Welcome to season 8 of the podcast! So…. You want to become a teacher? You’ve come to the right place. In the third iteration of this popular topic, we’re joined by our colleague Rhian Wyn Griffiths to talk about becoming a teacher. While we’re quite focused on how to come and be a teacher with us in Wales (after all, it’s what we know best), there’s plenty here that’s relevant to people elsewhere. So pour yourself a cuppa and settle down to hear us discuss why you’d want to do it, what the job is, what it ISN’T, how you can make sure you really know it’s what you want to do, and how you can prepare.

Rhian’s also got news of a brand-new programme here at Cardiff Met: The PGCE Secondary Route to QTS for School-Based Employees. Available to those currently employed in schools in Wales but without Qualified Teacher Status, this provides yet another route into one of the most exciting professions there is.

To find out more about our own programmes, you can look here.

The Educators Wales website is here.

Thanks to Rhian for joining us, and we’ll be back in a fortnight with more interesting things for your ears.

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Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 7th May 2025

One of our podcast traditions is to take a moment to reflect on the season that's just been (season 7) and get ready for the one that's about to land in your feeds (season 8)! After a hasty move across campus to avoid our power-tool wielding enemies, this episode was recorded in a temporary studio at the end of four straight days of recording. We've got plenty we're pleased with from the last year, and lots of interesting things lined up for your ears from 5th September onwards.

Emma's not going to be around quite so much next year, and indeed, this was her last recording session for about a year, though listeners will hear her for a good while yet because of the way our recording and release schedule works. When she elegantly fades out in a few months' time, our colleague (and friend of the podcast) Sian Wickersham will be keeping her seat warm. Sian is a primary specialist, and was formerly in a senior role at the Ark Schools multi-academy trust in England, so has plenty of interesting perspectives to bring.

Huge thanks to everyone who appeared on the podcast this year, our friends at Cardiff Met Sport Broadcast & Media who keep our regular studio ticking over, and to you for listening. We'll be back soon.

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Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 24th July 2025.

We’ve reached the end of another year of podcasting, and ready to give you all a summer break from our dulcet tones. To wrap up our seventh year in front of the microphones, we’re delighted to welcome back Richard West from Stanwell School. Richard’s here to contribute to our occasional series of episodes unpacking the nature of different subjects as they are experienced by pupils in the classroom. This time around, it’s the turn of physics: a subject with a fearsome reputation, a shortage of teachers and a whole host of myths that Richard’s keen to take on.

In the course of our in-depth discussion, Richard shares his passion for the subject, his pitch for why we should study it, a call for more physicists to consider teaching it, and plenty of interesting goodies to make us all think.

Thanks to Richard for giving up his Friday evening to record, and to you for sticking with us for another year of podcasting. We’ll be back (hopefully…) in September with version 3 of our So You Think You Want to be a Teacher episode. Join us then!

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Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 9th May 2025