Blog | Claire's School Solutions

How to sell yourself when applying for a school post.

It is getting to THAT time of year when the job sheets get busier and you might be thinking of putting that application in. You might be fancying a change from your current school, You might be in a school on supply and wish to apply for a long term/ permanent...

Stories that help children find comfort and meaning: Guest Blog by Jane Somers.

As part of the National Year of Reading, we are highlighting children's books which you may not have encountered before. Here, author Jane Somers explains what brought her to writing books for children to help them understand powerful emotions. Q: When and why...

The Importance of Ramadan and Eid

We are in the period of Ramadan, which many of our staff and schools, honour and is an important part of the spiritual year. Here, Jo has asked one of our lovely Teaching Assistants, about what this means to her and how she observes it within her life. There are...

Ducks, ducks everywhere!

From half-term for 10 weeks, the Ay Up Me Duck' Trail is being hosted in 4 Amber Valley towns, including Belper. Here, Jo has interviewed some of the artists about how this project cam about and how they became involved and decided on their unique and stunning...

The Power of Puzzling!

How many of us like a puzzle of some sort? It maybe a jigsaw puzzle, a sudoku, the Sunday crossword or even the good old Rubik’s cube! There must be a reason behind the rise in popularity of TV programmes like the 1% club, where we choose to watch something that makes...

Diversity Days Everyday

We start with Carla Dee, whose 'Ay Up Duck' is in Belper. Q: How did you hear about the Ay up me duck trail? A: I saw a callout from Making Trails on social media inviting local artists to submit designs for the trail. Having previously painted sculptures for the...

Facing Blue Monday head on!

The third Monday of January is often referred to as “Blue Monday,” a term coined in 2005 and popularly linked with feelings of low mood and motivation. Falling on January 20th in 2025, this day is often associated with post-holiday blues, cold and dark winter days,...

A Day in the Life of an ECT: Term 2 and the first Christmas!

A funny question to start with… how tired were you at the end of that first term? Let’s just say that if exhaustion was an Olympic sport, I’d have a medal… I reached a point where I genuinely questioned how early was too early for bed! I remember driving back to my...

My experiences of teaching in Russia

Quite a few of our teachers have experienced a different education system in other countries. It can be enlightening and fascinating in many ways and is a hugely valuable opportunity. Here we have asked Lucy, one of our teachers, to share her memories and insights on...

The role of positive play in supporting mental wellbeing and behaviour.

One of the highlights of my career was initiating the Positive Play approach in a school and creating the multi-sensory space, in order to implement the programme for children who most needed it. The Derbyshire County Council programme is still running now and this...

Give the gift of reading this Christmas!

If there is a silver bullet for ordinary, everyday childhood happiness, it is reading for pleasure. Children read for joy; for jokes they can steal; to have anchors in turbulent water and company when they hide silently behind the bins at break; to find friendship and...

Looking after your own wellbeing.

Within a school environment, all too often external pressures weigh heavy on our shoulders and it can take its toll on us. This may be pressure to attain to ever demanding standards, or supporting families and pupils that depend on your or sadly, pressure from the...

The Good Childhood Report 2025: Key Findings

Q: Which countries have you worked in? A: I worked in St Petersburg, Western Russia in an international Christian school. It was an American school but children from every nation were welcome to attend. These included children from US, Russia, Korea, Hong Kong,...

History walk of Green Lane, Belper with Claire’s Team and Adrian Farmer.

As we are moving into our new home at The Old School House on Green Lane very soon, we wanted to find out more about the history of not just our building but the surrounding area. So, we knew just the man to educate us, local historian, Adrian Farmer, who also had a...

Paediatric First Aid Training Course

We held our first course recently, providing Paediatric First Aid Training to 9 of our Claire's staff. New guidance has advised that staff working with Nursery and Reception children be trained in Paediatric First Aid. Dianne from DB Safety Training was the provider...

The Importance of Sensory classrooms.

The absolute highlight of my brief stint of Headship was creating a sensory room called 'The SparkleBox'. It had always been a passion of mine to look at how different children needed extra support or resources to help them and to create a specific multi-sensory room...

Letters to our favourite teachers!

"A teacher effects eternity; he can never tell where his influence will stop" - Henry Adams. Leaving the teaching profession after 29 years was an incredibly hard decision to take and I have no regrets about working in the 5 schools I worked in over those years. I had...

Life after Headship: Introducing The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) into schools GUEST BLOG

Zoe Cannon is an ex-Headteacher and in her retirement has decided to establish her own business using The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as an effective and gentle self-help and coaching method for wellness and emotional release. She is hoping to introduce this...

Meet Cyril the Squirrel! – Guest Blog

Vicki has been a teacher for 33 years and takes a friend to school with her. Every now and then she will send us a video of her furry friend in the classroom with her, so we decided to ask her about how Cyril helps her in the classroom. I have used Cyril the squirrel...

A Day in the Life of an ECT: Start at the beginning

Tiegan started her first teaching job this September after completing a B'Ed at University of Derby. I had the privilege of being her 2nd year mentor and am very proud of her burgeoning career. She has agreed to share her experience of her first year. Read on to see...

Setting up eye-catching learning spaces: Guest Blog

"Education is the art of assisting discovery." — Mark Van Doren I believe the classroom environment is like a “silent teacher.” When it’s thoughtfully set up, it sparks curiosity, encourages independence and makes children feel excited about learning....

Sticks and Stones…

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me"... mmm... don't think so! Something happened to change a wide-eyed, confident, fun-loving girl with pigtails into a self-doubting, anxious teenager whose most dreaded part of the week was...

Giving children and ourselves a clean slate!

Any teacher will identify with the first day in a new class and those pristine exercise books where the first page lay pure and inviting, asking to be used, knowledge, freedom of speech or creativity soon to be etched on its pages. I’m still a sucker for a new...

Let’s Go Fly a Kite! Finding joy in playing – screen free!

“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” Aldous Huxley. What space do we leave in our adult lives for chances to feel true, unadulterated...

Interview with Adrian Farmer on The Old School House.

Adrian Farmer (Heritage Co-ordinator for the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site), met with some of the ‘Claire’s School Solutions’ team recently to talk about the history of the Old School House on Green Lane. We were also keen to show him our plans for the...

The History of The Old School House, Green Lane, Belper – We’re moving! Follow along with our renovation journey!

So, we have some exciting news! We are moving! We have recently acquired the beautiful building, The Old School House in Belper, as our new offices! The Old School House is a perfect fit for our business, and we are very excited about this new chapter! The building...

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