This Is Your Own Time You’re Wasting: The SUNDAY TIMES bestseller from the hilarious teacher duo and podcast hosts, the Two Mr Ps

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I must add that after 15 minutes I still haven’t spoken a word to any of them – I’m a great believer in non-verbal communication.)" I personally went to a school much like St. Judes in Inner-city London in the mid 1980's - that school even then was not far from what St. Judes is now. I shudder to think what the children of those I went to school with are getting up to in class, when their parents (my then classmates) dealt drugs, carried knives, disrespected teachers, brutalised each other every day and lived on benefits - 30 years ago! The sad thing is, I recognise the cast. The same people disrupting every lesson, getting away with it over and over. The same kids on report all the time, it did sweet FA. The poor excuses for teachers and the ones who were good teachers but never actually got around to teaching us anything. I can think of two, maybe three teachers who always had control of the class. One of these was a maths teacher, I am terrible at maths but that year I had her, I actually learned things. Unfortunately I never had her again so my maths standards sunk shortly after. I also had Greg Davies from Inbetweeners fame as my Drama teacher, great comedian, bad teacher. Chalks descriptions of Drama reminded me of his lessons. Mr Chalk is saying: "Give these kids a chance, teach them what they need to know for life. Teach them to be on time. To be polite. Basic numeracy and literacy. Let them learn skilled professions and be proud of their work - don't teach them French when they are not fully literate in their native language. Don't hope they will go to University and study XYZ Studies to leave it with 60, 000 pounds worth of debt and no career options."

What better way to combat the feeling of wasting your life than to never have a second to breathe and relax, ever again? But the sooner you learn not to think in absolutes, the more of a leg up you’re giving yourself in being able to factor in all elements and find better solutions. 6) Quit procrastinating…I think teachers should be given more control over the children they teach. Discipline should be harsher. And there should be some sort of hell hole boarding school where they send the naughty kids.

As someone who has recently finished teacher training and is about to be unleashed into the English comprehensive system, this is a book I felt I had to read. And it was one I could heavily relate to - although I've had no experiences in schools quite like St. Jude's, it's amazing how many times I smiled or nodded knowingly, having either experienced something very similar or heard a story from someone else who had.

1) Ditch the comparisons

Whether you’re actually wasting your life and need a little nudge in the right direction, or the pressure of comparing your own journey to everyone who seems to be doing a hell of a lot better is getting to you, there’s always things you could do to improve. I’m going nowhere, I’ve achieved nothing” is either followed by curling up in bed and doing nothing or going absolutely crazy, like a squirrel that’s had 7 cups of coffee, and never letting yourself rest. Not even for a moment. What rankled with me as teacher, it is people like Frank, aka caricature curmudgeon, that it is people like him that have a very negative effect on a school. Rather than just a witty memoir to his teaching career, which he openly admits he is neither likes, nor is in for the long haul. It reads more like a cathartic mild venting of the spleen, which is fine if it has a something more to hold your attention, not just episodic moaning!

Similarly, the author accurately describes the sort of INSET training day that teachers everywhere have come to dread: the parachuting in of a so-called expert who has nothing interesting or relevant to say, but wastes a lot of time in the process. Your book certainly evoked lots of memories from my own time at Primary School so I think the reach of the book is pretty much everyone and who doesn’t love a few leaked secrets from the ‘other side’ that is the staffroom?!Ironically, punctuation is another issue for me. Paragraphs and sentences really need to have more than commas sometimes, to avoid the reader being puzzled when a train of thought seems to end abruptly, and having to reread passages until they make sense. Don't be afraid of colons and semicolons! Consider gratitude journaling a few things you’re grateful for each day, or set time aside to say these out loud (to yourself!) 3) Avoid moping around… I was so close to giving up on this book and was considering a one star review but it saved itself with the last two chapters where there is genuine insightful discussion of teaching during and post pandemic. This was interesting and engaging and had a different tone to the rest - how I wish it had all been like this! Yes, by all means, share stories from the classroom (I could tell a few of my own), but this reads like office gossip and I had trouble believing it. After 30 years of trying (I stress the trying) to run the UK education system like a private company, our idiot politicians have a produced a system that consistently fails those at the lower end of the social demographic. And the worst part is, it fails them by meaning to help them. Mr. Chalk is talking about social malaise and the deadly combination of New Liberalism and PC politics. Millennial references eg. 4 TV channels, overhead projectors, covering books, folding rulers, Parker pens - and loads more I’d forgotten about!

So much so that you start declining invitations because you feel like you’ll be judged, or you want to focus on things that might help get you somewhere at home (although you just end up wallowing in bed).This was a super fun book based on teaching primary school kids from the perspective of teachers! I adored the first book and when I saw there was a release for the second, I couldn’t wait! If you’re looking for a guaranteed hilarious and funny read, this is your book.