According to our recent survey, most parents are spending fewer than 3 hours a day on directed teaching time. That leaves a lot of extra time to fill in the day. Many parents are understandably concerned about the amount of screen time their children are getting, but how do you balance your own work commitments, their education and non-directed teaching time effectively without relying on screens? Perhaps you don’t have to. Screen time is not always the enemy; there are lots of ways you can give your child valuable learning opportunities whilst plonking them in front of a movie when yo ..read more

Playing is fun and everyone does it, probably more than they realise. We play to find out how something works, we play to unwind, we play to build connections with others.     Play fosters creativity, collaboration and problem-solving, all of which are important for good mental health. Playing is a fantastic way to develop relationships and resilience. It releases feel-good hormones, meaning it literally makes you feel good and lowers stress levels.     Teachers often gamify lessons to engage students and make the learning more memorable and accessible. It is much eas ..read more

Talking about illness and bereavement are incredibly challenging conversations to have. It can be tempting to try and shield children from difficult information, but they are likely to overhear conversations and pick up on emotions. Leaving children to join the dots themselves makes it highly likely they will become frightened and confused about the unknown. Where possible be honest with children in an age appropriate way.     Talk to children about what is happening and tell them if someone they know is unwell. Answer their questions as best you can. Talk about how you are feeling ..read more

Keeping children engaged during lockdown is the greatest challenge for parents, according to a new home school UK survey. Aside from juggling work commitments with home learning, UK parents' biggest challenge is getting their children to engage with the learning AT ALL, according to our home schooling UK survey. We asked a group of dedicated parent educators—all of whom have recently enrolled for free home learning resources from PlanBee—how they were getting on with teaching their children at home during the COVID-19 lockdown. One hundred and thirty parents from around the UK responded, and t ..read more

Talking about illness and bereavement are incredibly challenging conversations to have. It can be tempting to try and shield children from difficult information, but they are likely to overhear conversations and pick up on emotions. Leaving children to join the dots themselves makes it highly likely they will become frightened and confused about the unknown. Where possible be honest with children in an age appropriate way.     Talk to children about what is happening and tell them if someone they know is unwell. Answer their questions as best you can. Talk about how you are feeling ..read more

World Mental Health Week starts on 18th of May 2020. The theme for this year is kindness. While we are all socially distancing, acts of kindness now are maybe more important than ever. Think about how you are being kind to yourself and others and use the ten tips below to improve the mental health of your children. These tips are relevant whether we are in lockdown or not; see if you can use this time to develop good mental health practices that will serve you in the long haul.    10 practical ways to improve mental health for your children   Relationships are important. Create ..read more

These Olympic Facts for KS2 Children and Teachers are great for helping your class learn about the Olympics for themselves...and to help you brush up on your own Olympic knowledge! When did the Olympics start? The first official modern Olympic Games began on 6th April 1896. However, the history of the Olympics goes back much further than that! The very first Olympics were held more than 2,700 years ago in ancient Greece. The ancient Greeks loved sports, and a sporting festival was held every four years to honour the god Zeus. People came from all over Greece to watch and to take part. The anc ..read more

Choosing work to send home for parents to do with your class can be challenging. You need lessons that don’t require a lot of resources, that parents will be able to deliver easily and that children will enjoy and be engaged with. That’s where we come in! We’ve been through our vast library of lesson planning and picked out the lessons you can send home with a minimum of fuss while feeling confident each lesson contains valuable, purposeful learning.     How do I know which lessons are good to send home? We've gone through all our lessons and picked the ones we think would work best ..read more

Hi everybody - thank you for taking part in our English session all about the story of The Gingerbread Man. In case you missed it, here's the video: If you're new to our live home learning sessions on YouTube, you can find all of the previous sessions here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-5TUe4JYVqEuMMPvXFrTQ/videos?view=2&sort=dd&live_view=503&shelf_id=2 If you're interested in joining our little team of primary teachers for some upcoming sessions, please enrol here for more information and free home learning resources: https://discover.planbee.com/home-learning-enrolment Her ..read more

Hi everybody - thank you for taking part in our Art session all about Japanese anime/Manga art. In case you missed it, here's the video: If you're new to our live home learning sessions on YouTube, you can find all of the previous sessions here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-5TUe4JYVqEuMMPvXFrTQ/videos?view=2&sort=dd&live_view=503&shelf_id=2 If you're interested in joining our little team of primary teachers for some upcoming sessions, please enrol here for more information and free home learning resources: https://discover.planbee.com/home-learning-enrolment Here are some o ..read more