Congratulations, fellow education specialists - we've made it to October half term! We're doing our bit for the Welsh lockdown and have fired up the remote recording gear to bring you our latest offering from our houses (so please accept our apologies for the odd glitch in the sound quality). Since we're at the half-time break in a very long and very strange term, we thought this would be another good time to model excellent practice by letting our hair down and putting something out that's a little lighter and looser than usual. As ever, Emma brings the substance, with a couple of book extracts and a tweet thread that muse on the nature of being a teacher. Tom brings us a blog, a heartwarming tweet about his previous life in the classroom, and the usual random news story with only the most tenuous link to education.

EPISODE NOTES UPDATE (09/08/21): Please note that since recording this episode, The Guardian has reported that future editions of Kate Clanchy’s book (listed below) may be updated to remove widely criticised descriptions of her former pupils. The article, written by Lucy Knight, is accessible here. The fierce debate regarding the reaction to Kate Clanchy's book has since played out via a number of media outlets, including at least one article in Clanchy's defence by one of her ex-pupils.

If you want to read any of the material from this episode, here are the links, in order of appearance:

Myatt, M. (2020) Should it stay or should it go? Available at: https://www.marymyatt.com/blog/should-it-stay-or-should-it-go (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Clanchy, K. (2019) Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. London: Picador

Saunders, G. (2020) This year I have a lively Y9 class... [Twitter] 2 October. Available at https://twitter.com/Saunders__G/status/1312164724209938432 (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Saunders, G. (2020) ...late night musings continued... [Twitter] 3 October. Available at https://twitter.com/Saunders__G/status/1312165642166960128 (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Garrigan, M (2020) This memory popped up on Facebook... [Twitter] 16 October. Available at https://twitter.com/mandiegarrigan/status/1317027878358425603 (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Franklin, A (2020) Swearing parrots removed from public view at popular Lincolnshire attraction. Available at https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshire-wildlife-park-swearing-parrots-4554933 (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Mackesy, C. (2019) The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. London: Ebury

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Recorded remotely on 21st October 2020