit and you can just have that really awkward, tricky conversation. Yeah, it's easy. Like when you talk about getting your union involved, I think a lot of the time people think of, oh, it's now separate to me. The union are involved and we'll sort this out for me. There's no way of doing something like this anonymously.

22:29 Yeah. If you've got to the point where you think the union have to be involved, I'm afraid that also comes with the point of you have to be letting your CEO and your Matt understand that you have a problem. Yeah. Like it can't just take everything off your hands in that respect. So it's and it's not easy. Absolutely not. And that's why I think getting the union involved is a huge step because to me what it means is I've reached the point where I need to talk out about this. I'm going to put my neck on the line anyway because it's so bad whilst doing that. I might as well have the support of my union. I don't think using a union can be seen as something as a get out of gaol card in terms of I get to maintain my work life, you know, relationship, my work relationship with my, with my uppers. You don't because by definition you're going to be challenging them.

23:10 So I just, yeah, I think I completely get why someone would be wary and scared to involve them because it probably will make your workplace a hard place to be in. Like that's just awkward. That's the nature of it. And you know, when when leadership are actively anti union, My argument would be that already making it an awkward place for you to be because by definition, they're almost starting you off on the back foot and saying you're wrong immediately for being part of a union. You weren't even part of a union for a long time. I seem to no a couple a couple of years at start my career. It was what made you join. It was, you know what, being completely honest, I was just naive and I got. Schooled on Facebook genuinely by someone because I can't remember the exact context, but there was a post on maybe like a teacher group. Yeah.

23:51 And, and I was just naively saying now I'm not joining Union, it's way too expensive. Even when you were training and I was free because it's free for the first year, isn't? It I think I, I, no, I was, I was in one when it was like a 1 LB and then you didn't renew and then I just didn't renew because it was like 200 and something. I'm not doing that. I don't need a union. I'll be fine sort of thing. And yeah, a couple of years in someone, someone else was like, because I was taking it from a very selfish perspective. I was like, no, I work in a school. It's all right. It's all going to be good. Nothing's going to happen. If it does happen, shame, it's my fault, you know, OK, fine, slap on the wrist. That's me. And someone else was like, yeah, but unions is not just about you. There's like unions are fighting fights behind the scenes all the time. So you funding a union and and you're, you're funding a voice for change. You know what I mean? And they sort of opened my eyes to the kind of wider perspective of why being in a union and teaching is, is a useful thing to do, even if you don't necessarily think that you're going to need that union.

24:36 And and no one really thinks they're gonna need it. No. But no one sat there going, well, I'll need this next year because I'm. I know I'm going to be treated awfully. So you don't know. Yeah. Exactly right. So I was a little bit naive, but I honestly, someone said that to me. I was like, that's flawless logic. I can't even argue with this. And I signed up to union, signed up to union there and then. The only thing you might argue against, I've seen a lot of people say this being perfectly honest now and transparent. I've been a part of a union for my whole time as being a teacher. But there are people out there who think the unions are fighting the wrong fights. That's doing the wrong things. And, and you may, you may genuinely well think like, OK, well, this union, do you know what? I don't think my money's being put to good use. I'm not going to be part of this union. You might find other ways to have legal protection, etcetera. Yeah. Yeah. So when people say that, I'm just like, you know what? Yeah. Crack. On equally valid, genuinely, genuinely valid, Yeah.

25:17 But if you if you think the unions like saying the things you think should be said, then yeah, it's kind of a no brainer really to join them. Definitely. So, yeah, I would always say to someone at least reach out and have a go and talk to them about what they're doing. I think it can be very useful. But back to this person, good luck. I think it's a tricky situation. It's no doubt going to make you feel stressed and worried. But don't let them win. Don't let them win. Yeah, genuine. There's another side to this, you know, a couple of give it a couple of years. Just think about where you'll be in a few years once this challenge and the awkwardness is over and whatever and worst case scenario, start looking around now. If the if the place is toxic and horrible to work in and this all goes horrendously and they're not they don't take it well at all, then maybe it's just not the place to be. Definitely. Awesome, right? Next one. I played tug of war with a class of reception children last year. I'm 33 years old and male.

26:01 I'd guess I'm stronger than the average man my age. Stronger than you. Yeah, I'm 33 year old male so. You're not the. Average way above, way above the average. Strength. How many reception age children would you predict you can beat at a tug of war at once? That's such a good question, do you think? Reception. Oh, I feel like. What you'd be swinging around like a hammer this winter? Yeah, we're. Stretchable and regardless if it was a tug of war. What? There's a tug of war going on, eating Inception around. They love it. They bloody love it, they want to sit down. Reception very young. And they're so small, that rubbish. They can't even hold the rope. I could take on all 25. No way. 25.

26:41 Yeah. No way. Well, this person here has given a number. OK, so you think 25? Yeah, tiny. OK, this person. Hang on, what do you think? I know what this guy said, but before, before I read it, I thought to myself, I thought to myself, reception, children, average strength. I fought like 1516 because like, even if you just add up all of their weights, like, and they're not even pulling, I reckon it adds up quite quickly. I suppose. So like even if they were just like asleep, attached to the right dead weight holder trying to drag a whole class. I think you struggled to drag the whole class, genuinely. Yeah. Even if it was just like in a big, you know, a big sack. All right, I'm going down from 20. I'm going to 24. OK, well, I fought at 15. So this guy has done the research.

27:21 Then he got a strong bloke, he got up to 11. Oh wow, that's lower than I. Thought yeah, 11. OK, my ego is too big. Clearly, there's a way to find out the real answer. Guys, if you're. If you work at a local school, I can arrange a tug of war with your reception class. Get in touch with us because we'll be. There can you be 11? We have a leaderboard, we should have a. Leaderboard you're like on Top Gear when I start on a reasonably priced car. So we'll start at the stick. They got this guy's Tig. Now you got 11. You're that's the one to be. That's the one to be. Definitely. And you should get like every guest we get on the podcast. We just have like a, we get the reception class in, we play Tiger Wall. Reception class on tap in the local school. They're ready. They're always ready. They love it. 11 does seem low though. Like to be fair here, before trying he said he assumed he could be all of them. You just have all day.

28:05 I can see why you'd assume that, but you got up to 11. I think you're an analogy of like just literally the body mass, right? It's probably the best way to think. Yeah, Yeah, because 11 realistically 11 kids, they're not pulling heavy than you. As well as well like the pulling is not adding much more to it than them, just like really I don't think. Yeah, yeah. So. 11, Interesting. It's also interesting to know that 12 means they'll they'll beat you like 12 months. You're in a class of more than 12 reception kids. They're stronger than you. Yeah. So they all turned at the same time if they became sentient and one BLOB became sentient. You said to it I. Don't know, but definitely before recession I'm me. Hello me, we can all work together to defeat this guy. Funny you said that so genuinely. I love it and I mean it.

28:54 Dear. Next one, This is from Connor. As you both know, becoming a teacher takes a lot of dedication and training at the start. I'm currently deciding whether to leave my better paying, more relaxed job to pursue a secondary Computing science PGC, as I've always loved the idea of teaching and really enjoyed my work experience in schools. I'm curious what made you both decide yeah I'm going to become a teacher When you first started out. I've made countless pros and cons lists, researched the training routes, and done some volunteering, but I'm still torn between a comfortable yet unfulfilling job and a more demanding but meaningful career in teaching. For context, I'm 21, would be looking to apply for a September 27th start. That's a great question. Yeah, As I say, I've done some good questions today. I think I'll start with the You asked us what made you want kind of what was the moment where we were like, Yeah, I want to do this for me.

29:40 I volunteered in school as well. I was also around 2122 and it was my local primary school that I went to as a kid. And I just volunteered because I was thinking, I wonder if I would like this. And even at school, I remember one of my teachers had said to me, oh, you probably enjoy teaching. And when, when an adult says that to you, I come to, I was like, oh, OK, maybe I'll maybe I'll think about that one day. Were you in university now or were you? Well, at that point I'd just finished university, so I was back home. I didn't really, you know, I was like, I don't really know what I want to do. I don't want to use the degree I just got obviously for, you know, the classic. Classic. Wait a few years, Startup class for the. Stuff in pocket, yeah. You know, use the film degree for that. Yeah. And yeah. Anyway, I volunteered in the school and I just remember after like a couple of days, once I started to get to know the Class A little bit, the kids became familiar with me. And the teacher I worked with was really lovely as well.

30:21 And and she was someone I knew when I was a kid, so and her and her child was actually in my class. So we had a nice bond straight away. And I just remember sat with one particular child and he was really grateful for me just helping him with this really simple thing and was really nice and then started talking to me about his life. What? With this really, really simple, easy thing, I can't believe how simple and easy it was. And he's really grateful. Yeah, I was like, sip kid, this is easy. This lark I should become. A I called him a fool the way you said. This really simple thing is so great, yeah, that's why I knew. Yeah, I can explain simple things, yeah. And I thought if any more complex than this and I'm out of the game but it looks like I don't have to. But anyway. That's for sure. Genuinely, that's really nice.

31:03 And in that moment, I was like, yeah, I think I really like this. It was very wholesome. Yeah. And. And it's interesting that. Yeah. And like the fact that he's referenced his unfulfilling but better paid job is such a common thing, isn't it? Because all the way for our careers, I know we spoke about it, we were like, would would, would we have gone back to a job that was less fulfilling for slightly more money? And we were always like, I don't know, I don't think so. Because the fulfilment was great. Like it's like, why wouldn't you want that? So it's a tough one. I I think, I mean, my opinion on this person is they should do it. Yeah, they should just do it. Just give it a go. I think the as well, the thing that comes to me is, you know, money isn't everything. Money's really important and I, I really want to push back. Anyone says just follow your dreams always and don't It's fine.

31:45 It all work out for a lot of people. It won't. You have to take the more pragmatic approach. Maybe for a lot of people in the situation, he should stay in that job for a few more years, build up some money, save a bit and then maybe he's got some more flexibility later. Maybe. But it doesn't change the fact that fulfilment and enjoyment are huge factors in what you should do to choose your job. And I personally think that the salary of a teacher, it's not like have a salary that's terrible, but be a teacher, it's have a salary that's average. Yeah, it's alright. Maybe above average actually. And, and after a few years of doing it, you get paid a decent amount compared to the average person. It's a good amount of money, you deserve it, don't get me wrong, but it's not like saying you're on ��15 an hour, it's just not right.

32:25 So I do think that there is a point where you say, do you know what? I can sustain myself on a teacher's wage. It's incredibly fulfilling. I personally enjoy that. Like you had that moment where you thought I'm going to be a teacher. Very similar for me was in a primary school, The vibe was just good. Anyone who's been in a nice, good primary school knows that it's a nice place to be because the kids are like sponges. They want to learn, the teachers are passionate, everyone's helping each other and you can make a difference. And that is so powerful. And that is the best part of teaching by an absolute mile. And I really miss that. Having left teaching, that is honestly something I can say that I really miss is that interaction with other people, particularly the children, particularly helping them get better at something. I really miss seeing that every single day and watching them grow. It's the best part of the job ever. It doesn't mean that it comes to a point where you might think you should go down a different route other than teaching. But I would say to this person, I'd say to you, Connor, if you really are clearly passionate about going into this computer science, if you really want to help other people, if you find it's going to be really fulfilling for you and you've done your experience in school, that's I think enough for me to say to you, go ahead and do it because he's done the experience.

33:29 He's been in the school and yeah, I would say it's not just down to money. If it was just down to money, we'd all, we'd all live different lives. I remember when I left university, I had a year between that and do my PGC and I tried different things. I, I tried head hunting in London. I think I mentioned this to you before, had a week's trial and after two days I just, I can't do this. I could have carried on calling up people and saying I've got AC sharp development job for you. It's 200 grand for a free month contract. I had no idea what was talking about, but it was just about securing people in jobs. 0 fulfilment, so boring in a little room with six people great at their jobs. Crack on. There was an ex teacher in the office I remember and he was like, I've comments because it's just I live in London, I need more money. Great. Everyone's in a different position, they're all in different positions. For me, I was living at home.

34:13 I went into a school just to see if I liked it, primary and secondary and I was like I love primary school, I can teach maths, I'm going to be fulfilled. I would do it again in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat. So Connor, I'd say to you from this very small interaction, sounds like you should give it a go. Yeah, sounds like fulfilment is is important to you. So that's enough for me. Do do it then, because it is fulfilling job and I I worry that people be like hypocrites. You're out of the game. Yeah, we're the other end of it now, but I don't regret any of it. But I don't. I wouldn't. Change it for. 10 years, 10 years and a day. It was never tracked like other than the marking bit at the end, but like generally in the day. Like the days went quick because I was enjoying myself. There's a reason we did it for 10 years. A lot of teachers quit after 12345 years.

34:55 There's a reason we stayed in it because I loved it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really, really loved it and just got to the point where I didn't want to continue at the progression ladder. Our life's changed. Our life's changed a lot. And like very much living by what you just said, we're following our passions. We're doing this more, we're doing other things. We're but we're still in education. We're just following things we want to do. I love how deep that conversation was, and you've been wearing that tie this whole and it's become normal. We're going to have reels go out that have just you saying something really deep about how important teaching is. You're just wearing that tie. It's so funny, all that to one of my best mates weddings. Did you have tie? Yeah. Just of a context, I found this tie on the floor. It's. Going to be listening to this. Yeah. At least they realised. Yeah, yeah. He said need financial planning. This is wedding. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's me going.

35:37 I actually want it on my my friend's wedding. That's really, really, really nice. Yeah. Found it on the floor. Smells like I need financial planning. Reminds me of him. That's why I'm wearing. That's why I feel so good wearing this. Yeah, I think that's what it is. Yeah, clearly. Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, but, you know, tidy up your roommate because it's why are there too ties on the floor? Because I was sorting stuff out and I don't wear ties. Yeah. So you thought I put them here on the floor next to where we record stuff. That's about right in it. Right. Last question, did you or would you ever like to share a class? Well, I can tell you now we didn't. Would you have actually liked to? Me and you? Yeah. We definitely shared. No, no. Me and you. Me and you. Me. Yeah. Because, OK, very quickly. We both shared classes part time. Best thing ever. You have to have the right partner with other people.

36:18 It's fantastic. But would you and I actually do well sharing class? I think in our first couple of years, yes, yeah, I genuinely think that because we because we tried, yeah. We tried really hard. And we shared planning and we loved that process together. I think I'd say the second, like the last two thirds maybe of our career, particularly we worked in the same school again because we split off briefly and came back. Well, you came back. I said yeah, you came right back. I came right back to you. I. LED my own party followed. Yeah, yeah, basically. Yeah. That's exactly what works. I think it would have been a disaster. Do you think disaster? Yeah. Do you actually think disaster? Genuinely, do you think disaster? No, no, not because I do. OK, OK, that's hilarious. None of me a disaster, but I don't think it would have been the right move. No, I think, I think like as time went on, I streamlined and did stuff I felt like I was better at and just ignored other stuff.

37:02 Yeah. And luckily for me and I think for you, like we complimented our job shares in terms of I know your job share like to do displays. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. So your room looked quite nice most of the time and it was nothing to do with you and if you and I shared. A room they wouldn't get done. It would not get done. That's what I mean, like, so I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. Just put down the record. I'm not saying you need to, but. And I think it would, it would, it would crush your ego when you realise the kids like me more. And I don't think I could handle the guilt. I don't think I could live with the guilt of knowing that I've ruined your career. Would you just skip that? That would would you like? Would you like the fact you wouldn't ever see me genuine? I mean, that was basically true anyway, wasn't? It I know I think you see what people don't understand yeah, when you work in different year groups in the like 3 or 4 mentary school, yeah, you might as well be your own separate like.

37:50 I genuinely never saw you at school. It's hilarious how we, we, we've me and Dylan are really good at compartmentalising our lives. We, we really are like at at school. We're both like, we're here to do our school job. Yeah. And that was it. Yeah. And if we, if we were talking, it was almost definitely about something else outside and we'd do it outside of the school day. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't think I'd just be OK. It made no difference. But even think about this too much sharing class, we could go deep with this because actually we've had a choosing company for the last seven years. Oh yeah. And there were parts of that, including literally last year where we shared a group like me, me and Dylan tutored a group between us because we couldn't commit to the full days. So we were like, OK, let's just take half each one we do, you know, two days a week. So we, I did one, Dylan did 1. So technically we shared in that respect, you know what I mean? And it wasn't a problem. Not really.

38:30 Comparable, but yeah. Sure, I know, but we have. We've shared things in the past where it's like it's not actually been a problem, but an entire class. I don't know. Yeah, I think they. 'D be fine they'd I'll tell you what, they'd make good progress. I'd like to think so. They would. I'd like to think so. They would, we'd, we wouldn't have someone having our back. Yeah, my job share. Can I just say Amy was the best possible job share? Like I could have asked for genuinely like, because we were on the same wavelength of a lot of stuff and she knew I was like, and I knew what she was like genuinely. And yeah, there was a lot of times where we could just mess each other outside of school. It wouldn't be a bother, wouldn't be like awkward or anything like that. But we didn't ever do it more than we had to.

39:11 Yeah. Like there were times genuinely where it was like, I've really honestly not got anything to say to you right now and that's OK. And crack on. And then maybe she'll send me a like, a debrief end of the week or I'll talk to about planning and stuff. But yeah, finding the right job share is vital for it to work. We were so lucky, we really were because I can say the exact same for Julie, my job share, like we just got on so well. It was so easy and seamless. And I know from speaking to other people, friends of ours, that doesn't always work job shares. Like sometimes you really clash and it doesn't work at all. So yeah, we were definitely super lucky. Have we ever shared though? No, we've never job shared. Not sure we would. No, no. That's just because I don't like you. No, that's fair enough. Yeah, Yeah. I wouldn't share anything with you. Don't share a podcast.

39:51 That's for. Sure. I wouldn't even share your tie, you know. He's not mys any financial planning. Yeah, exactly. He gifted that to me and I really look after it. Yeah, clearly he wasn't. Yeah, dirty on your floor. Right, that is enough for this week, guys. If you enjoyed the episode, leave it a review wherever you listen to this podcast. Join the WhatsApp community down below. Over to you, Hayden, for a final word. Always wear a tie.