The document provides tips for creating effective classroom displays including keeping displays fresh every half term, using the school ethos and student work in displays, making displays engaging with color and font size, and ensuring displays have a clear purpose in reinforcing skills and concepts for students. It emphasizes making displays functional, tidy, and accessible for students.

2. “Functional or forget it” – What is the purpose
of what you’re displaying? If you’re not using
it or it has no use – it’s probably a waste of
time.
Keep it fresh – Aim to change a display board
every half term. If you can try and keep your
displays changing, it does get noticed by
students, and is more likely to make them look
at the things around them.

3.  New displays are
appearing around the
school!

4. Keep it tidy! Exchange
 Perhaps if you’re not very good at displays?
See if you can exchange your time and skills
with someone who is! Barter!
 If you feel competent, “Bring and buy” share
good practice and lighten your load in the
process. As a department could you or your
Learning Leaders be doing something to
facilitate this?
 Don’t let your good work get dishevelled –
keep tabs on the aging process to keep
things smart.
 Remember that the learning environment you
create can set the tone for the lesson – it is an
opportunity to show your passion, creativity
and purposefulness.

5.  Why not use the
school ethos in a
display?

6.  Wrapping paper
can be a cheap
option to bring
displays to life

7.  Places where students
congregate or wait to
enter a classroom could
be used to your
advantage

10.  Provide legible key
words / phrases that
relate to current
topics.

12.  Create a
“Learning
Wall” and
use L2L
strategies

13. Levelling guide - As part of your AfL strategy,
displaying levelling guides will help students
understand what level they are currently at, and
what they will have to do to reach a higher level.
Make it accessible - it needs to be in a language
that students can digest.

15. Don’t just use whole school initiatives,
develop them – with your PEED posters,
could you model some answers from your
subject? Mix up displays with both content
and skill development.

16. Building curiosity - If you can
create something that makes
students ask questions about it
you are on to a winner.

17. Don’t do the hard work if you don’t
have to – there are some very
good premade resources available
from educational companies
which are reusable and lasting.

18. Have a personal space, so that a little bit
of you comes across in the classroom
and humanises you slightly from the
teaching robot. It may also cheer you up
on a bad day.

19. Clarity is key – make it obvious what a display item is
about, and that it is readable from where students
may be sat or can move to.
Make the delivery engaging - Use of colour, size and
font of text, pictures and placing are all things that
need to be considered. Usually the more it stands out
the better.
Be really nice to Carl – he may be vital in your printing
requests. Be reasonable in your timeframes and
expectations. ALSO be nice to Site Team.

21. Could you trust your
students (at least under
your guidance) to lead a
display themselves? –
Could you make a lesson
or series of lessons from it
with a tangible end goal?

22. Can reinforce key skills
in subject area, useful
for concepts that will
be used across year
groups and serve as
permanent visual
reminders.

23. Where are we going? Outer space
 Out of classroom spaces still contribute to
your learning environment and the
approach students take to it – why not
use it to celebrate achievement, ‘why do
the subject?’ skills learnt or an “in the
news” section amongst many other
possible items.
 Learning objectives – Where are you
going? Display learning objectives for
individual lessons or a series of lessons. It
can build student awareness of where
their learning is going in the medium to
long term.

24. Displaying student work may act as a reward for
those students who have done well at a particular
task, fostering a sense of achievement and
potentially an encouragement to others to increase
their efforts. Also, it is useful as a point of reference to
those about to attempt a similar task.
Displayed work must be marked (If you are using
Home Learning, you could use the generic HL mark
sheet). SPAG must be corrected on the student work.
Finally, it should be rounded off with a title, year
group/focus and some questions to engage the
viewer.

25.  What
skills
does
your
subject
teach?

27. Try to document or keep some of your
achievements from PD over the years
to provide a bit of nostalgia and make
the new members feel like they are
part of something bigger.

29. Why not provide a
welcome to your
subject – make a
statement about what
it’s all about!

30. As well as the skills students can
learn – advertise what they
could potentially study and how
it could help them in life beyond
school.