Celebrate World Book Day 2025 with a Live Lesson for Your Class
World Book Day 2025 is just around the corner, taking place on Thursday 6 March. This annual event is a worldwide celebration of books and reading, aiming to inspire children to develop a love of stories and reading for pleasure. It’s a fantastic opportunity for teachers to encourage pupils to engage with literature and discover the joy books can bring. To mark the occasion, BBC Teach will be hosting a special 30-minute Live Lesson designed for children aged 7 to 11. The session will be packed with fun, curriculum-linked interactive activities and feature guest authors, all focusing on reading for pleasure. Plus, there will be exciting live shout-outs to participating schools! You can tune in live on BBC Teach or CBBC. Additionally, there’s a new assembly framework available for primary schools, perfect for celebrating World Book Day and highlighting the many benefits of reading. Don’t miss this chance to make reading the star of your classroom and join in on the worldwide celebration! Follow this link to learn more:
Children’s Mental Health Week
Children’s Mental Health Week will take place from 3rd to 9th February 2025, with this year’s theme being ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’. The campaign aims to help young people across the UK develop greater self-awareness and embrace what makes them unique. This is an incredibly important initiative, and to support you, we’ve included links to a variety of lesson resources designed to help you explore this vital topic with your students. Even more excitingly, The Walt Disney Company has partnered with the campaign, using characters from its 2024 summer blockbuster, Inside Out 2. This film delves into the emotions of young people, making it the perfect companion to this year’s theme. The resources, tailored for both Primary and Secondary students, are engaging and ready to use in your classroom. Follow the link below to access them and start planning your lessons!
Lunar New Year
In the West, we celebrate the New Year at the end of December and the beginning of January. Many of you and your students are likely looking back fondly on this event. However, in China, the New Year is celebrated according to the Lunar Calendar. This means their New Year begins on 29th January 2025 and concludes 15 days later with the spectacular Lantern Festival. The Chinese New Year is a vibrant cultural celebration and an excellent opportunity to broaden your students’ understanding of global traditions. This year, we’ll be welcoming the Year of the Snake, following last year’s Year of the Dragon. To help your students learn more about this fascinating event and enhance their cultural capital, check out the fantastic resources available on BBC Teach. They offer a variety of engaging materials designed to bring the Chinese New Year to life in your classroom. With this second link you can see what animal relates to the year you and your students were born in so you can find out which animals you are. This is perfect for mixed form groups.
It’s the Festive Season
For many students (and teachers), Christmas is their favourite time of year. It’s a season that brings everyone together and, most importantly… presents! The BBC offers a fantastic range of resources for teachers to help bring festive cheer into the classroom. The activities include: These resources are a great way to combine festive fun with meaningful learning. Follow the link to have a look.
Elan the first British programming language for schools since BBC Basic
It’s been a long time since BBC Basic was introduced in 1981 and it left a lasting legacy on the British tech industry, with countless programmers taking their first steps into coding through this platform. Its impact on the development of technology in the UK is undeniable, and now Elan, a new British programming language designed specifically for schools, aims to inspire the next generation in the same way. ELAN is committed to carrying forward the spirit of BBC Basic, offering accessible tools to engage young learners and foster future British tech talent. By staying free of charge, open source, and focused on the needs of schools, ELAN promises to be a valuable and exciting resource for teachers across the UK. There is a great article in Issue 25 September 2024 of the Hello World newsletter covers this in more depth. The article can be found on page 62. If you are not a member, you should sign up with the below link: If you are a member: 3 key points from the article:
Remembrance Day Resources
Remembrance Day holds a unique place in British society, and schools play a vital role in connecting the future of their local area with its past. It offers a special opportunity for schools to showcase local history and even link current students with the actions of their ancestors. BBC Teach has produced a wide range of high-quality learning resources for every Key Stage to support your school’s Remembrance Day efforts. The link below will take you to these resources. We found the Key Stage 2 resources on “Archie Dobson’s War”—which include Dance, Drama, and Music—particularly brilliant for cross-curricular activities that any school could try. It’s not just the BBC producing Remembrance Day resources—The Royal British Legion has developed a wide range of materials for schools. These include assembly resources tailored to students of different ages, which we found particularly engaging! Using these resources is incredibly important because Remembrance Day offers a unique opportunity for students to understand the sacrifices made by past generations and to reflect on the impact of conflict. For younger students, it’s a chance to learn about values such as bravery, community, and service, while older students can explore the complex history of war and its lasting effects on society. For teachers who aren’t modern history specialists, these resources provide an accessible and thoughtful way to make a meaningful impact in your school’s assemblies. By using the materials from The Royal British Legion, you can ensure that students of all ages engage with this important part of British heritage, fostering a sense of respect and understanding.
October is Black History Month
As a teacher in the UK you should be aware that October is Black History Month. This serves as a reminder that Black history is a vital part of British history, often overlooked in traditional narratives as it began in the Roman period, long before any concept of the United Kingdom or any of its member nations existed. It was first observed in the UK in 1987, inspired by the American initiative but adapted to focus on the unique experiences and history of Black people in Britain. To support you in teaching about this History the BBC has produced a wealth of resources from KS1-KS4. You can use these in your class, your form time or any assemblies you do. In it you will find videos and lesson activities. If you want some more practicallesson activities to explore this history then Twinkle has many available for its members and even some of them are free.