Teach Sleep Repeat

What are the most unpopular opinions teachers and school staff really hold? Hayden and Dylan work through your submissions on homework, shared planning, AI lesson tools, screens in the classroom, teacher workload and whether teaching is actually as hard as people say.

This week on Teach Sleep Repeat, we dig into the hot takes you sent in on Facebook and Instagram. First, we sort the genuinely unpopular opinions from the ones everyone secretly agrees with. Then the debate gets going. Do pre-made resources and AI lesson planners risk de-skilling new teachers, and where should the line be for ECTs and trainees? Should primary schools set no homework at all, and does reading at home even count as homework?

One listener argued that teaching is easier than other public services like nursing, policing and firefighting. We explain why we find that framing condescending, and why getting a five-year-old to really understand fractions is harder than it looks. We also ask whether workload differs between secondary subjects and why Year 6 so often carries the SATs pressure. A former head of computing makes the case for less technology in classrooms, which leads us to tech-free Fridays, problem-solving Fridays and what actually makes a good lesson. We finish with high-attainers and special needs, and whether senior leaders should rotate back into the classroom so they don't lose touch.

It's honest, funny and occasionally heated, so it's perfect for any primary school teacher who has an opinion they've never dared say in the staffroom.

In this episode:
- Unpopular opinions that aren't actually unpopular
- Shared resources, AI planning tools and the risk of de-skilling new teachers
- Should primary schools set no homework?
- "Teaching isn't as hard as people claim": our response
- Workload differences between subjects and the pressure on Year 6
- Less technology in classrooms and the problem with tech-free Fridays
- Gifted and talented pupils: is high intelligence a special need?
- Should senior leadership rotate back into the classroom?

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow Teach Sleep Repeat, leave us a rating and share it with a teacher friend. Send us your unpopular opinions too, because we'll be back with more!

Welcome back, valued listeners & watchers!

In today's episode, we go through your listener submissions for the craziest, most ridiculous, daft, waste-of-time whole school policies you've ever seen.

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More schools than ever are taking two weeks off in October, so where does the extra week come from? Dylan explains how his old school swapped INSET days for twilights, why it can cut term-time holidays, and Hayden asks the obvious question about day one safeguarding training.

Then it's your school trip stories, and you sent thousands. A Year 3 child leaves a trail through the British Museum and a teacher ends up in Primark buying emergency trousers. An NQT counts 60 kids into the wrong museum. A head teacher puts on gloves to search a sick bucket for a retainer. Two Year 7s lick their way round a botanical garden and end up in A&E.

Along the way: when you can actually say no to the toilet on a trip, watching England v Brazil on a coach in 2002, how classes derail lessons on purpose, and why real children's authors might be fed up with celebrity picture books.

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It’s nearly the end of Term 1, which means the first parents’ evening of the year, usually when you’re shattered and losing your voice. Dylan and Hayden talk about why it’s still worth doing, what parents actually want to hear (whether their child is happy, not fronted adverbials), and whether teachers should be stricter about keeping to time. Then a quick-fire round: online or in person, one long night or two, 5, 10 or 15 minute slots, chasing no-shows, and whether the child should sit in.
In the second half we read out your most unhinged parents’ evening stories. There’s the parent who called a Welsh teacher a nationalist for saying Wales has a capital city, an MFL teacher insulted as a “Europhile”, a parent who doesn’t believe in detention, a five-minute rant aimed at the wrong teacher, and Marjorie, who says hello even though she’s no longer with us. Along the way there’s a row about whether mediums are a con, and Hayden still can’t get over the Nectar card incident.
Join the Teach Sleep Repeat WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s
More from us: www.teachsleeprepeatpodcast.com
Instagram: @teachsleeprepeatpodcast
Enquiries and sponsorship: teachsleeprepeatpod@gmail.com
If the show is useful to you, a rating and a follow genuinely helps more people find it.

Hayden plans the episode this week, which means you get a game. He opens with a bedtime story about his nearly-three-year-old that ends with the question no parent wants to hear: “Dad, where am I going to put my bogey?” Then Blind Rank is back by listener request. Dylan has to rank playground duty, parents’ evening, teaching art, the staffroom and one more mystery job without knowing what’s coming next. He gets badly stitched up at number one.
Next, Dylan drove past two primary schools on the way to the new office and counted more than a dozen parents vaping on the school run. Is that just normal now? The boys get into what kids pick up from it, vaping in secondary toilets, the generational smoking ban and whether it’s a nanny state, and vapes made to look like highlighters.
In the Q&A, a listener asks what you’d buy if you had to stock a brand new school with maths resources from scratch. Dienes, Cuisenaire rods, multilink cubes, real clock faces, plenty of 3D shapes, and the place value sliders you should never pay for. That turns into a proper conversation about using CPA flexibly and the links in maths that actually make a difference.
Join the Teach Sleep Repeat WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HB7n1PNGdGL5STACssEH1s
Instagram: @teachsleeprepeatpodcast
Enquiries and sponsorship: teachsleeprepeatpod@gmail.com
If the show is useful to you, a rating and a follow genuinely helps more people find it.