Classroom Connect

Join Ian and Andrew as they discuss how to turn the everyday screen into a launchpad for curiosity. What starts as a sound-off video - looping as children enter the classroom - becomes a conversation starter, a memory hook, and the spark for deeper investigations. Listen as they reveal how video is more than footage: it’s a text packed with visuals, narration, and cues that teachers can mine to assess, challenge, and inspire. Through practical examples—silent loops to prime discussion, embedded quizzes for real-time formative checks, and video-driven scaffolds for hands-on lessons—they show how to move learners from recognition to real understanding. Whether you teach habitats, art styles, or scientific processes, this episode unfolds a clear, human story about using digital video to build context, surface prior knowledge, and free classroom time for problem solving and creativity. Consider how a single clip can change the way students think, remember, and create. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

Ian and Andrew are lucky to work with lots of different schools in diverse settings with widely varying needs and experiences. In this episode they discuss how case studies created to share these experiences can be used by colleagues to make in difference in their own schools. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

Ian and Andrew discuss some of the effective ways digital can help children to engage and make connections to prior learning quickly. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

In this episode Ian and Andrew discuss how collaborative conversations with teachers have a real impact on practice by making connections between digital resources and practical pedagogy. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

Here at Discovery Education we are privileged to be able to connect to classrooms around the world both virtually and in person. In this episode Ian and Andrew share some of their learning derived from working with schools from all corners of the world. They discuss how we can all learn from one another's insights and unique perspectives. Every school is different and yet we all have so much in common, so that wherever we are developing a globally collaborative approach to education benefits us all. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

Ian makes most of his school PD visits on his bike - covering hundreds of miles as he does so! Join Ian and Andrew as they reflect on ideas and insights they have been gathering as they visit schools across the UK. This is the true heart of our Classroom Connect approach - connecting you to teachers in other classrooms and to us here at Discovery Education. Want us to visit your school? Reach out on the email below or for Doodle users contact your School Success Advisor. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

We all know that sharing ideas really helps us all to grow as teachers. In this episode Ian and Andrew discuss how this can work across schools and at a wider level by developing a partnership approach to professional development. Ian and Andrew share experiences of how, as they travel the country delivering PD, they can gather and share amazing ideas developed by teachers in varied contexts with diverse experiences. Developing a partnership approach helps to create powerful learning opportunities for all involved, as Ian and Andrew reinforce by talking about how they are constantly learning from others whilst they are 'on the road.' Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

We all know that holiday times and breaks from school routines can have an impact on children's learning. Learning loss can occur quite quickly when children are away from the day to day classroom environment, especially after holidays. In this episode, Ian and Andrew discuss ways in which digital resources can help bring children back into the routines of learning, especially how they can help us to identify and address any gaps on an individual level. They also talk about how these tools can be used to reduce the impact of holidays and times away from class, by helping children to maintain their skills in motivating and low impact ways. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

Immersive technology, such as augmented reality, can utilise the senses to create learning experiences that were previously inconceivable. How about exploring a Mayan Temple in your school grounds, or walking around a spaceship which has a crash landed in the playground, or comparing a life size shark to a plesiosaur in the school hall, or walking through a street during the Blitz? All of these can be achieved FOR FREE using Sandbox AR, which enables children to build life size immersive environments they can explore, even recording their experiences to support further work in the classroom. Ian and Andrew discuss some of the ways immersive tools can impact children's learning, by creating emotional and physical responses. They also explore how this can support differentiation, for example by inspiring more reluctant writers. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

School Improvement Plans are essential to whole school development, Ian and Andrew discuss how we can use and adapt digital tools to support all aspects of school improvement. Key to this is being clear about how digital resources, when used effectively, can be adapted to suit your needs and serve the goal you are trying to achieve. Digital tools can be a fundamental part but of a SIP but rarely, if ever, the goal themselves. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

In this special, extended episode Ian and Andrew meet our News and Topical Producer Ben Isaacs to explore how we can make news accessible and meaningful to children. He gives us some fascinating insights into how we actually make the news, including the decisions behind what to include and importantly how to make this appropriate for children, whilst not shying away from complex or challenging issues. In our increasingly complex digital world where information is a commodity and open to manipulation in many ways it has never been more important to teach children how to engage with news and how to identify trusted sources and think critically about what the read, hear and see. We also discuss ways to use news in the classroom and how this can support learning right across the curriculum as well as developing children's learning skills, empathy and cultural capital. As always we would love to hear from you about how you engage with news in the classroom. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

School Breakfast Clubs not only provide the chance for children to have a nutritious start to the school day can be a great way for children to access additional learning support. Just like a hearty breakfast the chance to build confidence through motivating digital learning tasks can help children make a great start to the day. Ian and Andrew discuss ways we can provide opportunities for children to access resources that may not be available to them at home, particularly in more relaxed informal ways. Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

In this episode Ian and Andrew discuss ways in digital resources can be used to support children with different levels of educational needs. We can provide flexible options where layers of support can be peeled back or added quickly and efficiently to provide juts the right level of scaffolding at the right time. How do you use digital to address different levels of educational need? Which resources work best for you and how do you adapt them? Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

As an early career teacher it is important to explore ways to build your own style and pedagogical approach, digital resources can provide lots of options. Not only can they provide models as starting points but often they can be adapted to suit your own needs, both of which can be really valuable in terms of professional growth. How has digital supported your development? Please email us with your questions, ideas or suggestions at [email protected]