There are a number of initiatives you can take part in as a teacher and the benefits are many. First, though there is a small amount of paperwork involved, it actually helps with your planning, gives you ideas, structure and makes it more meaningful for your students. It also looks good on your CV to show that you have an interest in helping your school achieve in different areas.
I will list the ones first that I personally have worked on for my school :
The Peace Proms- the best way to teach your music curriculum for term one!
The Blue Star- a wonderful way to teach about the EU and you get a flag and a visit from an MP!
The Discover Primary Science and Maths award: this again gives great structure to your science lessons and there isn’t a whole lot involved in creating the booklet, and you get a plaque for your school’s wall!
The Write a Book project with Scholastic- a fun way to revise genres of writing. I did this in my first year in my school four years ago and the books are still circulating the school and the children who are still in the school like to look back and read what they wrote in the book when they were in infants which is cute!
The Blue Shield- this will haunt me FOREVER. I completed all the paperwork, and was so close to getting the blue shield , but there was one tiny step left which I didn’t do ( to add some part of the ISPCC website to our school website) and I didn’t get it! I will never get over it! But the paperwork wasn’t too onerous.