And welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful, restful break, and are feeling refreshed and ready for spring.
There is light at the end of that winter tunnel, but while the days remain dark and cold, we’ve got plenty of advice, resources, and ideas for you to dig into.
One of the enduring talking points throughout the education sector, no matter the time of year, is budget. Last year was no different, and the government even announced a new programme to try and help schools get more bang for their buck.
The Maximising Value for Pupils scheme (MVP) launched in December, and claims to be a framework that will allow schools to band together to direct their budgets more efficiently. If the new year has brought with it plenty of questions around how to best organise your purchasing processes, and try and get more out of your budget, head over to page 33 to see our leadership special, all about the dos and don’ts of procurement.
For those looking to upgrade their classroom practice, the tool of the moment is of course AI. There are so many wonderful things that these LLM platforms can do, but they also come with their own set of pitfalls.
To learn how you can save yourself time in your planning, without falling into some of the more common AI traps, take a look at Anna Fannon’s breakdown of prompt-writing for teaching on page 38.
Another New Year tradition, of course, is healthy eating, so if you’re currently trying to get your five-a-day without descending into sticking your head in the biscuit tin by 3pm, why not try out Ellie Chettle Cully’s six-week French unit on tasting fruits and giving opinions? Educational and delicious. Check it out on page 20.
Thanks so much for reading, and remember, if you have resources you’d love to share, a burning question, or a request for particular teaching materials, drop me a line at charley.rogers@theteachco.com
Until next time,
Charley Rogers – Editor
@TeachPrimaryEd1 @charleytp.bsky.social
