Cymraeg

Faithful Explorers

Illustration of a young person wearing a cap and backpack, holding an illustrated map of stars and constellations. The backpack is filled with school supplies, and the person looks ahead with curiosity. Darlun o berson ifanc yn gwisgo cap a bag cefn, yn dal map wedi’i addurno gyda sêr a chytserau. Mae’r bag cefn yn llawn deunyddiau ysgol, ac mae’r person yn edrych ymlaen yn chwilfrydig.

The Faithful Explorers are incredibly loyal to their “go to” platforms, and have become comfortable using them over time.

They often:

  • Have one platform that is their preferred source of resources.
  • Adopt the platform out of a specific need, i.e. the need for resources that are easily adapted.
  • Are more comfortable using a resource “off the shelf” or doing minimal adapting.

Resource preferences

Faithful Explorers are highly pragmatic, and efficiency driven. They rely heavily on pre-made, pre-packaged resources that allow them to deliver content quickly and effectively within tight timeframes. Their resource use is shaped by the realities of their working context – large class sizes, multiple year groups, limited planning time, and often limited support. Faithful Explorers favour resources that are classroom-ready, visually engaging, and pitched at an appropriate level for their learners.

While Twinkl is often their platform of choice due to its large library and editable content, it is not the only resource they use. Practitioners in this archetype also regularly turn to:

  • Hwb and J2E for interactive tools and templates.
  • BBC Bitesize and BBC Teach for short videos and activities.
  • TES for downloadable worksheets and presentations.
  • Canva for quick, visually appealing resources.
  • YouTube for engaging video content.

These practitioners want resources that are easily searchable, categorised clearly by topic, progression step, or theme, and available in formats that can be quickly downloaded and edited. They also value resources that include ideas for practical activities or differentiated versions for different learners.

Common challenges

The key challenge for Faithful Explorers is often rooted in quality versus convenience. While platforms such as Twinkl save time for practitioners, they are not always perfectly aligned with the Curriculum for Wales, nor tailored to the specific needs of their learners. This means:

  • Resources may feel too generic or “England-centric”.
  • Welsh-language resources are often reported to be poorer in quality or harder to find.
  • Editable resources are sometimes limited to superficial changes.
  • There is concern that reliance on pre-made worksheets can stifle creativity or be viewed negatively by school leadership.

There are also access challenges: during workshops, practitioners shared that some schools or senior leaders ban or discourage the use of Twinkl entirely, viewing it as a shortcut or over-reliant on worksheets. Practitioners also noted the frustration of multiple subscriptions such as Twinkl, Teachers Pet, Master the Curriculum, and others, adding up in cost without always delivering distinctive content.

Finally, practitioners noted that even within their favourite platforms, search functions are not always reliable. Issues include struggling to find specific content, with poor tagging and categorisation making searches time-consuming.

Opportunities and recommendations

To better support Faithful Explorers, platforms should move beyond simply providing “ready-made” resources, and focus on reducing friction in resource discovery, adaptation, and classroom application. Recommendations include:

  • Improve search functionality with smarter filters and better tagging.
  • Offer clearly differentiated versions of the same activity (e.g., a basic, standard, and stretch version).
  • Expand high-quality Welsh-language resources, including culturally relevant content beyond translation.
  • Provide editable resources in a variety of formats (Google Docs, Word, PowerPoint).
  • Curate seasonal or topical bundles aligned with the school calendar (e.g., Saint David’s Day packs, Eco Week ideas).
  • Embed clear usage guidance or suggested learning outcomes to save teachers’ time.
  • Include simple tools to “favourite” or “bundle” resources together into collections.
  • Offer pre-made, complimentary, interactive activities alongside static worksheets (e.g., Kahoot-style quizzes, digital worksheets via J2E).

Ultimately, platforms should position themselves not just as repositories of worksheets, but as hubs that enable practitioners to teach flexibly, save time, and meet learner needs within a rapidly changing educational landscape.

Case study – Faithful Explorers

A primary school teacher based in a Welsh-medium school represents the Faithful Explorers archetype: educators who have built up strong loyalty and familiarity with a particular resource platform over time. For this particular teacher, that platform is Twinkl.

While the teacher does adapt resources when necessary, the starting point is almost always Twinkl. Its extensive library of ready-made materials, editable resources, and Welsh-language content means it fits neatly into the demands of the teaching day, especially when juggling a mixed-age class and limited classroom support.

The practitioner’s brand loyalty to Twinkl is shaped by previous positive experience. The teacher recalls its earlier days as a free, highly responsive platform that would quickly create resources on request. Over time, this positive history has cemented Twinkl’s place as this teacher’s “go-to”, even if it is not perfect.

Though the teacher uses other platforms occasionally (like Teachers’ Pet, Master the Curriculum, etc.), these are typically for specific gaps that Twinkl doesn’t fill. They often require more effort to adapt for the context.

Reflecting on past experiences, this teacher was clear about what an ideal resource platform would offer:

  • A strong, intuitive search function; one that reliably surfaces resources when searching by theme, keyword, or topic (without having to Google for workarounds).
  • More editable resources – especially in Word or PowerPoint format rather than static PDFs.
  • Welsh-language resources that feel high quality and thoughtfully created, rather than direct translations that can feel overly wordy or unnatural.
  • A personalised dashboard that remembers most-used topics, recent downloads, or favourites; helping to quickly pick up where one left off.
  • A reasonable pricing structure that is mindful of school budgets and the risk of paying for multiple subscriptions without enough return.

For this teacher, platforms like Twinkl are invaluable, but there is a clear desire for tools that are more flexible, more Welsh-friendly, and more tailored to the real-world pressures of the classroom.