Back to school: Teacher shares 2 things she'll do differently in her classroom in 2023/2024 academic year

It’s not just children who are preparing to go back to school in the coming days, it’s teachers too. Depending on where in the UK they live, teachers up and down the country have enjoyed a break spanning between 6 and 8 weeks, but now it’s time for them to return to their roles at the head of the classroom.

Returning to a job after such a long period of time off is bound to be challenging - no matter how much you love your job - but one teacher has sought to make things that little bit easier for primary school workers by sharing some of her top hacks for the first day back.

Year 6 school teacher Ketrina Teresa who has over 50,000 followers on her TikTok page @ketrinateresa, says her passion is “lifestyle blogging as well as sharing life and tips as a primary school school teacher”.

Ahead of the new school year, she’s taken to her TikTok account to explain the two things she’ll be doing differently in her classroom this year - and fellow teachers may just find her hacks invaluable. She’s also shared a lovely activity that teachers can ask their new students to do which will help everyone in the class get to know each other - and ease teachers back into their responsibilities also. Keep reading to find out more.

‘This needs to be done more obviously’

Ketrina told her followers that she would start to implement two new things in her classroom from September after being told about them by ex-colleagues who had moved on to different schools and learned different practices.

The first thing she highlighted is telling children to congratulate themselves when they have done well. She says: “It’s probably one that loads of people do, and I kind of do - just not this obviously. It’s getting children to pat themselves on the back, which I’m sure we’ve all done, but it’s making it more structured where we tell the children to say ‘well done me’. She described this as a “helpful tool” and adds that it’s important to teach children self-validation, self-love and self-reassurance without looking for external reassurance from other people.

‘I will definitely be doing that this year’

The second thing that Ketrina said she will be implementing is a concept called “mystery mess”, which is all about helping pupils to clean up the classroom. How it works is that you tell the class that you have a “mystery mess” or “secret litter” in your head - this is one object in the room that needs tidying away. But, you don’t tell the children what that is. Ketrina explains that the result is “they all race around to tidying up everything, looking at you like ‘have I found the mystery mess”?.” She then suggests that the person who does tidy up the “mystery mess” is rewarded in some way, possibly with a house point, or whatever award is appropriate under your school’s scheme. She adds that she “loves” the idea and will “definitely” be doing it this year, with background music to help.

‘Fun and creative’

In another video, Ketrina also revealed the one “fun and creative” task that she asks every member of her new class to do on the first day of a new school year - make birthday cards. She explains that she asks each child to design their own card, and then  write “happy birthday from all your friends in class” in the card, but with no name. She then writes the names of each child in a card as their birthday approaches and gives it to them. If you’re going to do this back to school activity with your class this year you must remember to ask each child to write their own name on the back of the card they have created to ensure you don’t accidentally give them their own card back.