Britain has a new government but what does this mean for education and for the happiness of teachers? This week we look at the education headlines from the Labour manifesto and give our thoughts on whether they will improve the happiness of teachers, parents and students. Is it necessary, for example, to recruit 6,500 new teachers (a third of which will, statistically, leave in the first five years) when we have more than enough qualified teachers to fill all the vacancies - they’re just not choosing to return to the classroom. Surely retaining excellent teachers and encouraging returners should be the priority? Schools should be mandated to offer shared parental pay at the same amount for men and women, as the civil service does. We give our verdict on the six main promises of the Labour party. We go beyond the manifestos and examine what the Department of Education is offering to improve retention and returning rates. We were both pleasantly surprised to learn about return to teacher advisers but, clearly, more needs to be done to advertise this service, rather than focusing government advertising budgets on new teachers.

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In this week’s Break-time Banter, Roxy reminisces proudly on the question her Year 10s set a visiting member of the House of Lord.

In Get in the Bin, Jenny chastises political parties for headline-grabbing promises on recruitment when the real issues that need fixing are teacher retention and how to encourage returner teachers.

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Links to relevant websites mentioned in the show:

: Find out more about returning to teaching and what a return to teaching adviser can offer

: Find out more about Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher Project and how they can help retain teachers that have become parents.

It’s our tenth episode of season 2 and we finally managed to get our former colleagues, Bonolo and Sarah, on the show. We all worked together in a growing school, building the Humanities Department and we all look back on those years as some of the best we’ve ever had. So, what makes a good department? And how does a good department make happy teachers? Sarah speaks persuasively on the importance of sharing in a vision whilst Bonolo praises shared planning that allows for everyone’s own creative inputs.

In this week’s Break-time Banter, Roxy remembers the first time she met Bonolo. It was at the interview and they both thought only one job was available and they both took VERY different approaches communicating to one another!

Sarah and Bonolo couldn’t decide who got to do the Get In The Bin so, in the spirit of good teamwork, we let them both do one each! Sarah throws micro-management in the bin , whilst Bonolo throws all his previous INSETs (in-school training for the non-teachers out there!) into the bin. Don’t get us wrong, he loves CPD and thinks INSET done well can be inspiring. Just don’t get him to do an ice-breaker….

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Our ninth episode talks about our proudest teaching moments! As a teacher you go into the everyday not expecting to have moments that you remember for the rest of your career but as you have so many interactions it is bound to happen. So as we have both been teaching for 15 years or longer it was bound to happen and we both get a bit emotional speaking about our proudest moments so far and what they mean to us. This was prompted by an interview question that a friend told us about and we thought it would be an interesting topic to cover. We are excited to hear about your proudest moments too so please hit us up on the socials and let us know.

In this week’s Break-time Banter, Roxy talks about when praising teachers on their achievements ends in a flash mob of singing and ended up being quote a cringe worthy but very funny moment!

Get In The Bin comes from Jenny who doesn’t like it when teachers don’t get praised at all from the senior leadership in the school.

Lots of amazing organisations were discussed in this podcast. Please see the links below:

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Jenny and Roxy

Email the show: thehappyteacherpod@gmail.com