Reality TV stars have spilled all on the reality of returning to their jobs as teachers after the fame has died away.
Love Island winner Kai Fagan and The Traitors star Joe Scott have both returned to the classroom following their respective telly stints, and have admitted the reaction from their students has surprised them.
Kai was a 26-year-old PE teacher from Milton Keynes before he entered the Love Island villa in 2023, going on to win the ninth season of the ITV2 dating show.
Whilst he quit his secondary school job to appear on the show, he took on a new job at a different college a year after his TV appearance.
Kai has admitted he was ‘nervous’ and ‘so anxious’ on his first day back in the classroom and decided to address his telly fame with his teenage pupils head on.
‘My students were shocked, but I just addressed it straight away.,’ Kai explained to The Guardian, adding he invited them to ask questions ‘but then I also made it clear exactly what I expected from running the lessons, to not be disrespectful.’
Reality TV stars have spilled all on the reality of returning to their jobs as teachers after the fame has died away – Love Island 2023 winner Kai Fagan is back working as a PE teacher
Kai was a 26-year-old PE teacher from Milton Keynes before he entered the Love Island villa in 2023, going on to win the ninth season of the ITV2 dating show
Kai said his students quickly lost interest in their recognisable teacher and he has even said his time on TV has helped him gain more respect amongst the teens he teaches.
Whilst most of his Love Island co-stars have used the show as a springboard into Influencer careers, Kai has used his social media skills to help his pupils.
Explaining how he expands on his PE lessons, Kai said: ‘I’m a mᴀssive advocate for social media. So if they have a pᴀssion, how can they differentiate themselves? If you want to be a football analyst, why don’t you do some football analysis on TikTok?’
Like Kai, The Traitors star Joe Scott has said that his TV stint has only gained him more respect in his job as an English teacher in a Southampton secondary school.
Joe was on a training placement when he got the call about the smash hit show, and as per BBC rules he had to seek permission from his head teacher before saying yes.
Luckily his head was very supportive, but Joe was issued with a list of do’s and don’ts before he travelled up to the Scottish castle setting of the show during the summer holidays.
Joe also gave himself some rules including no swearing when the cameras were rolling as he pointed out: ‘I was mindful that I needed to act in a certain way because I knew my pupils would be watching.’
Like Kai, Joe was upfront with his students when the show aired in January, implementing a routine where he would allow the kids to ask questions at the start of the lesson, which worked out better than the ‘constant disruption’ of questions popping up during class.
Like Kai, The Traitors star Joe Scott has said that his TV stint has only gained him more respect in his job as an English teacher in a Southampton secondary school
Joe was on a training placement when he got the call about the smash hit show, and as per BBC rules he had to seek permission from his head teacher before saying yes
And he insisted his time on screen didn’t affect his ability to disclipline pupils. ‘If anything, I felt like they were even more invested than usual, I held their attention even more. It seemed to go to my advantage.’
Joe’s pupils also did their own Traitors-style detective work during lessons, he recalled, musing that their teacher would be unlikely to return to the classroom between filming and the show’s air date if he had scooped the prize money.
Kai did win the prize money from his show, but the £50,000 or the lure of a new career on Instagram wasn’t enough to make him ditch his career.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline in December Kai and his Love Island girlfriend Sanam explained why they both chose to return to their jobs as a social worker and PE teacher respectively.
‘I really enjoyed it and even before I went in the villa and was doing all the interviews and discussing my work I was always adamant that I really like teaching,’ Kai pointed out.
‘I wasn’t on the show for a career change. I was going on there for the experience and for the opportunity to meet somebody.
‘You come out and you have all these opportunities. The opportunities are still amazing. But what I really wanted to do is go back into education in some sort of capacity.
Kai won the prize money from his show, but the £50,000 or the lure of a new career on Instagram wasn’t enough to make him ditch his career
‘Working in education is something that made me happy going in – speaking to the students, helping and guiding them through their lives.
‘Having a direct impact and knowing that every single day you’re waking up and looking at somebody and thinking, I’m actually making a little bit of a difference here.
‘That’s what gets me up in the morning. That’s what makes me happy.’
While Kai was adamant he’d return to teaching, he admitted he was ‘anxious’ about getting back in the classroom after his students had watched him on the show.
He explained: ‘I was really scared at first because obviously when you go on a show as big as Love Island, everybody already has a perception of you.
‘You don’t really get an opportunity to make a first impression because everybody’s already got an impression. Luckily for me, the first impression that they already had of me was quite positive.
‘The students loved it. Now, I go to my classroom and the students, they don’t really talk to me about Love Island, they talk to me about my life.
‘They ask me about the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had and they’re really excited because now they’ve got access through me to things that they enjoy.’
