Scroll to view the complete collection of our teacher blog posts. You’ll find posts on a range of topics, from updates on the latest Boomerang products to Growth Mindset tips. Enjoy! Take a look at all of our blog posts here.

Encouraging a healthy lifestyle for students

Our student planners contain a wealth of content to support a healthy lifestyle and mental wellbeing. We work to stimulate student interest and help to navigate them through their school year. We also assist in the meeting of Ofsted judgement criteria. Our student diary content is reviewed and refreshed each year to ensure it remains relevant and engaging for students.

The benefits of a healthy lifestyle on physical and mental wellbeing are well known.

That’s why it’s vital to encourage students to adopt a healthy lifestyle. This is something we cover in both our classic and secondary student planners – offering advice on eating well, exercise and healthy sleep.

How to eat well

In the ‘how to eat well’ section of the planners, we take a look at the types of food you should consume and in what balance.

A good balance is to aim for a 1/3 of your diet consisting of fruit and veg, preferably five portions a day. Another third can be made up of carbohydrates such as potatoes, pasta, rice and bread (wholegrain varieties of these, if possible). The remaining 1/3 should be made up of healthy fats (unsaturated oils and spreads), proteins (meat, eggs, beans, etc.), milk and dairy (cheese and yoghurt, etc.).

The planners also give advice on limiting consumption of food and drinks high in salt, sugar and fat. By explaining food labelling, students can more easily understand which foods are high in calories, saturated fats, salt and sugar and try to control their intake.

For example, the energy in a product is termed as ‘kJ’ and ‘kcal’ calories, while saturates is another word for saturated fat. Reference intakes (RI) are guidelines to show the amount of energy and nutrients needed for a healthy, balanced diet. The %RI will enable you to see how much of your daily healthy maximum is in a portion of that product.

The importance of regular exercise

Classic and secondary student planners also encourage students to include exercise throughout their week.

The planners recommend combining aerobic exercise with strength-building exercises. This is especially important for young adults as it helps to maintain a healthy heart rate and grow muscle and bone strength.

Moderate intensity exercises that raise your heart rate include activities such as cycling, walking, rollerblading, and skateboarding.

Strength-building exercises, including running, climbing, gymnastics, and team sports such as netball, football and rugby, can help to build strength. Playing tennis, squash and badminton are also good strength exercises.

Getting a good night’s sleep

A good sleep routine plays a vital role in a student’s mental wellbeing. When you’re studying, a lack of sleep can have a negative impact on your work.

It’s recommended that teenagers try to get a minimum of 8 to 9 hours sleep on a school night. To achieve this, try to avoid eating too much before bed. Caffeine can have a detrimental effect on sleep, and you should stop drinking coffee, tea and cola four hours before bed.

Taking regular exercise can aid your sleep pattern. Another tip is to avoid having electronic devices in the bedroom, as the light source from the screen can interfere with sleep. It also helps to try to have 30 minutes screen-free time before going to bed.

Support a healthy lifestyle for students with Boomerang Education student planners

If you’d like to know more about our planners, please get in touch on 01252 368 328

Or visit our website, where you can explore the diary content in digital format at https://boomeranged.co.uk/portfolio/secondary-design-school-planners/

Let’s get reading! It’s World Book Day on 2nd March 2023

World Book Day is an amazing initiative that aims to change lives through a love of books and reading.

This year, World Book Day is celebrated on 2 March 2023 and offers educators ideas and inspiration on how to encourage students to read for pleasure.

What is World Book Day?

World Book Day is designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. It’s marked in over 100 countries around the globe.

The purpose of the day is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. The World Book Day charity would like to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, form a lifelong habit of reading for pleasure.

It’s been proved that reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income – and brings improved life chances.

How to prepare for World Book Day

The World Book Day website provides everything needed to prepare for the day’s celebrations – in an educational setting and at home.

You can click here for packs aimed at nursery, primary and secondary educators, as well as family resources.

Fun resources include:

  • Activity sheets, lesson plans and discussion guides for nursery, primary and secondary educators.
  • Author and illustrator academy video lessons.
  • Free audiobooks.
  • Videos on YouTube, including stories for under 5s and masterclasses from authors and illustrators.
  • Reading recommendations for all ages.

This year’s World Book Day events include Early Years fun with BookTrust, sessions in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, participation in LIVE with BBC Teach, and holding the perfect assembly with World Book Day 2023 authors and illustrators.

Encouraging reading from a young age

Reading is a vital aspect of development, and we’ve used our student planners to help students broaden their mindset.

My Reading Records is a section in our primary student planner that encourages primary school students to make a note of the books they read. They can also rate them with our star system, awarding one to five stars.

The student planner is designed to guide students through the primary school year. It offers ideas for age-appropriate books to read. Selections from the recommended book list include A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll and Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild.

Spending just 10 minutes a day reading and sharing stories with children can make a crucial difference to their future success – and it’s fun for all involved.

Continuing the love of reading for pleasure

It’s essential that students don’t lose their love of reading when they make the transition from primary school to secondary school. While secondary students are encouraged to focus on academic studies, it’s important that they still make time to read for pleasure.

Our popular secondary student planner is a comprehensive resource that offers vibrant designs and stimulating content to promote and support learning throughout the academic year.

By being able to plan their time, students are more likely to incorporate reading for fun into their schedule.

Support reading and study with Boomerang Education student planners

Our student planners contain a wealth of content to support mental wellbeing and a growth mindset. We work to stimulate student interest and help to navigate them through their school year. We also assist in the meeting of Ofsted judgement criteria. Our student diary content is reviewed and refreshed each year to ensure it remains relevant and engaging for students.

If you’d like to know more about our student planners, please get in touch on 01252 368 328

Or visit our website, where you can explore the diary content in digital format at https://boomeranged.co.uk/portfolio/secondary-design-school-planners/

Make connections in Children’s Mental Health Week

Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 takes place from 6th to 12th February 2023, and this year’s theme is Let’s Connect.

The aim of Children’s Mental Health week is to promote good mental health and a sense of wellbeing in children and adults. The theme is all about inspiring children to connect with others in healthy, rewarding, and meaningful ways.

Free resources are available for primary age and secondary age children to help young people take part in the week. These activities are designed to encourage children (and adults) to consider how to make meaningful connections that support mental health.

Mental wellbeing advice for primary age children

Promoting good mental health is a practice that can be started at a young age and is something we focus on in our primary planner.

Our range of student planners are designed to guide students through the school year, beginning with our primary student planner. It contains advice on mental wellbeing appropriate to this age group.

A special feature within the student planner offers tips to help children think differently about worries and gives advice on how to find ways to solve issues or accept them. It acknowledges the type of worries children could face, such as anxiety about schoolwork, assessments and exams, appearance, family and friendships, getting sick or being ill, and getting into trouble or being told off.

The primary student planner also talks about resilience in a feature entitled ‘Learning to Bounce’. It explains how we can adjust to the difficult challenges we might face and how being resilient can help us deal more easily with these challenges and bounce back from them.

In addition, it describes to young students how ‘giving things a go’ can build confidence. It encourages flexibility by suggesting that if something you’ve tried hasn’t worked, you should try again with a different method.

Mental wellbeing and mindset growth advice for secondary age children

In our secondary student planner, we delve deeper into mental wellbeing and focus on recognising anxiety. Students may become aware of signs of panic and feeling under pressure, including disturbed sleep, inability to relax, worrying most of the time, overeating or reduced appetite, and irrational and continuous fear.

If a student is worried about low mood, they should monitor warning signs, including feeling sad over long periods, changes in sleep and appetite, getting very irritable, not enjoying things they used to, withdrawing from things they love, and hurting themselves in different ways.

Our secondary student planners encourage students to keep a record of negative thoughts and talk to someone who can offer an objective perspective. The secondary planner mentions particular issues, such as worries about eating and self-harm, and gives tips on how to tackle problems and seek help.

Promoting a growth mindset

As well as mental wellbeing, our secondary student planners include a feature on growth mindset.

A fixed mindset approach can lead to students becoming heavily self-critical and thinking that intelligence is static. As a result, it can prevent skill development.

A growth mindset approach means not being afraid to make mistakes and thriving on challenges. A growth mindset helps students to embrace new opportunities, increase their academic potential and develop self-esteem.

By recognising that mistakes are something to learn from, students can develop their intelligence over time.

Help support children’s mental wellbeing and a growth mindset with Boomerang Education student planners

Our student planners contain a wealth of content to support mental wellbeing and a growth mindset. We work to stimulate student interest and help to navigate them through their school year. We also assist in the meeting of Ofsted judgement criteria. Our student diary content is reviewed and refreshed each year to ensure it remains relevant and engaging for students.

If you’d like to know more about our student planners, please get in touch on 01252 368 328.

Or visit our website, where you can explore the diary content in digital format at https://boomeranged.co.uk/portfolio/secondary-design-school-planners/

Student planners designed to support teaching and learning

Our student planners cover so much more than simply planning. They include valuable resources that support teaching and learning.

The aim of the planners is to be both informative and functional – they’re designed to stimulate interest and help students navigate their school year.

Primary Student Planners

Designed specifically for all primary pupils, our primary student planners include vital information to help students improve and grow.

The primary planner includes sections on understanding grammar, punctuation tips and ways to improve handwriting and speaking skills. As well as maths advice, there are conversion tables to help students understand length and distance, weight, volume and capacity, velocity, and temperature.

World religions, sign language, morse code, country flags and facts, are just some of the resources included. Handy maps of the UK and Ireland with a list of counties, maps of Europe and a world map are contained within the primary planner – plus a guide to the solar system.

A feature that includes maps of the human body is followed by a section with advice on mental wellbeing and how to deal with worries and challenges. First aid advice is provided by St John’s Ambulance.

Crucially, there’s advice to primary-age students on how to stay safe online.

Secondary Student Planners

This is our most popular secondary student planner. It contains stimulating content to promote and support learning throughout the academic year.

The planner opens with an informative feature on the United Nations Global Goals initiative, covering the important subject of climate action.

The resource sections include valuable reference pages covering maths, conversions, grammar, punctuation, planning an essay, physics, the periodic table, and maps.

As well as academic resources, there’s plenty of advice on the best approach to learning and revision, plus tips on memory and taking exams. Wellbeing advice covers issues such as healthy lifestyles, your growth mindset, and mental health.

My Digital Life looks at your digital footprint and how widely it can be seen by others. Common sense advice is combined with tips on security settings to help students interact sensibly online and protect themselves.

The Classic Planner contains the above information but is designed in a more traditional format. It has a clean and fresh appearance, retaining the full colour element of the Secondary Design Planner, but is more minimalist in design.

16+ Student Planners

The 16+ student planner is a little different as it aims to guide students through their academic options and into their life beyond school.

This planner includes key information from UCAS on the choices available to students aged 16+. This includes going to university, taking an apprenticeship, or embarking on a gap year. Information on the costs of higher education and living away from home will help students to make informed decisions.

The planner also includes useful advice on how to write a personal statement and create a CV, as well as how to present yourself in person.

Support teaching and learning with Boomerang Education student planners

Our student planners contain a wealth of content to support teaching and learning. We work to stimulate student interest and help to navigate them through their school year. We also assist in the meeting of Ofsted judgement criteria. Our student diary content is reviewed and refreshed each year to ensure it remains relevant and engaging for students.

If you’d like to know more about our planners, please get in touch on 01252 368 328

Or visit our website, where you can explore the diary content in digital format at https://boomeranged.co.uk/portfolio/secondary-design-school-planners/

A Vital Time for Our Planet

The COP27 climate summit took place in Egypt in November, with leaders from around the world coming together to discuss a plan to address the climate emergency.

This year, a historic agreement was reached to create a fund dedicated to helping vulnerable countries cope with financial losses brought about by climate change. For a long time, there has been concern that not enough help has been given by wealthy countries (that contribute the most to pollution and emissions) to poorer countries who contribute less to the climate emergency but are more adversely affected by climate change and climate-related disasters.

However, the summit was criticised for the lack of progress that has been made in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Is progress being made?

For nearly three decades, the United Nations has brought together almost every country from around the world to a global climate summit – a Conference of Parties (COP).

In November 2021, the UK hosted the 26th annual summit, COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. Leading up to COP26, the UK worked with every nation to reach agreement on how to tackle climate change.

COP26 was an international summit that had a sense of urgency, and world leaders, tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens arrived in Scotland for thirteen days of talks.

At each COP summit, every country must agree to all parts of the plan for it to be completed, and the resulting agreement of COP26 is known as the Glasgow Climate Pact. Countries that signed it are working to implement it – but many scientists and citizens felt that the Glasgow Climate Pact wasn’t ambitious enough.

What further action is needed?

Many felt that the pact failed to address the need for our planet to stay below 1.5C of warming. This minimum temperature is essential to ensure a habitable environment for humans and animals.

The pact was also criticised for not including the phasing out of coal and fossil fuels. Instead, the wording ‘phase down’ was used. Following this year’s COP27 summit, it’s clear that ‘phasing down’ has not had the impact needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Young people are taking the initiative

In October 2021, days before COP26, the 16th United Nations Climate Change Conference of Youth, COY16, took place and was one of the largest entirely youth-led global youth climate conferences in the world. The Global Youth Position Statement that was issued following COY16 represented the views of over 40,000 young people worldwide.

And while COP26 took place, Greta Thunberg and over 100,000 young people marched through Glasgow’s streets, calling for change.

How can you encourage youth involvement?

While COP26 significantly increased the public’s level of interest in the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, and other environmental issues, this year’s summit didn’t have the same sense of urgency.

Young people are demanding politicians act with more urgency to prevent a climate catastrophe. Many are joining local climate action groups to campaign for:

  • Greater commitment to phasing out fossil fuels and moving towards renewable energy.
  • More initiatives to preserve and restore natural habitats and wildlife.
  • A faster shift to a more equal and nature focused economic system.
  • A cap to global temperature rise, keeping it below 1.5C.

To assist, educate and inform about this vital subject, Boomerang has created student climate action planners. We’re working with ypte (Young Peoples Trust for the Environment) as our principal content partner, a leading UK charity set up to encourage understanding of the environment among young people.

Plan for a sustainable future

Our student planners contain a wealth of content designed to support teaching and learning. We work to stimulate student interest and help to navigate them through their school year. We also assist in the meeting of Ofsted judgement criteria. Our student diary content is reviewed and refreshed each year to ensure it remains relevant and engaging for students.

Click here to view:

The Secondary Design Planner

The Classic Planner

The Primary Planner

If you’d like to know more about our secondary planner content for 2022/2023, please get in touch on 01252 368 328

Or visit our website, where you can explore the diary content in digital format at https://boomeranged.co.uk/portfolio/secondary-design-school-planners/

Sport in Schools – Why football is such a great sport for girls

Women’s and girls’ football has been steadily growing in popularity in recent years thanks to higher standards of play and increased TV coverage of games.

This culminated in the Lionesses’ incredible victory at the Euros this year, inspiring countless girls to take up the sport. But how accessible to girls is football as a PE subject in schools?

The history of women’s football

Women playing football isn’t a new development. One of the first recorded women’s matches was a game billed as Scotland v England held at Edinburgh’s Hibernian Park on 9 May 1881.

The popularity of women’s football grew during the First World War when women took on jobs traditionally held by men. Thousands of women worked in munitions factories, and workplace teams were formed.

The most famous of these was the Dick, Kerr Ladies football team. Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive and tramcar manufacturer that switched factory production to supply ammunition during the war.

In 1920, 53,000 spectators watched a game between the Dick, Kerr Ladies and St. Helens. But these record crowds were short-lived as on 5 December 1921, The FA banned women from playing on FA-affiliated pitches, encouraging associated clubs to follow suit.

Although The FA stated, ‘the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged’, it’s likely there was a financial motivation. Women’s games were generally played for charitable causes, unlike the commercial men’s game, which could bring in revenue for The FA.

The ban remained in place for 50 years, making it a mammoth struggle for women’s football ever to reach the same level as the men’s game.

Football for girls in schools

In 2020, The FA set out a new initiative, Inspiring Positive Change – a 2024 goal for every primary school-aged girl to have equal access to football in schools and clubs.

The FA found that while 72% of girls played as much football as boys in primary school, the figure falls to 44% when in secondary school. Only 40% of secondary schools in the UK offer girls the same access to football via after-school clubs as boys.

The FA commented: ‘at a practical level, this means embedding football for girls in schools, as part of the PE curriculum and in after-school sessions.’

However, the Department for Education has refused to guarantee girls will be given the same opportunity for football lessons in school as boys. The current guidance is
to allow girls equal opportunities to participate in comparable sporting activities, such as
netball, badminton, tennis, and rounders within the national curriculum.

Currently, it’s up to schools to decide which sports they teach.

Benefits of girls playing football

It’s been shown that playing football provides girls with far more than just physical benefits.

Being part of a football team has been proven to boost self-esteem and improve confidence in girls. They feel more motivated and empowered to achieve their goals.

Playing football also develops social skills as girls learn how to work together and develop friendships. In turn, this helps to reduce anxiety.

After their stunning success at the Euros, the England women’s football team has campaigned for all girls to have the opportunity to play football at school. They also called on the government to ensure all girls can access a minimum of two hours of physical education a week.

With the FIFA Women’s World Cup to look forward to next year, it’s likely that even more girls will be inspired to take up the sport.

How we can all help to initiate change

student planner mental welling
Planning to incorporate two hours of physical education into your timetable is as vital as planning an academic schedule.

That’s why our secondary school planners support learning and development with healthy lifestyle and mental wellbeing resource.

The Reference Section at the back of our secondary planners cover all aspects of healthy living, from eating well, exercising and getting the right amount of sleep to exploring the growth mindset and understanding how to improve mental health.

If you want to know more about our secondary planner content for 2022/2023, please get in touch on 01252 368 328 or visit our website where you can explore the diary content in digital format at https://boomeranged.co.uk/portfolio/secondary-design-school-planners/

Lockdown Leavers’ Hoodies – 5 reasons why your school really needs a school hoodie in 2020

School hoodies are a wonderful way to keep school memories alive, particularly in 2020 – the year of lockdown and COVID-19 – This is the first time any of us have experienced a pandemic of this nature in our lifetimes. 

What will your students remember?

Learning in bubbles, home school, no bonfire night, no school trips, no leavers’ assembly, the constant chant of ‘wash your hands’ and socially distanced playtimes. It’s fair to say that leavers in 2020 and 2021 will have very different memories of their final year at school than any other year this decade.

Schools, along with every other business need to adapt. With normal fundraising events having to be cancelled or ‘Zoomed’, there needs to be a brand new way of running these events with some serious thinking outside the box. 

One thing’s for sure though and that is that the school hoodies of 2020 and 2021 can go ahead unhinged and actually will become one of the most important ways of capturing COVID-19 school memories.

There are 5 reasons why your school needs a school hoodie in 2020 and 2021. Here they are:

1] “I Was A Lockdown Student”

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that hasn’t been seen since the Spanish Flu in 1918. This will most definitely be something to tell their children and grandchildren about. Personalise your school hoodie in 2020 and 2021 to show that your students went to school during lockdown. 

Here are some ways you can personalise your school hoodies during COVID-19

  • ‘Lockdown Leavers’
  • ‘Class of 2020/2021 ‘Lockdown Students’
  • ‘Socially Distanced Class of 2020/2021’

 

2] Baby It’s Cold Inside

One of the ways schools have had to adapt to avoid the spreading of the virus, is to keep windows and doors open to keep the fresh air flowing and any germs at bay. This means that classrooms are cold! It’s difficult to learn when you’re cold. Give your students a team hoodie to pop on. (Or a sweatshirt) Keep spirits and learning high.

 

3] No Zoom Meeting Required, Design Online Now In Your Lunch Break 🙂

Jump online and build your own school hoodie using our Leavers Hoodie Builder. We have some super on-trend colours for the base of the hoodie, more colours for the embroidery and lots of room for personalisation. Whether you want a standard hoodie, a zip up hoodie or a sweatshirt, it’s so easy and quick to order yours with full personalisation right now.

4] Hoodie Sales Can Replace Bake Sale Profits

With school fundraising events being forced to cancel or adapt to digital formats, one particular fundraising event which normally happens throughout the school calendar, is the Bake Sale! It may not bring in a huge amount of profit but the pounds throughout the year certainly add up and this is one event that can not be replicated online. 

Counteract the loss of bake sale revenue by selling hoodies to every student. It won’t replace the taste of a gooey brownie but a bright cool hoodie to wear in school every day may just top even that!

5] We’re In This Together

Our schools are now ordering hoodies for all their students during term time rather than just for their leavers at the end of the school year. Being in the middle of a pandemic requires a level of camaraderie and change. 

The ‘We’re in this together’ spirit can really lift us. Everything is different right now. Being taken to school with mum and dad wearing a mask. Leaving school in a one way system and walking out to face lots of masked parents standing socially distanced apart can feel daunting. 

Rules have changed. The classrooms are cold? Let the kids wear their school hoodies in as bright a colour as you can muster. It’s only November? Pop the christmas tree up and fill it with as many baubles that will fit! Let’s keep spirits high and get by with as much camaraderie as we can.

Everything You Need To Know When Creating Your School Planner

‘Homework Diary’ ‘Reading Diary’, ‘Secondary or Primary Planner’, the name differs depending on the school. In essence they all mean the same thing but my how they’ve changed over the years. Not simply just a week view diary, the school planner is now a carefully crafted weekly school navigator working in close alignment with the National Curriculum, UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service), stem4 (the Mental Health in Teenagers Charity) and St. John’s Ambulance. 

If you are tasked with organising your school’s planner this year, then make a cuppa, sit back and read everything you need to know about school planners, what to include and how to order. If you have any questions, as always, please do get in touch. We’re all working from home but still going full throttle.

10 Things To Think About When Organising Your School Planner

1] Choose A Core Function Of The Planner

The 3 core functions of the Primary School Planner are generally…

i) The Reading Diary – Key Stage 1 & 2 require national curriculum specific books to be read before the children can decide their own reading material. The reading diary is an important way of checking how quickly the students are progressing.

ii) The Spelling Lists – For the early stages when spelling tests feature every Monday afternoon.

iii) Parent, Teacher communication. 

Secondary students tend to use their planners as more of a diary, with a week to view and a space to set weekly goals and then keep them accountable by ticking them off at the end of the week.

The Parent Teacher communication is also a key component for this age group.

But it’s the extra pages that add the goodness. 

 

2] Teach Kids Ways To Get InformationTo Stick

Include an important section on Learning and Revision.  An abundance of scientific research means that we are well equipped to teach children of all ages how their brains can retain information. Having this knowledge gives all students a head start when prepping for exams. Understanding the simple ‘revisiting and reviewing’ formula can structure their revision accordingly. 

Here is the formula that we include in the Boomerang Revision Help pages:

>> Review your learning an hour or so after a lesson

>> Then review again, within a further 24 hours

>> Then again, a week later

>> Finally review again in a month or so

As well as the scientific proof that will help pop a child’s learning into a compartment in their brain, other useful tips will help. Teaching them how to write efficient notes, different recall methods and how to grasp the bigger picture in terms of where each piece of learning fits in, all give a solid and structured approach to revision and will see your students getting through exams a lot smoother than without.

3] Be Sure To Add Important Guidance On How Students Can Manage Their Digital Footprint

It’s so easy to get swept up in every new hot social media platform. Kids have moved from Facebook and Instagram to TikTok. Where their parents idolised pop stars and rock stars, kids now favour YouTubers with many kids venturing into having their very own YouTube channels. 

Include pages in the planner that will prompt a more cautious mindset when posting online. The knowledge and reminder that digital footprints stick around forever is crucial for kids when they might otherwise be so swept up in posting for ‘likes’ that they forget that their future boss will one day be taking a glimpse before deciding whether to take them on.

4] Open Up The World

Our Boomerang planners have a great section all based on ‘Your Future’. These are the pages that can make a ‘sliding doors’ difference to a student’s entire life. Providing the information that we already host on our Oodles site clearly maps out all the potential paths that secondary year school can lead to. Whether they want to continue with study, work or do a combination of both, this section of their school diary provides a helpful starting point. We cover GCSE’s, A Levels, T Levels, UCAS Tariff points and Technical/Vocational paths. We also include important milestones; every year of secondary school when they need to make certain decisions about their path. This section is one of the most valuable sections of the diary. 

Think about how you would like to incorporate this section into your own planners or simply choose a Boomerang secondary school planner and use our already crafted pages.

 

5] Give Your School Children’s Mental Health The Recognition It Deserves

Mental Health has thankfully become a ‘normal’ conversation. Helped along by sports personalities, the Royal family and important charities like stem4, ‘not feeling ok’ is now something that adults and children are encouraged to talk about. 

The inclusion of this important subject in your school’s planner provides a consistent reminder that it’s ok to feel anxious and it’s ok to feel low, along with some warning signs to look for and some tips to get through these feelings. We are proud to have worked with stem4, a charity that supports mental health in teenagers, for this brand new section of our planners and homework diaries. Please feel free to use our already designed pages.

6] Promote A Healthy Lifestyle

We can’t provide school planners and homework diaries to the children of today without giving important nudges towards a healthy lifestyle. Prompts to eat well, exercise regularly and get a good night’s sleep can do nothing but good. What would you like to include in your Healthy Lifestyle section? This is a section not to be left out.

 

8] Think Of Some Inspirational Quotes 

“I know the sky is not the limit because there are footprints on the Moon – and I made some of them!” Buzz Aldrin

“The future depends on what we do in the present.” Mahatma Ghandi

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” The Dalai Lama 

9] What To Include In The Diary Section Of Your Planner

In our Primary Planners we include Recommended Books at the bottom of every Reading Record page. We also include key competitions throughout the year that they may otherwise not hear about;  Song Academy Young Songwriter Competition, Space Foundation International Art Contest and Junior Bake off to name just a few.

We also include generally cool information and learning resources. Where they can learn how to code their own website or animation is amongst our favourites.

10] Primary Reference Section

The primary reference section is how you put all the information from the classroom wall into the pupil’s bag so they have everything to hand whenever beginning a piece of work at home. Fractions and conversions, triangles and quadrilaterals, Nouns and conjunctions. Give them all the tools they need so they can pull it from their bag when they get home.

How To Order Your School Planner 

You may be ready right now to order your planner, in which case give us a ring or send us a quick message and we’ll get right back to you. There is a minimum order of 40 planners so please bear this in mind. 

If you’d like to discuss some customisation options then please visit this page or send us a message. You may want a customised cover. Perhaps a cover designed by one of your students? An art competition works well here 🙂 You may want to include plastic pockets, tearable absence slips and traffic light cards. Have a chat with our Planner team and they can put everything in the right order for you. Happy Planning!

 

7 Marketing Strategies To Sell Your Yearbook – LOCKDOWN SPECIAL

Now that you’ve spent time putting together the most awesome yearbook ever, it’s time to actually sell it!

Perhaps you’d normally gather your yearbook team in your office and enthusiastically throw around some marketing strategies as your team slowly back out of your office with a little whistle or a sudden much longed for class to attend?

Or you’d simply pop up a poster announcing the yearbooks are ready, cross your fingers and wait for sales with a slight feeling of desperation?

But not this time!

Lockdown yearbook marketing will be digital, clever and water tight, not letting any sales slip away. 


Telling students to buy a yearbook needs more thought, more emotion and more messaging coming from many different angles. We can’t just pull out our inner Yoda and tell parents what to do.

We’ve put together 7 clear actionable marketing steps to work through, to make sure you sell more yearbooks than ever this year. Carve out one week and work through one strategy each day.

In no particular order…

1] Big, bold and free advertising on Facebook 

Most of the school’s we have daily contact with have rather an active Facebook page. When it’s time to start marketing your yearbook, why not refresh your cover photo – the top banner image that sits behind your profile picture.

It can be tricky popping an image directly on here because of the custom dimension constraints but the simplest way to do this is to design the banner in Canva. Sign up for a free account and simply hit ‘Create Design’ and choose ‘Facebook Cover’. Pick a design template from the left or use a blank canvas and create your own. 

This isn’t just an announcement though, make sure you include a clear CTA (Call to action). What do you want your parents or students to do in order to buy the yearbook? Do you want them to pre-order by leaving their name and details or are you ready to sell? There should be simple clear instructions on the banner with exactly what they need to do next.

2] The Sneaky Peek

Pick out some tantalisers and show them off in a Facebook photo album or simply drip feed them through your social media channels. Use captions to tempt parents to purchase. 

>> ‘The coach ride to the best school trip of the year!’ – for all pics of the outing, order your yearbook here

>> ‘The moment before the whole class ended up in the sea’ – to see more of these, order your yearbook here

>> ‘Polly Temple being awarded Kent School’s Athletic Champion’ – for more awards from our talented sports pupils, order your yearbook here

3] Run a Competition

Now this strategy gives you a triple whammy win. 

Create a competition where the winner receives a free yearbook. Use our idea or just the framework for your own idea.

  1. Create a Photo Caption contest
  2. Announce the contest in the newsletter, in the parent email, on social media or if not in lockdown, on flyers and posters around the school.
  3. Contest: Send in any photo and write a caption. A free school yearbook will be awarded to the best entry. The rest will be shown in the yearbook, after being vetted by the yearbook team 😉
  4. Get the students to share their entries on social media using a specific hashtag #farnhamschoolyearbookcontest

Win #1 – You receive some great content for the yearbook

Win #2 – You create a buzz! Students will be sharing the funniest photos and captions with each other and they’ll be desperate to buy the yearbook whether they win or not, just to see all the funny entries.

Win #3 – Using the hashtag will generate a little hub of images on social media all grouped together. Every student will be desperate to see if they have been included in a funny photo caption! This in turn creates more buzz around the yearbook and more buzz equals more sales!

4] Plan a Sequence of Email Messages Leading To Purchase

Particularly since school closures in lockdown, the email newsletter has become the primary link between schools and parents. If your school sends out an email every Friday, make sure you write a carefully crafted email for 3 or 4 weeks as follows:

Week 1 – It’s time to pre-order the yearbook. Click here to pre-order yours now.

Week 2 – Exciting news! The yearbook has gone to print. It includes some amazing school memories that we know your children will treasure forever. Each and everyone of them is included. Have you ordered your copy yet? Click here to Buy Now.

Week 3 – And the winner of the Photo Caption is Bertie Smith with this photo and caption. Congratulations Bertie! You have won a free yearbook. See all the other hilarious entries in the yearbook. Time is running out, make sure you get your order in!

Week 4 – Last call, the deadline to purchase your yearbook is Monday, don’t miss out. 

5] Refresh The School Website

Use the messages from the sequence above to refresh your website. Include a banner at the top of your website with a clear call to action and align the messaging with the messages going out in the parent email or newsletter. You’ll be amazed at how the ‘Last Call’ email and messaging drives those final sales.

6] Create FOMO

‘Fear Of Missing Out’ is a thing. Use this proven marketing strategy well.

Drip feed tit bits across your school’s social media.

Advertise how many people have pre-ordered the yearbook with posts such as ‘297 students have ordered the 2020 yearbook’ This means that 297 will get to treasure moments like this (include a funny photo with caption). It’s not too late to order yours! Click here to Buy Now.


7] You’re on Page 5!

This particular strategy works well for smaller primary schools where the staff know every single student. It takes time but it works!

The most important part of this strategy is that every single student is included in the yearbook.

Cross check each pupil and mark down each page number in the yearbook where that pupil is featured. Then send out an email to each parent telling them that the yearbook is in print and their child is featured on pages 3 and 5. 

What parent will be able to resist?!

If you haven’t ordered your yearbook yet, there is still time! Use our resources to help you. First of all, get some ideas on how to put together the most awesome yearbook ever and then simply use our online yearbook editor to build yours right now. Get in touch with our team now for a free 10 minute demo.

9 Tips For Creating An Awesome School Yearbook

With your class spending so much time apart already this year due to the corona virus outbreak, giving each student an extra special yearbook to mark the end of their school year is more important than ever.

Image Credit: Pinterest

 

If you’re the one tasked with the job this year we’re going to help make the whole process a lot more fun. If you get ahead now, while in lockdown, you can create a really personalised and fun yearbook and take away any last minute stress.

 

Image Credit: Pinterest

 

So in no particular order, here are 9 tips for making sure this year’s yearbook is the best yearbook ever!

1] Begin with the right intentions

Teachers face so much admin in their lives and as I write this in April 2020, they are also tasked with virtual learning and marking and keeping their students going during UK lockdown.  But it’s important not to tackle the yearbook like any other piece of admin. 

Yearbooks are treasured forever.

 

Image Credit: Pinterest

 

They tell your school’s unique story and every page is special to all your students. Make it funny, memorable and celebratory.

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory”

Dr Seuss

2] See it as historical proof that you did actually teach the future Bieber

In years to come, how will you prove that you taught  the future Prime Minister or the latest Justin Bieber? This is where the yearbook becomes vitally important!

 


3] Pick a cool template and let the pages flow

Don’t be put off by the fact that you may not be the world’s best designer. Jump onto our online Yearbook Editor and start by choosing a template out of more than 300 and off you go. Pick one of the covers, designed by our art editors, or personalise it even further with a school photo or perhaps all your students’ names. Choose from 850 fonts and make use of a bank of emojis and icons.

Some of the awesome Yearbook Covers designed by our Art Editors!

 

4] Make it a Team Effort

It needn’t be just you organising the yearbook and chasing images and quotes. Put a team together with everyone that can help. You can all log in to the online editor at the same time and add images, text, emojis and icons. You have full control over which pages each team member can edit so there’ll be no embarrassment at the end when you realise a student has changed a friend’s photo caption!

Image Credit: Pinterest

5] Ask awesome interview questions

To give your yearbook it’s own special uniqueness, you need to steer the ship. By asking the right questions, you will bring out hilarious anecdotes and cultural relevance which you just won’t get with ‘what’s your favourite colour?’ answers. Make it fun for the kids to answer their interview questions. You want them to look back and laugh hysterically as they hold their dusty yearbook in their hands (they’re old at this point). Get creative. Head to Pinterest if you need some ideas. 


Here are some of our favourites…

1] What’s the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in school this year?

2] If you and your friends could get together right now and do one activity, what would it be?

3] What TV show/ blog/video game is most talked about at school?

4] What was your favourite school dinner this year? Or your favourite packed lunch?

5] If there is someone in your class who’ll end up on TV, who would it be and what would they be doing?

6] Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

7] If you had to pick one piece of work that you did this year, where you enjoyed doing it and you thought it was great, what would it be?

8] One teacher has to go with you and your friends trampolining and then for milkshakes, who would you pick?

9] What did you love learning about the most this year?

10] What one song from this year will remind you of your friends and being at school?

6] Let the kids lead

Once you’ve allocated roles and individual logins to the online editor, it’s time to sit back and let the kids take the lead. It’s not just the final yearbook that will bring joy, it’s the process of putting it together and you want the kids to enjoy doing it and create yet another memory in the meantime.

Treat the yearbook production as if it were a business. Here are some suggested roles and job titles:

Your role – Staff Rep 

Your job involves selecting which students have access to edit the yearbook, giving final sign off and paying the production bill.

Editor

This job will be deciding what will be included in the book, sorting the copy and ensuring all deadlines are met.

Art Director

This job will involve overseeing designs, deciding the order of pages and coordinating who works on each page.

Photo Editor

This job will be to take photos at school events and encourage other students to supply their photos on time.

Financier

This job will involve collecting payments from students and sponsors, making sure to keep accurate records. 

Sales and Marketing

This job is to sell and advertise your yearbooks to students, using our promotional material to help you.

7] Write GREAT awards

Put some thought into your awards/surveys before sending them to your students to answer. Make use of online survey programs to send out the questions and easily collate the responses. Google Forms  is a nice simple one and it’s free.

Don’t write obvious awards such as ‘The best runner’ – Go a bit deeper to make them more interesting. ‘Who would be able to get away from a cheetah the fastest on foot?’

Others..

‘Most likely to end up in a band’

‘Most likely to end up running the country’

‘Most likely to end up on stage making people howl laughing’

8] Add an ‘A Year In Review’ page

Include a page with all the highlights of that particular year. Especially when that year consists of a UK lockdown due to a virus outbreak. Ask the kids to give you their stand out points in the year since they’ll be looking at life from a different angle.

9] Give prompts when asking students to write their own captions

Encourage your students to write some great captions and give them some ideas to work with. Writing your caption is like writing that first paragraph in your CV. It always makes people feel instantly uncomfortable. Show some really good examples. There are so many on Pinterest. The best ones are the funniest so encourage some uplifting spirit when tackling this one.

Think about using a virtual signing tool like Kudoboard. Great for hosting virtual yearbook signings, where students can say goodbye to each other and celebrate their achievements in a remote & supportive way.

If you want to get cracking on your yearbook right now, get in touch with our team and book in for a quick demo on the online editor. Then simply put together a team and off you go!

Header Image Photo Credit: Image by Bev from Pixabay