PK Education Newsletter- February 2025

Sent with Love from PK Education

If you weren’t showered with flowers, chocolates and cards on Valentine’s Day, don’t worry because we’ve got a newsletter packed with love this month.

It isn’t too late to book a trip to the cinema to watch the new Bridget Jones film (and potentially save money on tickets on cinema tickets, food and drinks with Discounts for Teachers).

Good news! – the glorious summer term is almost on the horizon, when PE teachers can spend their time playing outdoors in the nice weather and everybody else wonders how they are on the same pay scale.

Can You Help Us Find the Perfect Match?

This month we’re doing a bit of our own matchmaking and thankfully it doesn’t involve a teachers’ version of Love Island! We’re looking for our own perfect match – and we want your help to find someone who is a great match for PK Education!

We’re looking for teachers, cover supervisors and teaching assistants to join PK Education. If you know someone who is passionate (about education) and is looking for (a job they) love, please send them our details – you’ll also get a £100 voucher as a thank you for your matchmaking skills!

Volunteering for School Trips – a free holiday or an unnecessary hassle?

School trips are fantastic opportunities for students to try new experiences, visit new places and develop new skills. It is usually inevitable that you will get asked to plan or take part in one of these trips if you work in education but are they worth doing?

You’re not contractually obliged to participate on trips that are not part of the curriculum, but you may get a fully paid trip that you really enjoy. Organising or helping with school trips is also great to have on your CV, showing that you are dedicated to student development.

But there are a few potential downsides to consider before you volunteer to take a hoard of students on a trip. Obviously, you have a legal duty of care to students, and you will need to be on full alert throughout the trip. If you know that you will be with a group of well-behaved students going on a trip that interests you, it can be a really enjoyable experience, so it’s something to consider for your personal development.

New Time-Saving Resources

At PK Education, we love useful shortcuts to get things done faster and more efficiently. Last month we talked about how to use Canva to use professionally designed templates and to easily create your own graphics and videos.

These are some more of our favourites:

Twinkl Create

Twinkl Create offers a shortcut for designing worksheets, learning resources, posters and any other types of designs. It is free to use, and you can use Twinkl illustrations or ask the AI Image Generator to create an image for you. It’s just like having your own little robot with artistic skills.

BBC Bitesize Games

Are you looking for new ways to engage students with English, maths and science? BBC Bitesize has a library of fun games that will help students to focus and learn key elements of the curriculum. There are loads of videos for Key Stage 1, 2 and 3, covering most subjects.

How to Increase Student Participation in Class

Encouraging students to take part in class discussion can be like pulling teeth but it is an essential way to engage students and help them to develop communication skills. You also don’t want to be faced with an observation or Ofsted visit where your students look up at the ceiling to avoid answering questions!

Here are some tried and tested tips for increasing participation in lessons:

Create a positive environment

This can be the hardest part, as many students will fear being mocked by their peers for giving an incorrect answer. By making it clear that you will not tolerate this kind of behaviour and encouraging students with positive feedback, you can provide them with more confidence to participate.

Try small group discussions and varied activities

Many students will feel more comfortable having discussions in smaller groups rather than with the full class. Try a variety of activities including group work, discussion boards and lots of fun activities to take the pressure off students.

Use open ended questions and further questions to encourage deeper discussions

Try to use questions that will require detailed answers and if a brief answer is provided, use further questioning to get more details.

Talk to students about the importance of participation

Before you start, set out your expectations and explain why it is important for everybody to contribute. Explain that there will be no judgement. If there are students who tend to be reluctant to participate, speak to them away from the group to see if you can allay any fears they have.

This Month’s Trivia

If you spent your Christmas pondering the answer to last month’s festive trivia, you can finally move on:

What is the longest word in the English language that can be typed using only the top row of a QWERTY keyboard?

The answer is TYPEWRITER (apologies to any Gen Zers who never experienced life before laptops!)

This month we’re hoping to frustrate the life out of you with this tricky brainteaser:

What word looks the same upside down and backwards?

If you can’t work it out, we’ll let you know the answer next month. Or you can lose all your self-respect by using Google!

Hopefully this month’s newsletter restored your faith in love. That’s probably a bit of a stretch but don’t forget we need you to play professional cupid and hook us up with your most eligible teaching friends.

Ask them to download our app and swipe right to find their perfect job match with no ghosting or dodgy profile pictures!

Have a great month!

PK Education