PK Education Newsletter- March 2025
PK’s Countdown to Easter Newsletter
Have you been enjoying the tropical weather? Well, that one fleeting weekend when you didn’t need to wear thermals, jumper and winter coat! Brighter days and less rain, we’ll take that, and it gives us a bit of hope that we’re leaving the gloomy winter behind.
Anyway, we’ll drop the weather report and move onto the much more exciting topics in the world of teaching.
Before we delve into it, we wanted to say thanks for everyone who played recruitment cupid by sending some perfect matches over to us. We can confidently say that we’ve found some long and meaningful relationships due to your help. Remember, we’re always looking for teaching professionals and when you refer a friend – you’ll get £100!
Without further a dew (couldn’t resist a weather related pun, sorry), here’s the latest news from the teaching industry, some discounts and professional recommendations we think you’ll find useful – all wrapped up in our usual cheery/goofy humour.
Teacher Discounts of the Month
Along with the Blue Light Card and Discounts for Teachers, teacherperks.co.uk offers some great deals. For example, you can get 20% off food at TGI Fridays Sunday to Friday. All you need to do is enter your work email and you’ll get sent a QR code to use when paying. A restaurant called Thank God Its Friday was clearly thinking about teachers when it choose its name.
The website also offers 10% off at Nuffield Health gyms and up to 30% off at Hilton Hotels, plus some other decent discounts.
Discounts for Teachers has some new offers this month, including up to 50% of at Laser Clinics on skincare and cosmetic treatments. You can also get all your Easter goodies at Hotel Chocolat with a 10% discount.
If you’re dreaming about how you’ll spend your Easter or summer holidays, you might be interested in £50 off at holidaycottages.co.uk or up to 12% off at Parkdean Resorts.
Teacher Shortcuts
Without sounding like we’ve copied someone else’s homework; we stumbled across an online discussion where teachers were raving about some amazing new shortcuts they have found. When we say raving, Sharon (fictional name to protect identity) was so overcome with excitement she forgot to post pictures of her dog on Facebook for a whole 3 hours!
These are the shortcuts/tools that got them into an online frenzy:
Notebook LM
Ever wondered how you could turn revision notes into an engaging podcast? Probably not, but while you’ve been busy teaching the next generation, some clever innovator has designed exactly this! Notebook LM can take revision notes and create study guides and podcasts – which we think students cramming for exams could really benefit from.
invideo AI
Struggling to stop students from yawning when teaching a bit of a dull topic? Bring the topic to life by creating your very own video with engaging graphics, tailored to the content you want it to cover. You don’t need a video production team, just the handy little invideo AI tool.
Free Online Courses
If all this talk about AI is making you feel a bit nervous, you’re not alone. It’s okay to be a bit worried about robots taking over the world but don’t be the last person to get on the AI train. You don’t want to arrive at your destination five years too late.
The guys at Raspberry Pi have developed a great free online course that aims at giving teachers a practical understanding of the crossover between AI tools and education.
Classroom management can be a teacher’s biggest downfall. Maybe you’re a supply teacher who doesn’t have the time to build up teacher-student relationships
or you’re newly qualified – or maybe you just happen to have the class sent from the devil! Brushing up on some classroom management techniques can help overcome your demons.
The learning platform Alison has some really good free online courses that might give you some new tactics.
Education News
Teacher Pay
If you’re feeling a bit disillusioned in teaching at the moment, you could be pleased to hear that the National Foundation for Education Research has recommended that teacher pay rises by over 3% over the next year and by more than 6% from 2026-27.
Teacher Vacancies at Record High
NFER has also shared the news that teacher vacancies are at a record high, attributing worsening pupil behaviour, stagnant pay and inflexible working practices as the main reasons. While this probably won’t be surprising news to the teachers currently in the trenches, this really highlights that there’s a mass exodus and why it is important to find a school and role that is most suited to you.
So many teachers are walking away from a profession they loved before trying a new environment. Other solutions like working as a supply teacher or changing schools could be a different route to take. If you’re thinking about leaving the industry, we’d love to share with some of our success stories where we’ve helped people in this position make a much-needed change with a very positive outcome. Get in touch for a chat and we can hopefully help you out.
Supervised Toothbrushing
An announcement that we found a bit strange was that local authorities are being given £11 million to train teachers to lead supervised toothbrushing in Reception classes. We know dental hygiene is no joke but still, what else will come under a teacher’s endless remit? Hair brushing?
This Month’s Trivia
We’re heading into the Easter holiday countdown with an Easter themed puzzle this month. Can you work out what the Easter related anagram is?
TOOLHYCACE
Did you get last one right? – What word looks the same upside down and backwards?
The answer was NOON.
That’s all for this month, apart from a quick reminder to check our vacancies because that perfect role could be there waiting for you.
Have a great month!
PK Education
