Teach Secondary Issue 14.7
ITALIAN BRAINROT Buckle up, folks – you’re about to read themost nonsensical passage of text that’s ever been printed in Teach Secondary ... ‘Italian Brainrot’ is the termthat young internet users are using to describe a cast of surreal,AI-generated cartoon characters that appear in short-form videos often narrated by an overexcited text-to-speech voice speaking Italian or, as the trend has gone global, Indonesian. Said characters include Tung Tung Tung Sahur – an anthropomorphised stick frequently shown carrying a club or baseball bat; the half-elephant, half-cactus Lirilarila; a simian tree with gargantuan feet known as Brr Brr Patapim; and amug of cappuccino grafted onto a ballerina’s body called Ballerina Cappuccina (obviously) – plusmany,manymore. A keyvector of IB’s spread has been the profile page ofTikTok user@noxaasht and its countless videos,many of which showdifferent characters largely standing and posing while the text-to-speech narration outlines backstory, describes an urban legend or just spews gibberish.The core ‘appeal’ of IB, though – if you can call it that – is how the cast has escaped containment and spread like wildfire across wider TikTok andYouTube, via a slew of yet moreAI videos showing themdropping their kids off at school, hanging out by the beach, at a funeral procession(!) and...yeah. At best, you could describe the daft vibes here as falling somewhere between Cocomelon and The Fast Show ’s Chanel 9 sketches (‘ Scorchio! ’ , ‘ A-theth-theth ChrisWaddle ’, etc.) Themore pessimistic among you will take one look at an IB video andwant to lie down in a darkened room. Thinkofanumber... ONE FOR THE WALL “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” Writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall, summarising the philosophy ofVoltaire in a 1906 biography Teach Secondary ’s digest of the latest goings-on in the profession... The newsletter What arewe talking about? ‘Sinking Feeling Schools Resource’ by the youth suicide prevention charity, Papyrus UK BEAT THE BUDGET The UNINFORMED teacher’s guide to… £600m Amount of government investment in a 3-year extension to the HolidayActivities and Food Programme, enabling LAs to support disadvantaged children during school holidays Source: DfE WHAT THEY SAID… “We’ve seen thempromise a lot and then not deliver. And what I say to Keir Starmer, Bridget Phillipson and the government is, ‘This is the last chance saloon for you. Get this wrong and you are out’.” Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, addressing a rally organised by parents protesting the government’s plans to reformSEND provision Who is it for? Y6 toY13 What’s on offer? PSHE lesson plans, PowerPoint slides and other printable materials to help schoolsmeet government guidance that suicide prevention should be covered in the classroomas of September 2026.The resource also includes an hour-long tutorial with a suicide prevention officer, but is only available to staff that have completed Papyrus UK’s ‘SPEAK’ or ‘ASIST’ training courses. Where is it available? papyrus-uk.org/ sinkingfeeling 70.5% of 16-year-old GCSE entrants in the 2025 cohort achieved grade 4 or above; 23% achieved a grade 7 or above 54% of parents state that they are struggling to afford school uniforms for their children Source: Survey by Park Christmas Savings of 3,500 parents to children aged 4 to 18 “This is that Skibidi thing, isn’t it?” DON’T SAY DO SAY “Hiiiii, seremnyaaaa” 06 teachwire.net/secondary
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