Hey Tappsters!
We had a hiccup with our notifications this week, but all’s (mostly) well now!
To keep the system safe, your notification might show up anytime between 3:30pm and 3:40pm. So if it’s running a bit late, don’t worry—it’s on its way!
Most of you are now back in school. If you have a whole staff inset, fingers crossed there are no unbearable ice breakers forced upon you!
For one lucky teacher, there’s a sweetener to make the return more exciting…
The August prize draw winner!
This month’s prize draw has a winner – the owner of prize ticket with the code: summer – sun – 476.
Be sure to check in your app to see if you have scooped the prize of the Ultimate Back to School Survival Kit.
If it wasn’t you this time, then keep your eyes peeled for a BRAND NEW prize draw coming soon…
Okay, on to results…
Back to school:🤩 or 😥
As lovely as a holiday can be, returning to school can be exciting too: seeing colleagues, the lure of stationery or perhaps a brand new school.
But which teachers are the MOST excited about going back?
Senior leaders and headteachers are most enthusiastic about returning. 49% agree they are looking forward to being back – 12% strongly so!
Classroom teachers are similarly enthusiastic, with 49% also agreeing, but a smaller number strongly agreeing (7%).
Unfortunately, Middle leaders feel a bit less enthusiastic about the new school term. While 45% are looking forward to it, they’re slightly less excited compared to classroom teachers or senior leaders. In fact, 30% of middle leaders admit they’re not looking forward to returning, which is a bit higher than the 27% of teachers and senior leaders who feel the same way. 😢.
Newer teachers are brimming with enthusiasm for Autumn Term 2024! Those with less than five years of experience are particularly eager, with 57% looking forward to returning, compared to just 39% of teachers who have been in the profession for over 20 years.
Where are the MOST enthusiastic teachers?
To find those who are REALLY looking forward to welcoming back pupils, it’s worth asking colleagues (and yourself) how much you feel your teaching has improved.
It turns out that teachers who believe they’re a much better teacher now compared to last year are MUCH more likely to say they agree that they’re looking forward to the new term compared to teachers who believe they have got worse (63% vs 33%).
All of which suggests that the question of how you’re feeling about your teaching is a key one to ask. Senior and middle leaders take note!
[If you want to read more about teacher wellbeing, we have this Teacher Tapp special report for you to read!]
Boy girl boy girl
A key part of returning to school is re-writing seating plans (and remembering to shred your old ones!). Seating plans can be a useful behaviour management tool plus they are a good memory aid for learning names; but how do you decide who goes where?
Arranging pupils boy/girl happens more in secondaries compared to primaries (‘frequently or always’ – 28% vs 18%).
But when pupils are arranged in this way, who does it benefit? Apparently, not the girls, and attitudes have changed since we last asked way back in 2018…
There has been a small increase in the number believing no one benefits from gendered-seating arrangements (43% up from 38%) and an increase in those who feel boys benefit and it is less helpful to girls (23% up from 20%).
Over in the KS1 and EYFS classrooms, it’s less about seating plans, and more about what the pupils are sitting on!
‘Flexible seating’ is the term used to describe when children can choose what they sit on, which might be chairs, stools or bean bags.
In an ideal world, 40% of KS1/EYFS teachers want children to be able to use flexible seating wherever students are in the classroom, whereas 50% would prefer to stipulate chairs when children are sitting at tables.
This question was sent in by an EYFS teacher – if you have a question you would like to see in the app, do get in touch! You can do it directly through the app, or by emailing england@teachertapp.co.uk.
Teachers ❤️ teaching
Alongside teaching in the classroom, teachers could give themselves many other job titles (data analyst, content creator, lion tamer…) but given those different roles, what do teachers love to do most?
‘Teaching lesson’ comes out top for classroom teachers (71%) AND even senior leaders (41%)!
Although staff management is a significant part the senior leader role, just a small minority picked it as a favourite (16%).
And marking…no one picked marking 😢.
Would you enjoy speaking with parents or staff management more if you had more time or better training to do it? What do you think of this finding? Let us know over socials or via the app 🧑🏼💻📲.
Personalised curriculum
Last week we asked: “I believe that, in an ideal world, each student would have his or her own personal curriculum.” It’s a long-standing question that’s become more relevant with the introduction of AI.
When the results appeared on the app, some teachers on BlueSky asked to see the results in more detail.
However, results didn’t vary greatly between classroom teachers and leaders, nor did they change when we adjusted for primary or secondary.
Opinions DID diverge, however, when looking subject by subject.
Arts teachers (including D&T) were the most in favour of personalised curriculums with 65% agreeing they’d exist in an ideal world, compared to just 47% of humanities teachers. English teachers were also close to humanities teachers in their level of disagreement.
What do you make of the results? What does a ‘personalised curriculum’ look like to you?
Top events
We have a NEW top event this week, from The Day Classroom 2.0: AI In Education.
This is an online event – but we have a mixture of in-person, online and on-demand events in our app for you to peruse!
If you want to know what edu-events are coming up then check the app and filter for your phase and subject.
Ups and Downs
On the rise 📈
Teachers with mothers who went to university – Since 2018, there has been a rise in the number of teachers in their 20s whose mothers attended university (up to 9% from 6%).
Heading down 📉
The number of teachers selling resources – Teachers selling resources is on the decline, dropping from 6% in 2018, to 4% in 2024.
Daily Reads
This week our most-read blog was an EYFS special on continuous provision.
If you would like to read the rest you can find them here 👇
