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

Ben and James: Secondary School Teachers

Ben and James Could Do Better is a comedy podcast for secondary school teachers—recorded somewhere between the staff room, a lukewarm coffee, and a rapidly disappearing biscuit. If you’re searching for a secondary education podcast that actually reflects life in a UK classroom, you’re in the right place. Less phonics and glitter, more behaviour management, GCSE pressure, and the reality of teaching teenagers. With fifty years of combined experience in secondary schools, Ben and James have seen it all—from Progress 8 panic to the chaos of Year 9 on a Friday afternoon. This is the honest, funny take on teaching in the UK, packed with the kind of staff room conversations teachers don’t usually get time to have. Whether you’re an experienced teacher, an ECT navigating your first placement, or just curious about the state of modern education, there’s something here for you. No laminated posters. No inspirational assemblies. No budget. Just real talk about teacher life, workload, behaviour, and surviving the school week. We all went to school.Ben and James just never left.

  1. 2d ago

    The Antiques Roadshow Dread, "Day in the Life" Delusions, and Why Phil Is Lying

    That sinking feeling that arrives with the Antiques Roadshow theme tune? We know it well. By the second week back, the summer holidays can already feel like a distant memory. The first-day enthusiasm has worn off, the timetable has started to bite, and you’ve remembered exactly how many things there are to do before you can even think about getting home. So we talk candidly about the Sunday scaries and why the return to school can feel like a wave of anxiety, even when we like teaching and care about doing a good job. We get into workload guilt, imposter syndrome, and the strange pressure of feeling you should be “rested” while your brain is already rehearsing lesson one, period five, and everything you did not tick off in July. From there we spiral, naturally, into Ofsted. The “Ofsted window” becomes our way of laughing at a very real background stress: inspection culture, shifting judgements, and the sense that accountability never quite leaves the building. We also poke at the unhelpful myth that teachers finish when pupils do, and why the job stretches well beyond the bell with planning, marking, meetings, parental contact, and the endless small tasks that keep a school running. To make it concrete, we read a Government Get Into Teaching “day in the life of a teacher” schedule and react in real time. Some of it is fair, some of it is wildly optimistic, and the quotes from “Phil”, “Jessica”, “Mike”, “Gavin”, and “Jane” open up a bigger question about how teaching is presented to non-teachers versus how it is actually lived by teachers. If you’ve made it through the first week back, this one is for you. If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe to Ben and James Could Do Better, leave us a review, and share it with a colleague who is already counting down to half term. And if you’ve got a story about returning to school, Ofsted, workload, or one of those supposedly “typical” days in the life of a teacher, we’d love to hear it. What part of going back to school triggers your Sunday scaries most? Let us know — we might even read your answers on a future episode. You can get in touch with us at bandjcdb@gmail.com or find out more at www.benandjamescoulddobetter.com. Thanks for listening. And remember: it’s only the second week back. There’s still plenty of time for everything to go horribly wrong. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

  2. Aug 31

    We’ve Gone Video. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

    We’ve gone visual. After months of making an audio podcast, we’ve finally made the jump to video — and it turns out the camera is both a brilliant upgrade and a fairly ruthless truth-teller. Suddenly lighting matters. The room matters. And all those little editing tricks that are invisible in audio become considerably more obvious when there are two faces on screen. In this episode, we talk through the transition from audio to video, including cameras, lighting, editing in DaVinci Resolve, navigating jump cuts, and the surprisingly complicated business of deciding what should actually happen when the camera is switched on. We’re still stubbornly unscripted, although we’re beginning to wonder whether that is actually helping us. We also talk about the practicalities of the move: where you can watch us on YouTube and Spotify, what happens for our audio-only listeners, and why we’re attempting to grow beyond our currently rather modest YouTube audience. James explains the change in workflow from Audacity to DaVinci Resolve, including why video makes jump cuts considerably more painful and why we’re experimenting with built-in breaks, on-screen slates, images and short sound cues. Then there’s the usual business of arguing about what the show actually is. The register goes, because the camera exposes the lie. The postcard survives, because apparently props are powerful. We discuss short-form clips for TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts, including the joys of trying to make a horizontal podcast work in a vertical world. We also investigate a poster that appears to have booked The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones, squeeze in an entirely unnecessary Cardiff City tangent, and receive fan mail from someone who uses our voices as a sleep aid. And, naturally, we end up wondering what exactly a VOD is. We’re still secondary school teachers, and we’re still making it up as we go along. We’ve just decided to turn the cameras on while we do it. So if you’re listening or watching, do some of the heavy lifting for once: tell us what VOD actually means. Get in touch: bandjcdb@gmail.com Website: benandjamescoulddobetter.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

  3. Aug 24

    Back to Skool, Slush Puppies and Summer Holiday Nostalgia

    Six weeks off sounds like endless freedom, but when we actually try to remember our school summer holidays, the picture is oddly specific: a bike you used to ride everywhere, a scooter you couldn't keep up on, and the kind of local roaming that now feels almost unreal. From there, we tumble into the background noise of the time: children's daytime television, cinema trips to town before multiplexes, and that peculiar mixture of boredom and excitement that only summer holidays can produce. Ben also had the surreal experience of spending weekends rehearsing and filming in TV studios, meeting famous presenters, then going straight back to normal life as though none of it was particularly remarkable. Because apparently childhood can involve both riding your bike round the estate and casually wandering around television studios. Then we take a proper nostalgia detour through Wales: Porthcawl, Coney Beach, long seaside walks because someone refused to pay for parking, and the unforgettable combination of cones of chips and Slush Puppies. Eventually, we remember this is supposed to be an education podcast. This week's victim is a "back to school checklist" that apparently knows everything UK parents need to buy before September. We ask what is actually essential, what is just marketing, what schools really expect pupils to turn up with, and whether anyone has ever really misspelt "school" as "skool". If you've got strong opinions about back-to-school shopping, a favourite summer holiday memory, or, like James, you remember watching Ben on the TV on lazy summer holiday mornings in the 1980s, this one might be for you. "Why don't you" leave us a review, share the episode with a colleague or parent, and get in touch. Email: bandjcdb@gmail.com Website: benandjamescoulddobetter.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

  4. Aug 17

    Exam Results, Music Lessons, and a House Trying to Kill You

    A house that “might feature in a gritty BBC drama” is not a metaphor. It’s a running maintenance plan. We begin with a simple question about DIY progress and end up in the strange reality of renovating a house on a budget: windows that should have been fitted by now, a galley kitchen measured up with shaky confidence, and flat-pack units arriving next week whether the timing works or not. If you’ve ever lived with a worktop held up by an appliance, you’ll understand why actually fixing something feels like a breakthrough. Then things escalate into genuine DIY disaster territory. We talk through the chain reaction that starts with a leaking roof and ends with arcing electrics travelling through a radiator in the bedroom, an emergency electrician, and a house full of less-than-beautiful but considerably safer trunking. Add in roofers who quote and then disappear, rotten fascia boards, lingering damp, and the unforgettable moment someone fell through the floor on Christmas Day, and it becomes clear that “maintenance” is sometimes less about making the house look nice and more about keeping it from actively trying to kill you. Eventually, we remember this is supposed to be an education podcast. With this episode landing between A-level and GCSE results days, we turn to exam results and the strange annual ritual of pretending that one set of numbers can adequately describe a teenager. We share our own results-day memories, including the peculiar anti-climax of getting exactly what you expected and the way one grade can somehow become the entire story. Ben also briefly forgets this is meant to be a comedy podcast for a moment and gets properly serious about music education in the UK: what happens when opportunities increasingly depend on parents being able to pay, why that risks making music education elitist, and how much genuine access to music depends on public funding. If you enjoy DIY disasters, education chat, stories of houses held together by questionable decisions, and the occasional postcard-based tangent, this one’s for you. Leave us a review, share it with a friend who’s renovating or waiting on results, and get in touch. Email: bandjcdb@gmail.com Website: benandjamescoulddobetter.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

  5. Aug 10

    STOPP, Breathe, and Have a Nice Holiday

    Summer holidays sound like freedom, until you realise you're still packing the car, juggling childcare, and trying to find five quiet minutes while life carries on at full volume. We start with a very real chat about time off: being a bit pedantic about continuity, craving routine while simultaneously rejecting it, and planning a shorter, budget-friendly break to the West Country based largely on what the children actually enjoy. Spoiler: sometimes the biggest thrill isn't a beach. It's a different bed to bounce on. From there we tumble into family holiday nostalgia, the kind that smells faintly of a locked-up self-catering cottage and warm sandwiches. We talk packed-to-the-gunnels cars, slow motorway miles, service stations where you're "not allowed anything", and the quiet dread some of us felt before we'd even arrived. Then we reach the true battleground: the Kellogg's variety pack, where the chocolate cereals disappear first and the cornflakes become a form of punishment. If you grew up on UK seaside breaks and tight budgeting, you'll recognise every bit of it. Eventually, it's time for another list. This week we look at a collection of summer teacher wellbeing advice from our old friends at Education Support. There's the circle of control, influence and concern, dedicated worry time, wellbeing action plans, non-negotiables, morning routines and weekly check-ins. In other words, a relaxing summer holiday that apparently requires rather more organisation than the school term itself. We pick apart the advice, question why "switching off" apparently needs quite so much planning, and arrive at the pièce de résistance: STOPP. Stop, take a breath, observe, pull back, practise what works. A five-step process for dealing with difficult thoughts and emotions which somehow manages to make having a moment into an administrative procedure. If you've ever been told to relax, only to discover you've been given a framework, an action plan and a set of weekly targets for doing so, this one's for you. Leave us a review, share the episode with a tired colleague, and get in touch. What does a genuinely restful summer break look like for you? Email: bandjcdb@gmail.com Website: benandjamescoulddobetter.com* Send us Fan Mail Support the show

  6. Aug 3

    Wristband Tyrants, Duolingo Guilt, and 16 Terrible Summer Job Ideas

    We start with a small family milestone as James realises this episode will go out on his daughter Matilda's birthday. At the time of recording, plans for the big day are still very much TBC—an August birthday can be brilliant for cake and presents but terrible for guest lists. From there, we tumble into the reality of soft play, party rooms, pizza, and the uniquely stressful moment when you have to tell a room full of children they're not allowed back on the climbing frame... even though the only way out is straight through it. An unexpectedly pedantic leisure centre manager's passionate belief in the wristband policy turns into a rant about inconsistent systems before we time-jump into pure nostalgia at Swansea Leisure Centre: the armband announcements, the wave machine, and that unforgettable slide that briefly sends you outside the building. Along the way, we also dip into Duolingo, language streak anxiety, and why an eight-year-old learning Hungarian is both impressive and slightly unsettling when the app starts guilt-tripping you. Eventually, it's time for this week's victim. This week's victim is a list of 16 summer job ideas for teachers. It promises practical ways to boost your income over the holidays. Instead, it mixes sensible suggestions with recycled advice, duplicated ideas, American jobs that don't really exist in the UK (despite this supposedly being a UK list), and the kind of freelance promises that sound much easier on paper than they are in real life. We pick apart the list, debate whether teachers really want a second job during the summer, and ask which ideas might genuinely work—from tutoring and freelance writing to proofreading, AI, and the ever-present temptation to earn extra money without sacrificing the holiday you've spent eleven months waiting for. If you're a teacher who tops up your income over the summer, someone who believes the holidays are sacred, or you've got a side hustle that's actually worth recommending, we'd love to hear from you. Better still, if you'd like a shout-out on the show, get in touch. Leave us a review, share the episode with a colleague, and drop us a message. Email: bandjcdb@gmail.com Website: benandjamescoulddobetter.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

  7. Jul 27

    Relaxing Is Hard Work

    A smoke machine goes on, the fire alarm follows, and suddenly the last minutes of the school day turn into a full-blown evacuation. It turns out there's no better way to end term than standing on the school field wondering whether anyone actually knows what's going on. From there, we celebrate the end of the year in the most teacherly way possible: Kong Strong Wild Power, generously donated along with a legendary haul of other snacks from a colleague who actually enjoyed Episode 11. It reminds us that high-calorie snacks remain the unofficial currency of education. Along the way, we end up talking about teacher stress, routines, and what "switching off" really means when you've spent the last ten months running on adrenaline. We also tackle the strange contradiction at the heart of the summer holidays. Teachers spend weeks counting down to the break, only to discover that stopping is harder than expected. For many of us, the holidays aren't really a holiday at all—they're simply a different kind of busy, especially when family life and childcare take over. We even wonder aloud whether we should stop satirising internet lists and try something different... before immediately turning to another list. This week's victim is a "Ten Ways to Wind Down During the Summer" guide for teachers. On paper, it's full of perfectly sensible advice: unplug, find a hobby, spend time in nature, read for pleasure, travel, practise self-care. The problem is that almost none of it has anything to do with teachers—or the summer. We ask whether generic wellbeing advice actually helps burnt-out teachers, or whether it's just another list that sounds reassuring without really understanding the problem. If you've ever reached the summer holidays feeling too tired to enjoy them—or if you've got an unforgettable end-of-term disaster story—we'd love to hear from you. Leave us a review, share the episode with a colleague, and get in touch. Email: bandjcdb@gmail.com Website: benandjamescoulddobetter.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

  8. Jul 20

    He-Man and the Perfect Mug of Tea

    Milk first or milk last? It sounds like a harmless question until you ask it in a British staffroom. We tumble from casual brew chat into a proper national obsession: tea-making etiquette, why coffee somehow escapes the same scrutiny, and how a single mug can generate stronger opinions than most staff meetings. Along the way, we pit science against George Orwell in the great milk debate, discover the surprisingly specific "correct" colour of tea, and somehow find ourselves using He-Man as an entirely reasonable reference point.  Eventually, we arrive at this week's list. This week's victim is a list of end-of-term classroom activities that promises to keep secondary students engaged during the final week of school. Instead, it raises far more questions than it answers. Who is supplying thirty board games? How exactly do you "host Taskmaster" without the room descending into chaos? And why do so many online teaching ideas seem to have been invented by people who've never actually met a class on the last Friday in July? We also tackle the annual debate over end-of-term films, the frustration of only ever watching the first forty minutes, and why we'd often rather teach a normal lesson than pretend half a Disney film counts as learning. If you've got stronger opinions on tea than teaching—or better ideas for surviving the last week of term—we'd love to hear them. Leave us a review, share the episode with a colleague, and if you've got a better last-week-of-term activity—or a definitive answer to the milk debate—we'd love to hear from you. Email: bandjcdb@gmail.com Website: benandjamescoulddobetter.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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Ben and James Could Do Better is a comedy podcast for secondary school teachers—recorded somewhere between the staff room, a lukewarm coffee, and a rapidly disappearing biscuit. If you’re searching for a secondary education podcast that actually reflects life in a UK classroom, you’re in the right place. Less phonics and glitter, more behaviour management, GCSE pressure, and the reality of teaching teenagers. With fifty years of combined experience in secondary schools, Ben and James have seen it all—from Progress 8 panic to the chaos of Year 9 on a Friday afternoon. This is the honest, funny take on teaching in the UK, packed with the kind of staff room conversations teachers don’t usually get time to have. Whether you’re an experienced teacher, an ECT navigating your first placement, or just curious about the state of modern education, there’s something here for you. No laminated posters. No inspirational assemblies. No budget. Just real talk about teacher life, workload, behaviour, and surviving the school week. We all went to school.Ben and James just never left.

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