Two Mr Ps in a Podcast – Lee Parkinson, aka Mr P ICT, and brother Adam on their teaching podcast
Teach Primary speaks to the brothers about their smash-hit podcast, Two Mr Ps in a Podcast…
- by Teachwire
What’s the podcast about?
Lee: Two Mr Ps in a Podcast features me and my brother Adam. We’re both educators working in primary schools and it’s a light-hearted look at life in the classroom. It’s an educational podcast where you don’t really learn anything!
Adam: Speak for yourself, I learn something new every episode!
Lee: Generally speaking, we focus on the weird and wonderful world of primary school life and universal experiences we can all relate to. We share stories and have regular features like teacher confessions. We’re on a mission to prove that teachers are actually human and have a wicked sense of humour.
Adam: We came up with the idea three years ago on a family holiday to Florida while we were sharing funny stories from school. Three years later we’ve had over two million listens and have performed sold-out live shows – it’s been amazing.
How do you find the time?
Lee: Before Covid we recorded episodes fortnightly, but during lockdown we started doing them weekly to keep ourselves sane.
Adam: We don’t see it as work – it’s more of a hobby. Lockdown was a tough time for everyone, especially school staff. The podcast was able to create a little bit of escapism for teachers – a welcome distraction from the struggles they were going through. It helped them realise that they weren’t alone. We recognised the extra pressure people were under and people seemed to appreciate the honest views we shared. It really helped us too.
Lee: We couldn’t believe how the community grew during lockdown. Our Facebook group numbers just went up and up. We did a live episode just before the summer holidays and sold 1,000 tickets! We got so many messages from teachers saying how much it was helping them, especially if they were isolating on their own.
Has it brought you closer?
Lee: No comment. Only joking! To share this podcast journey with my brother has been great.
Adam: I’m very grateful and appreciate all the hard work Lee does for education and the huge online profile he’s built over the last few years that we can now tap into.
Lee: Adam is easily one of the funniest people I know. I’m always exhausted after recording an episode from just laughing at him.
Which anecdotes stick out to you?
Lee: When it was announced that Reception would be one of the classes returning to school after lockdown, we asked people to share examples of why EYFS wouldn’t be able to social distance.
We had over 1,000 responses and spent so long laughing (and almost heaving) at some of the truly disgusting yet hilarious stories that were shared.
Do you have to be a teacher to enjoy the podcast?
Lee: It’s for anyone and everyone. After all, everyone went to school!
Adam: There’s a real nostalgic feeling to it. Lee and I are 90s kids and in our regular ‘flashback throwback’ feature we pick three of our favourite things from when we were younger and reminisce about them.
How can teachers get involved?
Lee: Have a listen, review us on Apple Podcasts and share it with your colleagues.
Adam: We’re planning a tour in 2021 too!
Find out more about the podcast here. Follow Lee on Twitter at @ict_mrp.
