Ben and James Could Do Better: Two Teachers, No Idea

Crisps on a microphone shouldn't lead to a serious conversation about education. And, to be fair, it doesn't. Instead, it leads to a deep dive into the world of crisps, followed closely by Ben trying to recreate James' morning routine as though it were a gritty Sunday night TV drama. Once we've finished auditioning actors for this dark, brooding biopic, we drift into the rest o...

Crack open a lukewarm can of Aldi 'Red Thunder' and get your pencils ready—we are taking an impromptu stroll down a very specific, tape-tangled memory lane. We kick off this week’s second-half double header by tackling the ubiquitous world of sugar-free drinks. They are absolutely everywhere, but we’re not entirely convinced they deserve the health halo they’ve picked up along the way. W...

That first bite of a "healthy" ice lolly can tell you everything you need to know. We try a supposedly premium fruit lolly that somehow tastes more like frozen sweetener than fruit, before rescuing the mood with a proper classic: the Fab. From the chocolate coating to the hundreds and thousands, we get surprisingly forensic about texture, flavour, and why some frozen treats still feel li...

Kwik Save, Gateway, Safeway, HyperValue... say any of those names out loud and you can practically smell the fluorescent lighting. We start by correcting our own questionable supermarket history before disappearing down a rabbit hole of UK retail nostalgia, value ranges, and how Aldi and Lidl quietly changed the way Britain shops. Normally, this is the point where we'd introduce an education...

A pair of polyester trousers, a slightly posher tie, and the social politics of the stockroom should not lead to a conversation about literacy, but somehow it does. We start by reliving our early retail jobs in Cardiff, from Boots uniforms and "Men's Technical" departments to the legendary stockroom guru who somehow holds the entire operation together. Along the way, we revisit late...

Party rings that somehow taste stale straight from the packet, a Huntley & Palmers tin, and the brutal truth that the quality of a school meeting can be measured entirely by the biscuit selection. That’s where we begin — because school life is often defined by the tiny details nobody ever writes into policy. For once, we’re recording on location in an actual school during half-term, complete w...

You can get a GCSE in Welsh, grow up in Wales, and still completely freeze when someone actually speaks Welsh back to you. That confession sends us into a proper wander through language, identity, and the massive chasm between passing an exam and confidently speaking a language. Meanwhile, our kids are somehow becoming bilingual in French despite barely visiting France — yet still maintain world-c...

This week, a crumbling Flake somehow turns into a full conversation about childhood, school life, and the packed lunches that still haunt us. We revisit frozen sandwiches made on Sunday nights, budget crisps in blank packaging, and the strange mix of shame and comedy that existed in every school canteen. We’ve also reached Episode 7 — the point where many podcasts quietly disappear into “podfade.”...

A stationery supplier promises “ten things every teacher needs in their classroom”—but how well do these lists match the reality of UK schools? We’re Ben and James, two secondary teachers, and in this episode we use this ambitious countdown to explore what classroom essentials really mean . From budget pressures to the little day-to-day systems that keep teachers afloat, we talk about what actuall...

Some wellbeing advice sounds great—until you try to follow it in a real school day. In this episode, we put a popular “7 ways to improve teacher wellbeing” guide to the test—through the lens of teachers juggling five lessons, duty, and a flood of “quick question” emails. When the first tips are “move more” and “breathe,” we ask: is this genuine support, or are teachers being quietly blamed for sys...

The “official” path into teaching sounds simple on paper: check your qualifications, understand funding, get some experience, choose a course, apply, train, get a job, start your career. But when you actually read Department for Education-style guidance out loud, it quickly becomes clear how little it prepares you for the reality of teacher training in the UK—or for what life in schools really dem...

The Get Into Teaching website makes teaching sound like a clean, confident career choice: inspire from day one, teach with freedom, progress at your own pace, earn a competitive salary, and enjoy more holiday than your mates in office jobs. So we do what any two qualified secondary teachers would do — we print it out and start reading it properly. What follows is a line-by-line reality check. We u...

Most podcasts lose you in the first five minutes. We’re trying not to. We’re Ben and James — two secondary school staff attempting to make a podcast that’s actually worth your commute. To keep it on track, we structure each episode like a lesson: register, objective, “I do, we do, you do”… and then watch it fall apart. In this episode, we follow a “how to start a podcast” guide and see what actual...

A supply agency calls itself “the home of happy teachers” and publishes a six-point guide to the differences between primary and secondary schools. That alone is enough to get us started. We pick apart the claims one by one — from generalist vs specialist teaching, to workload, planning, marking, and the idea that pastoral care somehow disappears after Year 6. What sounds neat on paper starts to f...

Welcome to the trailer for Ben and James Could Do Better , an irreverent journey through the world of secondary education from the perspective of a man called Ben and a different man called James. We turn up, we say some things about secondary schools, and we try to do better.  Episodes 1-3 drop on Monday, April 20th at 6:00 AM . Subscribe now to join the register. Send us Fan Mail Support the sho...