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"As former teachers, this is the partnership we've been waiting for!"

At PlanBee, everything we do is driven by two aims: to improve teaching and learning in schools and to make teachers' lives easier. That's why we're proud to partner with KCS — the first collaboration in our 11-year history.

I'm a former primary school teacher and now a manager and resource creator for PlanBee. To help explain what PlanBee is all about, and why we're excited to be working with KCS, I'd like to tell you a little bit about my teaching journey.

How to continue your professional development during COVID

Early Years EYFS Nurseries Personal Development CPD

COVID has not only changed the way our settings and schools are run, but it has also impacted on the way practitioners and teachers are learning. Professional development opportunities have become fewer and fewer in recent years due to stagnant funding rates, however, COVID has impacted on this further.

Covid – Round Two

Education Hygiene PPE Teachers Safety Schools

We were all bombarded with advice and directives on how we would bring our students back in these uncertain times and each school interpreted them in their own style.

Primary schools benefited from the ability to create ‘bubbles’ for their year groups, often having staggered drop off, pickups and break and lunch times.

How to create a calm environment for improved learning, wellbeing, and behaviour.

Early Years EYFS Open Ended Play Home Learning Home Schooling Emotional Development Early Years Resources Enviroment Enrichment

There has been much discussion and debate over the years about the effect of brightly coloured environments on children (and adults) – and how ill-considered use of colour may have quite the impact on our feelings and mood, and children’s learning and behaviour.

Covid – Round Two

Early Years EYFS Mental Health PPE Safety Early Years Resources

As children have returned for the autumn term, their incredible resilience and adaptability has been greatly observed by many.

Even though risk assessments have meant a very different start to the school year, children are adjusting remarkably well - whether settling into routines, establishing friendships or building relationships with their assigned Key Person.

Will Snow Days Ever be the Same?

Education Primary Secondary Teaching Remote Working Schools Education Resources Snow Day E-Learning

We all know that feeling, when winter has arrived and the weather has taken a turn for the worse. ‘Will it snow?’, we all ask ourselves. ‘Will we be snowed in?’ Students get excited that they have an impromptu day off, and staff are thinking they have time to do planning, relax a little, take a breath.

Snow Days: What's the Future?

Remote Working Home Schooling Technology Snow Day E-Learning School Closure

Covid-19 has forced schools and pupils to be inventive in using technology. Could e-learning and homeschooling consign ‘snow days’ to the past – and should they?

Living in the Time of COVID – The Wellbeing of Staff

Early Years EYFS Education Pre-School Early Years Resources

We’re living in a time of increased anxiety, with many factors impacting on the personal and professional lives of the Early Years workforce. Some are still furloughed, others have been working in key group bubbles throughout, some teaching online and others will be back for the first time in September.

Now that we look to return to some sort of normality in Early Years, at least in the terms of the number of children attending, it’s important to ensure the wellbeing of staff.

Financial Education: Time to Get it Right

Education Teachers Education Resources Higher Education Secondary Schools

Delivering quality financial education could save millions of pounds of future debt and avoid heaps of misery.

Financial Education has been in the National Curriculum since 2014. However, as there are no specialist ‘financial education’ teachers in schools, delivery is piecemeal and teachers don’t feel qualified or even prepared to do the job.

Why does it matter that schools get it right?

Moving forwards - The landscape of Early Years Following the Coronavirus Pandemic

Early Years EYFS Nurseries PPE Early Years Resources

What a year it’s been! No one could have predicted the bizarreness this year has brought – school and setting closures, ‘bubbles’ of children, furloughed staff, Zoom teaching and singing Happy Birthday whilst washing our hands. You couldn’t have made it up! However, we’ve now had to accept that we’re not moving on from life after COVID, but making preparations to live with it, at least for the foreseeable future.