PK Education Newsletter- April 2025
Easter Treats from PK Education
After all that weather talk in the last newsletter, it looks like we manifested some lovely sunny days and for once, they were during the school holidays!
Hopefully you’ve had the chance to dose up in vitamin D and you’re ready to smash through the final term.
Find Your Happy Place – Start Now for September Opportunities
For those who might be thinking of a job change, now is the time to be thinking about plans for September. If you’re looking for a new long-term position, or know someone who is, we’re here to link you up with the perfect role. If you spend your Sunday nights considering whether to open up a cat sanctuary in the Outer Hebrides, a change is probably overdue!
At PK Education, we are on a drive to help more people find their happy place, in a school and role that will make Sunday blues a distant memory. If you refer a friend who isn’t already registered with PK, we’ll send you a £100 Amazon to spend on whatever you want.
PK’s 20th Birthday Celebrations
I know we don’t look nearly old enough to have 20 years under our belts, but we just celebrated PK Education’s 20th birthday! If you’re wondering what the secret to looking the same after all these years, it’s partly down to the reluctance to update our mid-2000’s fashion sense and hair styles. It’s worked for Liam Gallagher, anyway!
What a fantastic 20 years it has been, we’ve worked with so many amazing candidates and schools along the way. What started as a pipe dream has led us to doing our bit towards improving the education sector, year after year.
As you can imagine, we celebrated with our own version of Champagne Supernova, which was much tamer than any Oasis party but fun all the same.
April’s Best Teacher Discounts
We’ve spotted a few great discounts this month, with thoughts turning to enjoying the summer.
Discounts for Teachers – If (like us) you need to upgrade your summer wardrobe, you can save money with up to 22% discount at Dorothy Perkins, Coast, Oasis, Warehouse and up to 20% off at Levi’s and Crew Clothing Company.
Blue Lights Card – Plan some exciting summer days out with discounts at Alton Towers, Drayton Manor, Thorpe Park and Cadburys World. Just what you will need after the rollercoaster of a year in the teaching profession! Discounts vary depending on the time of year.
Teaching News
Some great news that caught our attention is Labour’s plans to make it easier for teachers to work from home. As reported in the Independent and various other publications, Education secretary Bridget Phillipson will be asking headteachers to make it easier for teachers to work from home for lesson planning and marking. The plans aim to provide more flexibility to help recruitment and to retain more teachers.
We’ve already spoken to several schools who have started piloting this by providing primary teachers with free periods to work from home for half or full days. Secondary teachers with free periods in their timetable have been able to work from home when free periods are at the start or beginning of the day. Hopefully, this will be the start of some very positive steps towards a better work life balance for teachers.
Teacher Shortcuts and Tech Tips
Visualiser – If you haven’t jumped on the Visualiser train yet, you’re missing out. Teaching has come a long way from using a blackboard and chalk, and a visualiser is an essential tool in every classroom. It is basically a modern overhead projector that helps teachers to share a resource, drawing, notes or anything else they want to visually share with the class. They have been around for a while, but the newer ones are pretty flashy. And very useful for engaging with students too, of course!
Recommended Resources
TeachMeet webinars from Twinkl – Join webinars that cover pretty much every aspect of teaching. To give you a flavour, some of the upcoming webinars are:
- Making handwriting and SPaG engaging for all
- Secondary exam preparation (various subjects)
- Using PE to support inclusion and holistic development.
Podcast Picks
If you‘re looking for a good education podcast to help squeeze some knowledge and personal development in while you’re multi-tasking, these are some highly rated ones:
Thinking Deeply About Primary Education – Great tips from education specialists talking about topics like planning summative lessons and how to communicate with parents.
Mr Barton Maths podcast – Not the mostenticing title butit’s a much-raved about podcast – and we know it takes a lot to get Maths teachers excited about something J
And if you want to switch off from work completely and listen to a podcast that will lift your spirits after a day filled with challenging rogues, here are some of the best comedy podcasts to turn to:
Off Menu – Ed Gamble and James Acaster welcome interesting celebrities to talk about their favourite meals in their dream restaurants but the topics are less about food and more about hilarious stories.
How was it for you? – Comedy power couple Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke deliver A- grade humour in their very unique ways.
This Month’s Trivia
Last month we had an Easter themed anagram to solve. Did you get it?
TOOLHYCACE – CHOCOLATEY
Here’s a little brainteaser for this month:
I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old, what am I?
Thanks for taking the time to read our newsletter and don’t forget about our £100 Amazon voucher for recommending new candidates looking for a new job.
We hope you have an amazing Easter, whether it involves copious amounts of chocolate, a sunny break or simply recharging at home.
PK Education
