Secondary class displays-help?

[Earlycareerteacherr]

Hey all. Hopefully everyone’s having a nice summer holiday.

My class already had some displays up. I was allowed to take 2 down but the others I thought might aswell stay as they were done pretty recently.

Last time I went into school the laminator wasn’t working then when it did it just kept crinkling things so I just grabbed all the bits that I had and asked if my mum could do it as she has a laminator.

I’m just wondering how much did you all spend on your displays? If anything? I had to buy a few things for my room like little storage things and some board pens and a staple gun etc and some decorations for the displays. All in all I think I’ve spent around £40. Which isn’t that much but I feel like it might be enough now.

How much did you guys spend on your things for your room?

You really shouldn't need to spend money on things like a staple gun. I have some nice theatre posters and postcards up but I don't change my displays, and I also don't laminate them!

Please don't ask primary teachers! In my school we need a maths display and working wall changed weekly, same for writing, a grammar display, a spelling display ( also changed weekly) a history/geog display changed with each topic, same for french, science, RE, computing, reading- the list goes on! I worked in one school where every item on display had to be double mounted with a 2cm and 1 cm border respectively! One school even employed a display TA who was responsible for displays in communal areas! Joy😂

Agree with MrsHamlet
Don’t buy stuff like staple guns, there will be one somewhere to borrow on school.
Am secondary science
We have one permanently decorated wall ( transfers done when labs rebuilt about 6 years ago)
2 display boards - i use one for my form tutor stuff so extracurricular notices, stuff about internet safety, items the year team ask me to display
Other one has a periodic table and a number of free posters from various sites plus fire notices etc.
Not much gets changed - i backed and bordered both boards a few years ago.

And why are you buying board pens, is your school really broke?

@spanieleyes at double mounting and display TA!!

@Earlycareerteacherr tempting as it is, try to avoid spending money on stuff for classrooms -the school really should supply it. Staple guns will be there somewhere- ours are in the prep room.

My room has two display boards- I have one with supporting materials e.g. folder of data sheets, a good model graph, an example of using equations. Varies depending on what years I have/which units I am teaching.

The other is my wow wall which I put good examples of pupil work on.

I have command word bunting around my board and practical terminology around the room.

They aren't overly snazzy displays but they are tidy and purposeful which I like.

Next to nothing - periodic table and exam command words, then posters that are forced on us by pastoral. Nothing laminated, paper does not need to be turned into a never degradable substance, especially given the environmental disasters we are living with and teaching about.

I never do displays. It’s a poor use of my time IMO. This has been noted by my line manager so I may be directed to sort some out this year. Wouldn’t spend any money on it at all.

Agree with pp about laminating.

Never done a display in my life. Are you in a union? They are one of the things unions agreed with schools were not part of a teacher's job. We used to get the old Yr 11 in to do them after their GCSE exams, more recently it's been cover supervisors on light days. You certainly shouldn't be spending your own money on them as well as time.

I have been working on my displays over the summer. Thoroughly enjoyed planning them and putting them up!

I have been laminating bits as the walls get alot of traffic rubbing against them so they wouldn't last!

I have spent money on my displays. I feel it's worth it.

I'm a TA and have 4 boards to do - 2 each in 2 classes as they both come under my remit.

1 board in each class is a permanent display of what activities we do in that classrooom - eg academic or therapeutic.

The other has anonymised progress information and examples of students work so students know what their targets are without everyone knowing them.

I've put A3 sheets of a slightly glossy card on the progress and examples boards so I can just sticky tac work on and change as needed. If anything is laminated I use the matt finish pouches as I find the regular ones can sometimes be a bit distracting due to board placement and light reflections.

Some great posters here that link the curriculum to careers

https://www.planitplus.net/Schools/SubjectCareerPosters/

https://amazingapprenticeships.com/resource/subject-snapshot-bundle/

Also some key skills posters

https://hub.skillsbuilder.org/resources/essential-skills-logo-posters/

If you ask the careers team nicely they may help you out. I embrace any opportunity to
promote Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

At one shit school that I worked at, I was hassled to improve the look of my lab by doing more displays. I eventually did it just to get them off my back. However, I have no creative ability whatsoever and have no idea how to make something look visually appealing. Needless to say, my room ended up looking worse than before - it just looked messy rather than bare. They never asked me again. I'm a science teacher not an art teacher FFS!

What the room actually needed was a complete refurbishment, but it was cheaper to push the blame onto me for the lab looking a mess.

My advice: don't spend any money or time on displays

Personally I wouldn’t be laminating anything for display unless it’s a permanent display of eg maths vocabulary or writing prompts.

School should provide you with the basic essentials such as staplers and white board pens.