PGCE, Teach First & Other Character Building Exercises

The “official” path into teaching sounds simple on paper: check your qualifications, understand funding, get some experience, choose a course, apply, train, get a job, start your career. But when you actually read Department for Education-style guidance out loud, it quickly becomes clear how little it prepares you for the reality of teacher training in the UK—or for what life in schools really demands.

In this episode, we unpack the parts that the checklist skips. Why do GCSE requirements sometimes feel oddly disconnected from the subject you want to teach? How do funding and bursaries quietly shape people’s decisions? And why does classroom experience matter far more than most applicants realise?

We also talk honestly about the different routes into teaching—PGCE, School Direct, Teach First and more—and the tension between seeing teaching as a “vocation” versus something you fall into through circumstance, bad luck, or simple pragmatism.

Along the way, we share stories from training and placements, including the very real issue of being placed somewhere you can’t physically get to on time without a car.

We finish with our takeaways: the formal route might be “graduate, train, qualify,” but the emotional journey looks more like hope, panic, and a lot of caffeine.

If you’re thinking about becoming a teacher—or you’re already in and quietly questioning your life choices—this episode offers honesty, humour, and a few uncomfortable truths.

Subscribe, share this with someone considering teacher training, and leave us a review. And tell us: what’s the missing step in the “how to become a teacher” guide?

Transcript

Coke Near The Mic

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Are you sure it was wise to open that kind of Coke?

SPEAKER_02 0:21

I don't think so because it being this close to the mic, um, it does start repeating, and I don't I don't really want to wish that upon the the listener. Wasn't the best idea.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Uh anyway, this is a weird one, Ben, because uh at the time of recording, our podcast doesn't exist. But by the time this is live, so to speak, episodes one to three will have been available for a week. Wow. So this podcast sort of does exist and doesn't exist at the same time. It's very much uh Schrdinger's podcast at the moment. Well that's something for us to muse upon, isn't it? I mean I think Schrodinger should probably get his own podcast. Yeah. Truth be told. Uh could be about cats. Possibly. Get on with it, man. Uh well, how's your week been? What's uh what have you been up to?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Oh, just vehicle-oriented nonsense, really, which I don't think I can basically the vehicle that we started trying to record this podcast into, which looked as though I was abducting you as you got into the back of it. Uh camper van. Yes. For those well, why would the listeners know about that? I was gonna say for those who know, but of course they don't know because I've I had to tell them.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

You did reference it briefly in episode one, so if they've done their homework and they've really been paying attention. Right, if they've been taking notes, I suppose.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

The van was mentioned, but you're right, we haven't actually recorded any of the episodes. But they there's all sorts of issues with the van, but now I've got a car, and I had a car before I had the van, so I probably shouldn't have gotten the van. But I mean, who cares? I don't think anyone cares. Well, what's your week been then? Um Thank you for asking. Tell me what earth-shattering week you've had.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

It's been nice not to have to prompt you to ask my week. That's been uh we've we've look at the evolution of this podcast, even uh. I've been learning how to use the Audacity software to edit um the first three episodes of this podcast. Uh and I can tell you, Ben, that editing a podcast is a lot like coming across a photocopier with a paper jam. Except uh Well, we've all in teaching experienced that. We have, um except in this case, I can't just ignore it and hope someone else sorts it out. No, no, that's what I do. I always do that. I always get a jam.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Yeah, just walk away. My skills are just approaching 50. 50 when this comes out, you know. No need to no need to start the old happy birthday. Um, yeah, I always walk away. My skills do not stretch to pulling out the 25 different drawers. No.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

And but you do, like I do, you just leave it. You don't even tell anyone it's jammed.

Welcome And Register Banter

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Um, anyway, uh, probably time to start the show. Yeah, yeah. Uh for real. Um so welcome to Ben and James Could Do Better, a podcast that is definitely not about cats, uh, but which might contain some references to working in a secondary school. Yes, unfortunately. Although often it doesn't, to be fair. No, that's um so uh it's been a bit of a tradition. It's a tradition, we're on episode four. Well, uh a gimmick, if you like, to for me to call the register at the start. Yeah. So I'm gonna do that now. Okay, I'm James and I'm here. Uh but let's see who else is here. Uh Schrdinger. Now Schrdinger's not here. No. We'll have to do an attendance plan for him, although he is dead. So I might C code this one. Yeah, you know, authorised absence. Uh Ben is fat.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Somebody said that in a lesson I had very recently. They answered their own name. Um, no. What happened was somebody who wasn't fat was next on the register. The student sitting next to him said, when I read the name act, he came in like a bullet out of a gun and said, Is fat. Everybody fell about laughing, even though the child wasn't fat. It's funnier that they weren't actually, isn't it? Yes, I suppose I suppose so. There are all sorts of other things you could have put on there, but I don't unfortunately students aren't always as up to speed as you'd want them to be on the protected characteristics. So I don't really want to sort of go down that line. But I've I've had numerous versions of that. Just say the name again. I'll I'll say how I'll show you how quick it was. Right, so Ben is fat. It was like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Anyway, we we we have a Ben, we have a James, we don't have a Schrdinger. It is time now for us to do better. So last week we looked at why we should become teachers and we used the DFE's Getting to Teaching website. So this week I thought a natural follow-on might be to consider how best to begin that journey. And it would be churlish to look anywhere other than the same website. So I've gone back to get into teaching.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Because we enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

People say teaching is a vocation though, don't they? Don't they? It's not a job, it's a vocation. Which is which is a lovely word for career that you have to usually explain to your therapist.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

That's why people get

The Postcard Prize Idea

SPEAKER_00 5:24

into teaching, but how do they get into teaching? Uh, before we move on to that, obviously we haven't referenced this week's postcard. No, no, no. I can see you brandishing something. Oh my god, that's awful. I got this uh again, uh Reading Museum Gift Shop. Give it here. 10p. That cost me 10p. 10p. Could you describe it for us this week, Ben?

SPEAKER_02 5:42

It's a jaunty-angled shot of the famous Reading shopping centre known as the Oracle.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

It's the Riverside View of the Oracle shopping centre. The riverside view. Let's sit, let's. Is it a river? I think it's a canal, the Kenneth, if I was going to be pedantic. Um but they call it the Riverside, and that is a picture of it. And uh I mean it's not a bad picture. I'm not saying it's a bad picture, it's the subject matter. Subject matter doesn't merit a picture.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

As far as pictures of that go, it's quite a good one, actually. Perhaps we could sign these to make them worth slightly less than they retail at. And we could give that to a listener, couldn't we? A lucky listener puts something in the comments first.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

And it's genuinely possible by this stage we've got listeners. I don't know. I don't want to be overly optimistic, but yes, um, that's that could be a prize. Okay, there we go. That's available uh potentially assigned yeah. We could Donald Trump ink it on the back. Yes, I mean I I that I look forward to that moment.

The DfE Eight Steps Critique

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Back to the point the point of the episode, which is uh if you're thinking of becoming a teacher, how do you do it? How do you get into teaching? Well, get into teaching have got a whole page dedicated to this because it's not obvious. If you're thinking of becoming a teacher, here is get into teaching's advice. It's an eight-point guide. I'm gonna have to paraphrase a bit because if we go verbatim on this, it will take too long. Point one, check your qualifications. I think if that is point one on the checklist, you've got to check your own qualifications. You may not be suited to the profession because I think we'd be looking for people who actually know what qualifications they have they've got. That's so if you've got a check, maybe just give up at that point. Point two, understand funding. There are fees uh when you do teacher training, there are loans, there are bursaries. It's all very boring, but I guess it is probably useful to know.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Um I remember that one of the main reasons I did the training was because there was some sort of golden hello available to me. Should I complete my um what was then my uh NQT year? And I did do that, and I got the golden hello, and it wasn't anywhere near as golden as I thought it was. I don't know what the funding situation is now. I'll be honest with you, I don't care. I qualified years ago. But if you were thinking of getting into teaching and you've made it past the qualification check, yeah. Uh then I suppose understanding funding is probably quite sensible. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You'd agree with that? Yeah, yeah. Point three, consider getting experience. Um now I did, I don't know about you. With but back when I started the training, that was the advice then as well, is get get some experience. So I volunteered in my old secondary school for a week. And that didn't put you off, did it? It was awful, actually. It nearly did. So it did put you off, and you did it anyway. It did put me off, yeah. I hated it. It was an awful week. And if it wasn't for that golden hello, I I would have not joined the profession actually. Oh, that's cynical, Jess. Um I don't know. Look, if you're thinking of joining the profession, if you're listening to this and you're you're not yet a teacher and you know, you've you've tuned in thinking, would I like to be a teacher? Spending time in a school staff room is definitely something that you should do before you you join the profession. If that doesn't put you off, uh maybe it is the right move for you. Yeah, it's not the students you need to worry about. Anyway, on on to point four. Quite a pivotal on this one. Find a postgraduate teacher training course. Gosh, this is mind-blowing, isn't it? Probably a good idea if you've got a degree. But I mean, as you'll probably be discussing in a moment, Ben, postgraduate isn't the only route into teaching a course.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

No, definitely not.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

I think point four possibly could have been point one, though. Yeah. Find a course. Yeah, because if you found the course, it would tell you what qualifications you needed anyway. It would, and it would probably talk about funding and telling you to get some work experience. So all of that would be kind of linked in. Anyway, you found a course, you've done all that. Point five, apply for teacher training. It's a separate point. So if if you are the kind of person that finds a course and doesn't understand that you've got to apply to do that course, again, I'm not sure this is the profession for you. No, I think we need people who've got the skill set to understand that just finding the course isn't going to get you on the course, and you may need to fill in some sort of form. No, I I'm despairing so far. Yeah. Have they got any more plum advice? Well, there are there are that was five of the eight points we've got to when we've got as far as applying for the teacher training. Yeah. Point six, start your teacher training.

unknown 10:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

So yeah. If you've mastered point four and five, but haven't realized that you actually need to turn up to the course. This you know, it's a boring gift, but it does keep on giving.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

The get into teaching website thinks teachers are so stupid that um not the best sort of complement to what's what is supposed to be a profession, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

We are passing on our knowledge to the next generation, but apparently we're made up of people who are inspiring people as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

So that's in in every word, if I remember from last time, in every word that we say, every interaction that we have.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

And and the same people who are inspiring our the next generation need to find a course and then be told to apply for that course and then be told to start that course. Okay, so point six is start your teacher training. It's a big leap to point seven after that quite slow buildup.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Point seven, apply sorry. Point seven is apply for a teaching role.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Okay, they've missed out the course.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

They've missed out the entire course, um which could be anything from one to three plus years.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

So start your teacher training point six, apply for a teaching role, point seven. It's a little premature if you've not completed the course, I'd say. Okay, right. But fortunately, that does bring us right up to point eight. Uh so you've applied for a teaching role in point seven, and point eight, start your career.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Start your career. Start your career. Well, I mean, that's sort of presupposing the first job you apply for, you'll get absolutely and you immediately commence your career.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Yeah. Oh my word. Yeah, so those are the steps to becoming a teacher. Yeah. A lot of admin around the uh finding what you know, lots of very slow builder to that point. Wow. You've started your building.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

I must admit, I mean, for the first four to five points, I was bored rigid. I thought, where's this going?

SPEAKER_00 12:27

But I can see where it's going. Nowhere, basically. Given the myriad different routes available into teaching, and there aren't there aren't many. That guidance, that's the that's the get into teaching website from the DFP's guidance on how to get into teaching. And if I'd started reading that, not knowing anything, by the end of it, I still don't know anything.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

No, so it's absolutely appalling, isn't it? And they they would have had meetings about this, meeting after meeting after meeting with the ad agency. What are we going to put on? Or what do you think for the first one then? You know, because arguably finding the course that you want to do might be fit. Check your qualifications. What have you been doing? Um Labour on a building site. Nothing wrong with it. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. But there is something wrong with it if if you're wanting to immediately start a career

GCSE Gatekeeping And A Scotland Detour

SPEAKER_02 13:20

in teaching. So you go to the Get Into Teaching web and you go, oh, check your qualifications. Oh, I haven't got any. Well, doesn't matter. I'll move on to point two, understand the funding. Because it doesn't say what it might do in the guidance underneath. Now you've got the benefit of having read it all, but it might say what those qualifications need to be, does it?

SPEAKER_00 13:38

You know, because you know you can't get into teacher training without maths, English, and science, GCSE. Or you couldn't in my day, and I imagine that's the same. It is the same. I think that's all it alludes to. On that, by the way, why?

SPEAKER_02 13:48

What difference does it make? I'm a drama teacher. Okay, you were a French teacher. Yeah. Whether you got a GCSE in maths, where does that come into it? It helped me become a maths teacher. But unless you're a math teacher, yeah. Clever clogs, we'll have to say. I had another word in mind. We we but why where does the GCSE in maths come into it? Why does the GCSE in maths matter?

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Well it doesn't, and I can tell you why it doesn't. I understand there's this sort of uh, oh well, you need to be at least as qualified, these are the standards we expect of our children, etc. But it doesn't matter because I knew of someone, uh I went to university with this person who wanted to be a teacher and didn't have their maths GCSE for whatever they got a degree in French, but they were unable to get their maths GCE in French. They were intelligent enough, there's no reason why they couldn't get their maths GCSE, but they just couldn't do it for whatever reason there was a mental block, they just couldn't do it. So obviously, teaching teacher training was was was was not a route they could go down in England. So what they did was they they moved to Scotland for a yeah, tried to be a teacher in Scotland, uh, and then moved back to England and got a job in a school as a teacher.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

So I was gonna regale you with various stories from my uh teacher training days, and I'm sure you've got plenty as well. Uh I think in your case, more about which bars you frequented. Not while I was doing the teacher training, actually.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

No, that was the degree.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Oh, the degree.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

You checked your qualifications to see if you had one at the end of your more than enough qualifications to access a teacher training course uh at postgraduate level.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

No, but what I was gonna say was we're going to do another episode on all of that

Real Routes Into Teaching

SPEAKER_02 15:20

sort of stuff. Absolutely, which would be great. But that I mean there are loads of routes into teaching. It's a bit dizzying. I mean, you've got PGC, school direct, teach first, and of course bad luck. Yes. Um I don't which which route did you go down?

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Well, there's plenty more routes, so I'm just giving a few examples. Combination of the PGC and and and bad luck, I suppose. Um I no bad genuinely bad luck in my case, because I graduate I when I went to I went to university late anyway, I didn't go straight from school uh for various reasons and far too you know far too complex to go into now. But too deep and dark in the world. Too deep and pretty dark, actually, yeah. But I did uh so I I I went in to my degree in a in in what was a booming economy. You know, really was doing it was a good time to be a British graduate when I started my degree, and I graduated into an economy that was just absolutely just failing horribly. So all the opportunities I thought I was gonna get with my degree just did not exist. And a lot of the graduate recruitment schemes had had sort of dried up, particularly for someone who got what we like to refer to in the trade as the drinker's degree, yeah, or the two two. But teaching was still available. Now I didn't go straight into teaching, I didn't just have it wasn't a knee-jerk reaction. I spent a few years working in uh various jobs that were not satisfying in any way, and during that time came across former classmates, etc. who'd become teachers, and it seemed more interesting than what I was doing. And then there was obviously the TDA adverts that I'd uh sort of referred to.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Well, yeah, and they you had the the doe-eyed students looking up at these godlike teachers, didn't you? Imparting their incredible inspirational knowledge. And I'm sure I know, I'm not just sure, I know there are lots of teachers like that, but uh I think it'd be fair to say not all of them are like that. No, no. Uh but it inspired you, didn't it? W I remember again at that time, there were two main routes. I did a four-year, what was called BA On's Ed uh degree, which prior to that was known as the Bachelor of Education. Now that doesn't seem to exist any longer. But that was a four-year course where you did teacher training for the four years alongside your university study. So it was a very practical course with lots and lots of teaching badges throughout four years, or you did a PGC. There wasn't all these other things like you know, school direct teach first. I mean, teach first sounds less like a training programme and more like a threat, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Certainly, I mean I well I I want to be clear, we've we work with a lot of teach first colleagues, and some of them have been people who genuinely want to be teach first. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

And and they although the ones that if I may say slightly irritate are the ones who say, I I just want to give something back. Well, it's normally one year and then they go off and do something else.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

And and we've met plenty of those as well who Yeah, they didn't want to and that's I suppose if it brings people into the profession who then stay, it's fine, and maybe we've got to take the hit of some people not wanting to and using it as a Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

I don't like it when it's virtue signalling. And there are younger people who do that course as well, who do genuinely get inspired by the whole process of teaching and then go on and make a a massive contribution. But it's it's the the one-year wonders that I think starts.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

I mean I suppose you could say there are there are people who who for whom it was genuinely a vocation who you joined the profession and then realise everything they thought about it wasn't true.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

I mean somebody here online has said something not particularly favourable about school direct, and I'm I know they've just said, fantastic route if you like your emotional breakdowns to be work-based and immediate.

unknown 18:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Well, I I think you could say the same with certainly my experience of the PGC was possibly a bit unfair. It wasn't dissimilar. I I would say, and I think it was said to me before I started the PGC, this will be the hardest and one of the most miserable years of your life.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

And it and they weren't lying. Yeah, nobody's ever tried to oversell a PGC, have they?

SPEAKER_00 19:13

It was absolutely dreadful.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

They always say it's gonna be dreadful.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

I was told it'd be dreadful, and it was dreadful, and it was awful, and it nearly did for me. And actually, as much as we made fun of that supply agency a couple of weeks back, it was supply teaching that kept me in the profession because I sort of I finished, you know, I was kind of like I got through the PGC with the with this sort of I I've started this, so I'll finish it

PGCE Misery And Supply Redemption

SPEAKER_00 19:35

kind of attitude. I'm not gonna just not finish it, but then I'm not gonna be a teacher because I hated every second of the PGC, and then I became a supply teacher because I thought, well, I've got the qualification, I might as well do a little bit of supply work while I work out what I really want to do. And then that's completely different. And actually, without someone in the back of the class judging me every five seconds, it turns out I was alright at it and I quite enjoyed it. And then people told me, actually, you're quite good at this. Can you will you stay? And I started getting offers of permanent contracts through doing supply work. So and then one thing led to another, and you know, I'm sat opposite you.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

I was getting a bit doe-eyed there, thinking, you know, what a wonderful insight into your life that was.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Wasn't it? Yeah, but I mean, I I think there are a lot of really good teachers, and I'm not counting myself amongst them. I mean you shouldn't. It's not for me to say. I spoke to your year 11 class the other day. Yeah, and they they like you, they do like you, they do like you. But yes, I wouldn't claim to be a great teacher, and I think anyone who claims to be a great teacher probably isn't one. I think that's something you have to be that's some so other people have to make that judgment of you. But I would say that I've a lot of the TP people I consider to be great teachers are people who didn't necessarily come into it for vocational reasons. Maybe like me came into it for sort of the wrong reasons initially, and just actually quite like it. But maybe it was so wrong it was right.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Well, yes, it's exactly that. Reminds me of um a remixed Bon Jovi album I have, which is called This Far Left Is So Right, or something like that. It's awful, awful title of it. I mean, I was a bit of a Bon Jovi fan in my uh it's got a sort of different acoustic version of Dead or Alive if you're interested, on there. Um A loaded six string on my back.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Did see him in the old um what we used to refer to as the Arms Park in Cardiff. It wasn't the Arms Park, was it was just the national stadium. The arms park still exists, it's the it's the small stadium next to it. But I saw that first ever live music event I went to as a teenager. Straight after my GCCs, a day after I completed my GCCs, Bon Jovi and Cardiff.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

He does like a white microphone stand as well, a bit like old Rod Stewart, but I think that's the way the similarity ends. But anyway, uh enough of um 70s and 80s rock. Can we ever get enough of that? No, probably

Public Reactions And School Reality

SPEAKER_02 21:47

not. But teaching is also the only profession, really, where people have an immediate guttural reaction when you say you're a teacher, don't they? They they say, Oh, couldn't do your job. And then they immediately tell you how to do it. They couldn't couldn't do it, but here's some advice while you're there. You always then immediately get their view of whether they liked or hated school, and there's nothing in between. Was there? There was nothing in between. No, absolutely not. Loved it or hated it. Want to go back. On that note, I hated it, by the way. Hated every second of it. I found it a bit of an endurance, but there were certain subjects that saved the day as far as I was concerned.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Possibly underneath all of the kind of oh I didn't really want to do it kind of attitude that I pretend to have. Possibly I did want to do it, but mainly because I wanted to change the system from within. And I think there's a lot of people like that, and then we probably all sell out a little bit, don't we? And just kind of go along with the existing system to a large extent. But absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

And again, I'm looking back at this fascinating uh list from getting to teach and you know, check your qualifications, okay. Tick, done that. Understand the funding. I don't know why you need to understand the funding from all the other routes. You'd only need to understand the funding for the three routes you were going down. Anyway, consider getting experience beforehand. I would say most people don't do that. No. So that that advice probably ought to be in bold.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Well we've all got experience of going to school.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

Yeah, and well, some people think that is all the experience they need. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

It isn't. It's nothing like it's nothing like going to school, is it? When I applied to do the PGC, they said you must get some experience of uh uh like do a week's work experience in a school. So I did it, but actually no one checked that I did it. Uh and they just let me onto the course anyway.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

And your PGC uh was all about reflection, wasn't it? Usually uh in the car crying beforehand or do you have not got you down as a crier?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Um I didn't cry, but also I didn't have a car, which is quite actually difficult. They they need to tell you that when you start your training. Yeah, that you're going to need to. How will you get to your placements? Because they won't make any allowances for the fact that you don't have a car. They will put you somewhere that's impossible to get to.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

But don't forget, there's no advice or guidance between points six and

Placement Travel Chaos Story

SPEAKER_02 23:57

seven. Starting your teacher training course and then applying for a teaching role.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Yeah, um, I used to have to get a lift with uh when I did my first placement when I didn't have a car, uh, uh it was killing me getting getting up, I was getting up ridiculously early in the morning to arrive late for my place. Like I was doing a almost a two-hour journey, and I would have got up earlier to be on time, but the earliest train I could get got me there 15 minutes late. And I'd get these recriminating comments from my uh mentor, you know, why aren't you on time? Well, I physically can't get here on time, they've put me somewhere where I can't get here on time. So she said, Well, there's look, there's someone who lives across the road from you who works here, they'll give you a lift. Now, I thought that's great, brilliant. But what I didn't realise at the time was she hadn't asked that person. Oh gosh. Oh no, you didn't have the silent drives in, did you? So I I well, it was worse. So what happened is I went to ask this uh design tech teacher if she would give me a lift in, and she said she looked at me like I was that you were at best an irritation. Well, she just looked really put out by the request. It turns out, so she drove a Ford KA, the original Ford KA model, and they weren't the biggest of cars, and so fine for me and her to get in, but of course, we also had to accommodate the head of science, who was her live-in boyfriend. And he up to the point where I arrived on the scene, he'd been driving them in in his car, which was a two-seater sports car. So this this couple were fairly put out to have to go in the KA and uh and accommodate me.

Take Homes And Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 25:27

So, Ben, having gone through that uh that list of uh steps into teaching, uh what's your take home this week?

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Well, I suppose my take home is the official route into teaching is graduate, train, qualify, but the emotional route is uh more about hope, panic, and caffeine, I should say.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

And my take, I think, uh is if you remember what your qualifications are, and you're able to follow eight steps that include starting the thing you applied for, then you just might have what it takes to become a teacher.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Yeah, or in my case, I didn't so much go into teaching as fail to leave the building after work experience. Well done. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

But if you are listening to this and you're about to start the journey into teaching, uh then good luck with that. If, like me and Ben, you completed that journey years ago, and ever since you've been experiencing an egg an existential crisis, then maybe tune in next week so we can simultaneously empathize with you and rub more salt into the wound.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Look, guys, whatever happens, yeah, it's a great profession. Teaching is amazing. I mean, where else can a person with a master's degree or possibly even a PhD be defeated by a twelve year old making farting noises?

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Every time.

unknown 26:46

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Bye bye.