

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
Send us your favourite teaching stories! E-mail: teachsleeprepeatpod@gmail.com
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 1, 2025 • 45min
Ep 130: Top Tips For Teachers To SMASH The New School Year!
September is upon us & the new school year has arrived (unless you're in a place that has already gone back...)Here, we lay out our top tips from 20 years of experience teaching in primary schools that will help you smash September!Sit back, relax, and let us know if we have missed anything out.Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcastTikTok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Aug 27, 2025 • 48min
Ep 129: Answering Your Questions: Teaching Abroad, After-School Clubs & Working Through Summer
The hosts tackle listener questions about managing extracurricular pressures in education. They discuss the challenges of teaching responsibilities, emphasizing the need for boundaries. A humorous exchange about accents and administrative work adds levity to their reflections. They explore the allure of teaching abroad, particularly in high-paying roles. An eye-opening segment highlights the environmental impacts of lamination, blending practicality with sustainability concerns.

Aug 25, 2025 • 49min
Ep 128: Unpicking The School's Bill: Branded Uniform Crackdown, Fairer Teacher Pay & Fewer Academy Freedoms
Join us for a dive into the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill that is currently making its way into law in the UK.We discuss school uniform, teacher pay and a stripping back of academy freedoms.Is it a good thing? A bad thing? A mix?Let's find out together!We will be covering homeschooling in the future, btw....Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcastTiktok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Aug 20, 2025 • 38min
Ep 127: Answering Your Questions: Controversial Teacher Opinions, TA Roles & Pointless Assessment
In this episode, we answer your teacher questions - from our most controversial opinions about education, to how a TA should really be used in the classroom, our top tips for moving up with your class, and how pointless assessment can be. Expect a mix of honest takes, practical advice, and a few spicy confessions along the way.Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcastTikTok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Aug 18, 2025 • 53min
Ep 126: Top Tips For New Teachers: How To Thrive In The Classroom
Starting your first year as a new teacher? It can feel exciting, overwhelming, and just a little bit terrifying. In this episode, we share our top tips for new teachers to help you survive (and actually enjoy) your first year in the classroom.Plus, we share some honest stories from our own early years in teaching: the wins, the fails, and what we wish we’d known sooner.Whether you’re about to start teaching or are in the thick of your first year, this is your practical, no-jargon guide to surviving and thriving as a new teacher.Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcastTikTok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Aug 11, 2025 • 53min
Ep 125: Why Aren't Children Reading For Pleasure?
Why Aren’t Children Reading for Pleasure Anymore? 📚Reading for fun is at an all-time low and the stats are sobering. In 2025, just one in three children said they enjoyed reading in their free time. That is a 36% drop since 2005. What is going on?In this episode, we talk about what we have seen across our teaching careers, the barriers stopping children from picking up a book, and the cultural shift that is turning reading into “work” instead of leisure. From the fact that one in seven primary schools have no library (rising to one in four in disadvantaged areas) to the impact of screens, testing culture and a lack of representation in books, we explore the roots of the problem.We also share what actually works, from free choice and shared reading to building a reading culture at home, and ask the big question: What will it take to turn this around?Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcastTikTok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Aug 4, 2025 • 42min
Ep 124: Should We Shorten The School Summer Holidays?
Yes. Hayden has an auto-focus square on his head. Enjoy it! As always, like clockwork, when the summer holidays roll around, we are bombarded with opinions on how they are TOO LONG!We talk about it. Are they too long? Is the cost of childcare too much? Is there a solution? Who is to blame? Is being bored bad?We'd love to hear from you.www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcastwww.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Jul 28, 2025 • 42min
Ep 123: Has Creativity Died In The Classroom? Boring Schemes, Micro-Management & Arts Funding Cuts!
This week, we chat about how in so many schools, creativity is disappearing in two major ways.Firstly, the arts themselves are languishing. Huge drops in children taking subejcts at GCSE like drama and music. Why is this happening and why is it bad?Secondly, in the classroom itself. Top-down strict rules for every lesson to look the same and fidelity to boring schemes is building a recpie for misery.Get in touch with us through our socials.www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcastwww.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast

Jul 21, 2025 • 1h 14min
Ep 122: The New Writing Framework: A Force For Good Or Bad?
Jane Considine, a writing instruction expert and advocate for the new DfE Writing Framework, shares her insights on enhancing primary education. She discusses the framework’s potential to improve young learners' writing skills while addressing concerns about early formal writing methods. The conversation buzzes with humor and debate, focusing on the balance between creativity and structured instruction. Jane's positivity sparks a call to action for educators to engage in thoughtful dialogue about fostering effective writing experiences for children.

Jul 14, 2025 • 1h 6min
Ep 121: Our Final Week Of Teaching: Have We Made A Mistake?
It's our last week as teachers... and it's all starting to feel very real.In this episode, we look back on the moments that made us -the unforgettable classroom highs, the amazing people we met, and the exact point we knew we couldn’t keep going.We’re asking ourselves the question we’ve been avoiding: have we made a huge mistake?Honest, emotional, and (as always) a bit chaotic—this one's for every teacher who’s ever felt torn between staying and going.Hayden also dives into his recent reaching of Sex Ed!💬 Got a story or dilemma? Send it in for a future episode.Instagram: www.instagram.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcastTikTok: www.tiktok.com/teachsleeprepeatpodcast


