The first ever teacher planner was produced in 1978 and, ever evolving, it still remains the market leader!
In the 1970s, busy School Teacher Neville Garner had the need for an effective lesson planner / teacher’s diary, so he went ahead and designed one that was both easy to use and affordable – The Teacher’s Planner was born. It was the first of its kind on the market and the first thousand that were published sold very quickly. Neville soon gave up teaching to concentrate on education planning books, believing they reduce stress for both pupils and teachers and ultimately improved standards in schools. As the years went on ‘Educational Planning Books’ expanded, introducing new products to the range – The Teacher’s Planner 2024/25 is launching soon and will be the 47th edition. These are still the leading teaching planners, used by over half of secondary teachers in the UK and in over 50 countries worldwide.
Designed for teachers by teachers.
The image above was the first Teacher Planner ever produced. It came in one colour and one size – blue, A4 planner sized, and was Wiro-bound. Over the years an A5 planner was added as some teachers required something in a smaller handy size. Then a loose-leaf version was created with ring binders both introducing A4 Teacher Planners and A5 Teacher Planners, to allow the addition of extra pages. What started out as an 8-period planner soon saw options of 5, 6 and 10 periods added to suit the varying number of lessons teachers have in a day.
There are now 8 colours to choose from, becoming ever vibrant over the years and reflecting trends of the time. After many requests for a pink planner, we have just launched the first limited edition hot pink planner!
Personalised Teacher Planners
All these variations mean that the planners can now be tailored to suit your needs. If you would like your teacher planner customising, we offer a Bespoke Service allowing planners to be personalised with your school’s name or crest, for example.
It was always important to produce a planner that is well designed and easy to use. The content of our planners is constantly reviewed to meet the requirements of the user. We continually strive to improve The Teacher’s Planner and many changes have been made over time, such as:
- The addition of ‘notes’ pages.
- Improvements and amendments to extra pages.
- Continual improvements to the wire binding, designed to last the whole school year.
- Higher quality covers – In 2010 the big decision to upgrade covers from lined card covers to stronger more durable case bound covers and switched from gloss lamination to anti scuff matt laminated finish.
- Improved paper quality with decreased opacity & show through.
- Evolution of print – 1 colour to 2 colours.
The Educational Planning books range has expanded to include Primary Planners, Record Books, Student Planners, Homework Diaries, Reading Diaries and School Governor Files.
If you follow us on Facebook and Instagram, you can see our Throwback Thursday posts and see how we have developed over time.
Contact us today to discuss all of your teacher planning needs!