The Happy Teacher Pod

The Happy Teacher Pod Trailer

 
Welcome to The Happy Teacher Pod. Happy students need great schools and great schools need happy teachers (this last bit is backed up by scientific research, no less!) so join your hosts, Jenny, and Roxy, as we explore how to achieve these goals. 
All too often the term “happy teacher” has been seen as a contradiction in terms. In 2023 in the UK, almost 9000 women our age (we’re in the aged 30-39 bracket in case our profile photo makes us look younger or older!) left the classroom but it doesn't need to be this way. We’re Happy Teachers now but we’ve been through hard times. We’re not afraid to open up in the hope that we can help others.
Between us, Roxy and I have been working in and with classrooms for 30 years; we’ve worked with 15 schools, tackled six different TLRs (that’s teaching and learning responsibilities for the non-teachers out there!), and taught six different subjects. Between us, we have a lot to say on great schools and what makes happy teachers and students!
We’ll delve into well-being, mental health, parenthood, workload… We’ll keep you up to date with the latest scientific research and classroom practices from across the globe, as well as education news. We’ll have an array of guests, some of the greatest minds in education giving their views on what schools need to do to keep happy teachers and to create happy students. 
Teachers, parents, anyone with a vested interest in children getting the best education, THIS is your go to podcast. 
Tune in on the school run, on your lunch break, or even when you’re avoiding paperwork…. Who knows, we might help you come up with a more efficient way to deal with that paperwork or at least put you in the right headspace for it!
We’re The Happy Teacher Pod. Happy students need great schools and great schools need happy teachers. Meet us here every week as we explore how to make these things a reality. 
Tap the subscribe button now so you don’t miss our first ever episode.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Episode 2 - What makes a great school?

This episode, we focus on the ingredients needed to make a great school. A great school alone won’t create happy teachers but it plays an important role. Roxy and Jenny discuss their top three ingredients.
As usual, we begin with a breaktime banter story, this time from Jenny. It involves workplace friendships and fish paste! The episode finishes with Roxy deciding what certainly doesn’t contribute to a great school and should, therefore, “Get in the bin!”
To find out more about the topics covered today:
Www.mtptproject.org.uk - The Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher Project. A plethora of information aimed at (prospective) parent teachers in the UK. Their unique research into motherhood penalty is particularly interesting.

Episode 1 - Who are The Happy Teacher Pod?

In this episode we will be exploring who The Happy Teacher Pod are. How do we know each other? What is our vision for the podcast? How long have we been teaching for?
Essentially this is an intro to our podcast, hope you enjoy listening!
If you do prefer watching this will also be posted on YouTube and if you think I'd love to keep up with Jenny and Roxy day to day then please follow us on Instagram, TikTok or X! 
Where we believe great schools need happy teachers.
If you are interested in the article we speak about in Episode 1 you can read more at this link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0742051X22003729 - Happy teachers are better teachers but not vice-versa