Teach Sleep Repeat

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 teachers thrive in their time off, but others feel so bogged down. Toxic schools, comparing to our peers & teacher guilt all play a part. Listen to find out how to combat all of t...

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 see this year. She shares some super insight into what's needed to pass the tests & what to prioritise. We talk more deeply about whether testing in general is worthwhile, and...

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 at school. We chat about how tricky it is returning to work, how you HAVE to learn to say no and stop working, and how job sharing has many pros and cons. What did you think o...

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 classes across the board. But does this work in reality? What are the drawbacks? What is the ultimate best way to teach children? We talk about the evidence, the lived experience, a...

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 solving? Grammar and punctuation? Endless projects? What's actually useful? What's a waste of time? What might contradict what's going on in school? Join us for a good chat wh...

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 teachers? We discuss it all in this week's episode, and more! Join us on Instagram and let us know what you think. www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

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 us coming back to the job. Why do we still love it? Why haven't we quit, if things are so gloom and doom. We come up with our top reasons why teaching is still a great job and...

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 our job to help. Even just a bit. Here we talk about our top 6 actionable tips to avoid burnout. We do these ourselves & they've had an impact! We hope you enjoy. Let us know...

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 teacher assessment? Why are 'Published' pieces of a work a complete waste of time? Find out all that and more in this week's episode! Instagram: @teachsleeprepeatpodcast Bew report...

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 most important and urgent changes we need? Is the new chief inspector serious about change? Hope you enjoy the talk! Let us know what you think on Instagram. Find us at @teac...

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. We look at a cross-party committee report from the House of Commons and the suggestions it made to the government. The fining system is limited and doesn't s...

The initial findings of the Teacher Workload Reduction Taskforce have been published and make for interesting viewing. The government have already responded to two suggestions, ruling out an extra INSET day but promising to rapidly review performance related pay. How many of the recommendations are actually helpful? How much is even going to affect most schools? Can we really trust the government...

How do primary schools timetable an over crammed curriculum? Are some subjects given too much time compared to others? Can a more flexible timetable have more pros than a fixed one, or is the change too disruptive? Over 50% of people we polled on Instagram said they would change their school's timetable, but does anyone have the *perfect* balance? We talk about everything from specialist teaching,...

The boys see in the new year with the usual light-hearted look at the last week & the 12 months ahead. Both set a daily target for 2024 and set up a competition to see who will last the longest. Silly games are played, government 'leaks' and the usual shenanigans. Thank you so much for all of your support in 2023 & here's to 2024!

Join us for a festive hour of laughs, quizzes, games and anecdotes! It's Christmas and boy are we ready to celebrate. Hayden tries to ruin Christmas for Dylan. Dylan serves up the hardest quiz round you'll ever see. They both rant about how rubbish turkey is. It's not to be missed! Merry Christmas to all of our listeners, and we will see you before the new year! Instagram: @teachsleepr...

Noticed your health, fitness and wellbeing declining over the years as a teacher? Us too! This week we chat with Martin Malone, an ex-teacher who is now best known as 'The Teachers PT' and pick his brains on how to battle against the relentless pressure of the job, and ultimately stay fit and healthy. If you find this as tricky as we do (now more than ever with new babies to keep us busy!), then w...

Hello and welcome to a laid-back, fun bitesized episode from Dylan & Hayden. We enjoy some more blind ranking, discuss how much money our fingers are worth & Hayden tried to catch out Dylan with the ultimate friendship quiz. If you want to lighten up your commute, this might just be the thing for you. It also might not. Enjoy & make sure to find us on Isntagram @teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Welcome back valued listener/customer/friend! This week we lean into our unhinged and playful side with an episode all about Christmas! We play games. We talk about Christmas in school. We reminisce on our own good times. We delve into Christmas parties for the kids and Christmas parties for the adults... Loved recording this and we love you if you're reading this. Why not get in touch? We mig...

We are BACK in the same room with a full, normal, feature-length episode. Hayden debriefs on life as a new dad with his 2-week old, Dylan laughs at Hayden going through exactly what he did last month and EVENTUALLY we talk about the drastic changes in the teaching profession. We talk about the macro changes over decades, which are mostly for the better. We then talk about how drastically the caree...

More teachers than ever are quitting, which means even more teachers than ever are currently thinking of taking the plunge and leaving the profession. Here are 5 things you should definitely try before packing it all in. These won’t work for everyone, but we’ve seen first-hand how these small steps can go a long way to salvaging a career in education. They’re certainly worth a go before leaving co...

A short stop-gap episode with just Dylan (Hayden is new-born Dadding!) & a small request from us.... Would you leave us a review? :) Thank you so much to all of our listeners. You are the best. Please let us know who you are and get in touch with us. You can find us on: Instagram: @teachsleeprepeatpodcast e-mail: teachsleeprepeatpod@gmail.com

With Hayden entering the new-dad club, the boys have an honest discussion about the life-changing event of becoming a father. From funny stories to serious thoughts, this is a must-listen for anyone wanting to learn more about the process and the realities it entails. It is definitely the Best Hardest Thing Ever. Please do find us on Instagram and send us a message. We love to hear from you listen...

We are joined this week by two extremely knowledgeable and lovely guests: Heather Wright and Jane Considine. Heather created and runs the amazing 'Reading Rocks' which provides amazing opportunities to children, from book deliveries to author events. Jane is a widely respected and well-known provider of training around all things English. Her methods and practice is implemented in thousand...

Join us on our second BITESIZE episode where we talk through the completely serious and real TOP 5 ways to boost teacher wellbeing in school! Each of these 5 steps have been meticulously crafted and thought through. This definitive list is absolutely real and definitely not a made up section to parody absolutely crazy ways some schools treat staff. In completely unrelated news that has nothing to...

Welcome to the first in our new side-series - "Teach Sleep Repeat: Bitesize!" Most Mondays, we will top up your feed with a short episode. It could be anything... but it won't be long! We kick off with a Q&A special. There's not much we don't know about each other, but we found some bits! Let us know what you think. Instagram: @teachsleeprepeatpodcast