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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.

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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

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