Teach Sleep Repeat

Dylan Price and Hayden Stevens

Teach Sleep Repeat is the podcast for teachers who need a laugh, a rant, and a reminder they are not alone. Dylan and Hayden dive into the real highs and lows of school life from classroom chaos to staffroom gossip. Listener submissions bring out the funniest disasters and most relatable dilemmas, while guests join to share their own unfiltered stories from life in and around education. Send us your favourite teaching stories! E-mail: teachsleeprepeatpod@gmail.com

  1. 5 days ago

    206. Why We NEED To Start Respecting Teachers' Personal Time (Listener Q+A)

    🧮 Free for school staff: generate arithmetic worksheets in seconds at tools.mathszoo.app A second year teacher writes in wanting to know when everything you have to do in a day finally becomes manageable. Dylan opens with some news she probably did not want to hear, and then turns it into something genuinely useful about the difference between getting faster at your job and quietly deciding what is no longer worth doing at all. That leads into what Dylan would actually bring in if he were a head teacher, including a one in one out rule on workload and a school with no written marking policy whatsoever. Hayden puts the head teacher's real fear straight back to him. If nothing is written in the books, how do you know any of it is happening? Then the big one, and the one Dylan gets most fired up about. Is it fair that ECTs get paid thousands less for a job that looks almost identical? Dylan thinks the entire pay scale is built on the wrong idea, and he has a full replacement in mind. Plus Tom asks which school rule would cause complete societal collapse if applied to adults, and the pair finish with an honest, surprisingly nuanced conversation about private schools, class sizes and privilege. Honest, funny, and a bit spikier than usual once money comes up. 🎧 New episodes every week. Leave us a review if you enjoy the show!🔢 Want to boost maths fluency in your school? Book a free Maths Zoo trial at www.mathszoo.org💬 Join our completely free WhatsApp community and connect with teachers from across the UK: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s

  2. 6 Jul

    205. Why You Can't Let Teaching Take Over Your Life (Emotional!)

    🧮 Free for school staff: generate arithmetic worksheets in seconds at tools.mathszoo.app Under what circumstances would you actually raise your voice at a class? Dylan reckons he can count his genuine, lost-it shouts on one hand, and the single time he did it properly, defending a child who was being bullied, still sits with him years later. He and Hayden pull apart the difference between shouting and simply being heard, why going quieter can land harder, and the old staffroom wisdom to reserve the shout. From there it's a full mailbag. A Year 5 teacher heading up to Year 6 wants honest talk on transition, and the lads don't quite agree on when taking your class up is a gift and when it really isn't. A trainee asks how schools can make every adult feel like a learner, ECT and veteran alike. Then a question about education after a change at the top sends Dylan off on the politics of vibes. And the one that gets him. A soon-to-be dad and middle leader asks how to balance school with fatherhood. Dylan does not make it through dry. Honest, funny, and with a proper lump in the throat by the end. 🎧 New episodes every week. Leave us a review if you enjoy the show!🔢 Want to boost maths fluency in your school? Book a free Maths Zoo trial at www.mathszoo.org💬 Join our completely free WhatsApp community and connect with teachers from across the UK: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s

  3. 29 Jun

    204. Tricky Classes, Unpaid Work & Anonymous Surveys (That Aren't Actually Anonymous!)

    You've just been handed your new class, and the previous teacher's parting words are that they were the most difficult group they've taught in eleven years. Helpful heads up, or a curse you carry all summer? Dylan and Hayden open with the tricky class handover, why every class somehow becomes the trickiest one ever, and whether tricky classes even exist or it's all down to the school. Then it gets spicier. A listener is made joint subject lead with no TLR, no extra time and no choice, and Dylan has strong feelings about doing free leadership work, including what he would actually say to the head. After that, a teacher reckons some colleagues just don't want to work, which sparks a proper chat about change fatigue and what negativity really means. There are anonymous surveys that are anything but anonymous, and an Ofsted question about who speaks up when it counts and who stays quiet. Honest, funny, and a bit fired up by the end. 🎧 New episodes every week. Leave us a review if you enjoy the show!🔢 Try our completely free maths worksheet generator now! tools.mathszoo.app 💬 Join our completely free WhatsApp community and connect with teachers from across the UK: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s

  4. 22 Jun

    203. Is Using AI Tutors In Schools A Good Idea? (Listener Q&A)

    🧮 Free for school staff: generate arithmetic worksheets in seconds at tools.mathszoo.app The government have announced plans for all children on free school meals to be given access to an AI tutor, which begs the question, are we already on the way to humans being replaced by robots? "Am I cut out for this?" Ellie's message is the one that might hit hardest. She moved from TA into a Year 6 class as a trainee, was promised regular meetings and observations that never materialised, has had praise maybe twice all year, and is now quietly wondering whether she's just not built for teaching. Dylan and Hayden have a lot to say about whose fault that actually is. It's a mailbag full of early career pressure this week. One ECT is staring down phonics screening with an 86% pass rate hanging over them, daily interventions and constant mock screenings. Another has been asked to go for Year Group Leader in only their third year, before they've even changed year groups. Is that a vote of confidence or a red flag? And after the setting episode, a Year 1 ECT writes in stretched paper-thin: split-teaching three ways, rushing inputs into a 45 minute slot, and the one TA in the key stage forever getting pulled for cover. Honest, a little raw, and a real look at what we're asking new teachers to carry. 🎧 New episodes every week. Leave us a review if you enjoy the show! 🔢 Want to boost maths fluency in your school? Book a free Maths Zoo trial at www.mathszoo.org 💬 Join our completely free WhatsApp community and connect with teachers from across the UK: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s

  5. 15 Jun

    202. Is Teaching Becoming An Impossible Job? (Listener Q&A)

    Use our FREE worksheet arithmetic generator here: tools.mathszoo.app Twenty-five years in KS2, and Kathy says teaching now feels like a battle. Her message kicks off this listener mailbag: a rise in SEND needs, behaviour, apathy and shaky basics since COVID, and a class where the majority aren't equipped for year group expectations. She's gone more child-led to meet them where they are, but that collides with what the curriculum demands. So she asks the big one. Do the people making the decisions actually understand life at the coalface, and who are they even listening to? Dylan and Hayden don't dodge it. Then Phil asks the fun one. Now they've bagged the Education Secretary, who's the dream guest next? The wishlist gets gloriously chaotic. Luke wonders whether centrally planned schemes of work quietly deskill new teachers who never learn to build a lesson from scratch. And Tom brings the staffroom chaos: kebabs, which infant year they'd brave, and the eternal question of class assemblies. Honest, funny, and a properly good airing of the stuff teachers actually worry about. 🎧 New episodes every week. Leave us a review if you enjoy the show!🔢 Want to boost maths fluency in your school? Book a free Maths Zoo trial at www.mathszoo.org💬 Join our completely free WhatsApp community and connect with teachers from across the UK: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s

  6. 8 Jun

    201. Frustrated Teachers, Dodging Questions & Important Topics: Reacting To Our Chat With The Education Secretary

    So you sit a sitting Education Secretary down, ask the questions teachers actually want answered, follow up when the first answer wobbles, and then the verdict comes back from you, the listeners. This week Dylan and Hayden go through the feedback from the Bridget Phillipson episode, and it was overwhelmingly kind. Listeners said the questions were clear and fair, that the follow ups kept coming, and that the show genuinely tried to hold her to account rather than rolling out the red carpet. But there's a but. A lot of you felt she dodged. The questions were sharp, the answers were not, and plenty of listeners came away feeling the big ones never really got answered. Dylan and Hayden sit with that uncomfortable truth and ask whether that's on them, on her, or just the nature of getting a politician in the room. Honest, a little cheeky, and a proper postmortem of one of our biggest episodes yet. 🎧 New episodes every week. Leave us a review if you enjoy the show!🔢 Want to boost maths fluency in your school? Book a free Maths Zoo trial at www.mathszoo.org💬 Join our completely free WhatsApp community and connect with teachers from across the UK: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s

  7. 1 Jun

    200. A Chat With Bridget Phillipson: The SEND White Paper, Maternity Pay & School Budgets

    Two hundred episodes in, and somehow we ended up across the table from the person who runs the whole system. For the TSR 200th, Dylan and Hayden sit down with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, and waste none of it on small talk. First, the SEND white paper. The move from EHCPs to the new Individual Support Plans sounds tidy, but it could leave families without the right to appeal at a tribunal. What happens to children with complex needs when the funding does not follow? Then the part that stings any new parent on staff. Civil servants get 26 weeks on full pay, teachers get eight. That opens up parental pay, a dropping birth rate, the quiet saving fewer pupils hand the Treasury, and whether the real answer is cutting class sizes rather than closing schools and cutting jobs. And the big one. A projected 6.5% pay rise over three years that is not fully funded. We asked the Education Secretary directly where that money comes from, and who loses their job to pay for it. Honest, occasionally tense, and exactly the conversation we wanted for episode 200. Oh, and yes, we did ask her about Gemma Collins turning up at the DfE. 🎧 New episodes every week. Leave us a review if you enjoy the show! 🔢 Want to boost maths fluency in your school? Book a free Maths Zoo trial at www.mathszoo.org 💬 Join our completely free WhatsApp community and connect with teachers from across the UK: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s

  8. 18 May

    199. Unpopular Opinions, Draconian Policies, and a SATs Week Rant

    "What's the biggest thing you two actually disagree on?" One listener has clocked the I agree, I agree tic and wants a proper scrap, so Dylan and Hayden dig into the teaching vs non-teaching divide and find it's spikier than either expected. Then a brave question lands. Should politics be explicitly taught in KS2? The boys weigh up whether ten year olds can handle it, who gets to decide what counts as balanced, and what happens when a kid asks the question you really didn't want them to ask. Next, draconian behaviour policies. Listeners have sent in the ones that humiliated children or just made no sense, and some of these are hard to hear without wincing. A one form entry teacher wants to know how on earth setting could work in her school, and the lads have a proper crack at it rather than dodging. Plus the SATs week ask that will make every Year 6 teacher's eye twitch. Revising all afternoon for the next day's test, every day. Reasonable prep or completely ridiculous? And to finish, the question with teeth. What's your real, unpopular education opinion. The one that might genuinely cost you a listener. Honest, funny, and not in the mood to play nice today. 🎧 New episodes every week. Leave us a review if you enjoy the show!🔢 Want to boost maths fluency in your school? Book a free Maths Zoo trial at www.mathszoo.org💬 Join our completely free WhatsApp community and connect with teachers from across the UK: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s

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4.9
out of 5
100 Ratings

About

Teach Sleep Repeat is the podcast for teachers who need a laugh, a rant, and a reminder they are not alone. Dylan and Hayden dive into the real highs and lows of school life from classroom chaos to staffroom gossip. Listener submissions bring out the funniest disasters and most relatable dilemmas, while guests join to share their own unfiltered stories from life in and around education. Send us your favourite teaching stories! E-mail: teachsleeprepeatpod@gmail.com

Information

  • Creator
    Dylan Price and Hayden Stevens
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    213
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Dylan Price and Hayden Stevens
  • Show Website
    Teach Sleep Repeat

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