I’m not a teacher, but I have a child in a state secondary school and I spent years as a secondary school governor, and every single line in Ryan Wilson’s book rang true for me. I laughed out loud reading Let That Be A Lesson, but it also renewed my anger: that dedicated teachers are valued so little by the educational system; that, like Wilson, they swiftly leave the profession; and that the education system still fails so many students.

Such a funny read about teaching, thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend this, A must read!

This book is a winner for anyone who has worked with children and young people - it is honest, endearing and funny!

This is a series of witty and moving anecdotes about teacher training and life as a qualified teacher.

The book provides great insight into the career and into the current state of the education system in the UK. As you might expect, the stories about the children and about Ryan Wilson’s colleagues are lovely, funny and entertaining, whereas the bigger picture of targets, assessments and related bureaucracy is more disheartening.

Yes, this is another memoir from a key worker who passionately loves their job, but gradually slides into burnout due to corporate and/or governmental policies that make it unworkable on the front line.

Honest, emotional and sadness/anger-inducing beneath the humour, this account of teaching highlights how passionate teachers are about educating our children, and how hard the system makes it for them to do this effectively.

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

Let That Be a Lesson A Teacher’s Life in the Classroom, is a look inside a teacher's minds at what life is like in the classroom trying to teach our precious little darlings. A wonderful and humorous read that will make you appreciate all that teachers do.

I've always imagined that if I'd been born 20-30 years earlier - a time when opportunities for women in business were very limited - I might well have become a teacher. 40-50 years earlier, maybe a governess to a ridiculously wealthy family in India (I always had the travel bug). What I realise now is that I really wouldn't have made a wise decision. I don't much like children and I have a massive sense of rejection towards stupid pointless rules and procedures - and schools have them in buckets.

Ryan Wilson ALWAYS wanted to be a teacher. He got a blackboard and some chalks at 8 years old and taught his toys. Seriously? I guess it happens. Some people have a major drive to become doctors or nurses. I guess that's not so different.

Ryan takes us through his career as a teacher in several schools. We get a no holds barred account of just how horrible children can be, as well as how they can make you feel like it was all worth while with just a throwaway comment about a book they loved.

What I liked? - a lot of the anecdotes are really quite brief. He doesn't over-egg his stories.

What I didn't like? - he spends a lot of time trying to decide whether to come out as gay and when he eventually does, it appears to be more theoretical than actual. And true as his stories may be, the friends and co-workers getting cancer stories go well against national averages. It's nice to play tribute to people you loved and cared about, but I bristle at the idea that anybody with advanced cancer decides the place to spend their precious remaining time is in front of a class of gobby teenagers.

An interesting insight into life as a teacher including the positives of influencing the students and the negatives of the pressures from ofsted.

Easy to read, amusing. This is a book that is ideal for when you're wanting something to read that you can just want something light and entertaining.

Insightful, funny and occasionally heartbreaking. Ryan Wilson obviously loves teaching. Every word of this book screams that he went into it for all the right reasons. But government interference has eroded this over time. As a parent I caught on early Ofsted is evil (no exaggeration). I was ready to put my daughter into somewhere they rated as 'excellent' but found on my visit that this just meant they were good at admin. A more soulless place you could not imagine. So then I looked for a school where the kids and teachers looked happy. Was it rated excellent? Not by Ofsted but the parents and kids loved it. Because the teachers loved teaching. So whilst this book made me laugh out loud loads it also broke my heart to read how that love can be eroded by bureaucracy.

If you think teachers are in it for the holidays and alleged early finishes please read this. As well as giving you a good giggle it will open your eyes.

I love reading memoirs from people doing jobs that I can't imagine doing and Wilson's fond and funny look at teaching ticked all of my boxes.
This does for teaching what Adam Kay did for Junior Doctors and is a horrible warning of how teachers become overwhelmed by box ticking/random assessments and no longer connect with the pupils in a free way.
The behaviour teachers face from pupils and their parents was just as shocking.

What a very nice change after a continual stream of murder mystery books. A newly graduated English student takes up his post as an English teacher. The book is very well written and very humorous and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I hadn’t appreciated however, just how much modern day teachers are monitored so much by the system. Well worth reading.

Whether you're a teacher yourself, considering a career in teaching or have ever went to school in the UK, I have a feeling that you will get a lot out of this book.
If you enjoyed Adam Kay's books on being a junior doctor, this takes a similar look at being a teacher in the UK.
It wasn't quite packed with the funny anecdotes that the blurb and cover promises, instead also tackling issues with much more depth. But that's not to say that I didn't enjoy it, I did.
The short, snappy chapters also made it really quick and easy to read.
In addition, it's written well and truly encapsulates the highs and lows of such a career.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love reading anecdotal stories and I enjoyed this one. However, I felt that some stories were unfinished. Overall an interesting read.

I'm sorry but MY GOD this was so boring!

If you're after a book that's full of unfinished anecdotes , stories that either make no sense or dont link together than crack on!

It's like reading the memoir of your bumbling uncle that everyone pretends to understand and laugh at.

Having been a secondary school teacher for ten years, this book immediately appealed to me. Coincidentally, the author and teacher Ryan Wilson started his training the same year I did so the whole process of the Postgraduate Certificate in Education was scarily familiar.

He looks at teaching the way all teachers do, from the beginning of training and the challenges of both the workload and the students. He covers all the major issues including school trips, marking, reports and the dreaded data, parents' evenings and the joys of teaching Of Mice and Men. Wilson personalises the stories by including his own issues and the friendships he made with fellow colleagues that at times were quite moving.

The anecdotal format and short chapters makes this a book easy to slip in and out of, without any long-term investment. Light and insightful for those who don't know teaching, no surprises for those of us who do. Pleasant, easy to read.

As Christmas approaches I like to look beyond the crime/thriller and horror books I normally read and I enjoy some new voices, different subject matter and I like to share my thoughts on books which I feel would make great gifts.

Let That Be A Lesson by Ryan Wilson is a fun look at what a new teacher goes through as they first venture into schools and find themselves face to face with a room full of hormomal teenagers who just do not care what you have to say to them. Ryan was that teacher and this is his telling of how he found his place in the classrooms, the teachers he would lean upon for guidance and, of course, the kids under his care.

Having been in Ryan’s position (a trainee teacher hoping to get his students to engage) I was fascinated to see if Ryan’s experiences were anything like my own. Hat’s off to him – Ryan is clearly a far better teacher than I ever was and I really enjoyed watching his confidence grow through the book.

Let That Be A Lesson would be a great read for someone considering taking on teaching in the future as there will be more covered in this book than you could possibly hope to learn in any teacher training classroom. Trust me when I say every lesson discussed there goes smoothly! But Ryan Wilson will help readers understand that nothing ever goes quite to plan as kids are unpredictable and even more so when in a crowd.

But there are lessons to plan, meetings to attend, trips to supervise and colleagues to bond with. The staffroom doors are thrown open in this book and it does make for interesting reading. The book is written in an easy companiable style and mixes up some of Ryan’s own life with those of his school and colleagues. It wasn’t the compilation of funny anecdotes in the style of “Kids Do The Funniest Things” which had been sort of what I had originally been expecting. However, the depth of issues which are touched upon makes for a more interesting narrative than a collection of funnies.

This book was an informative and fascinating forray into what really goes on in Britain's classrooms. I enjoyed the annecdotes of "behind the scenes" life, as a student its interesting to know what happens when teachers arent in the classroom.

A really great view into the world of teaching. Some really funny moments but also gave a brilliant insight into the struggles and pressure that teachers face. Highly recommended.

What a book. I've always respected teachers but this just made my admiration deeper for them. They REALLY work hard and I do not envy what they do.

Such a great book to read, especially for educating those who maybe don't understand how wonderful they are.

Fun, engaging and a perfect read

I really enjoyed this memoir and ode to the vocation of teaching. So much resonated with me as a teacher myself, albeit at primary level and in a different country. Wilson tells anecdotes with humour, relays personal stories with poignancy and has some strong words for the policy makers. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.