Guest Post: The Hidden Value of Free Educational Resources from Charities for Schools
Guest post from: The Education Company.
Firstly, who is The Education Company?
The Education Company is the UK’s leading provider of education data and marketing services.
Their marketing services team can provide end-to-end campaign management or simply help with specific areas such as segmentation, market research, strategy, design, copywriting or delivery.
Their Education List is the most comprehensive and accurate database of UK Education. It is used by 80% of the UK’s largest education suppliers. From early years to post-16, from UK to international, they’ve got it covered.
Over 60,000 education organisations
Over 550,000 NAMED teaching professionals
Over 200,000 NAMED email addresses
Over 60,000,000 data attributes
They are data experts, and every service they provide uses their expertise in managing, developing and manipulating data to deliver successful business outcomes.
Ok, let’s get into it…
Educators receive marketing emails every day. Their inboxes are flooded with interesting reports, research and news updates from the education sector and communications from education suppliers looking to sell their products.
In amongst these emails will be sends from charities. Yes, they’ll ultimately be aiming to build awareness and engagement, with an end-goal of raising much-needed funds – which may not seem like a priority to the school leaders and teachers who receive the emails – but, so often, these broadcasts to schools offer links to extremely valuable downloadable content.
At The Education Company, we run successful marketing campaigns for many UK charities that are fuelled by valuable content that is created by or in collaboration with education experts at The Content Classroom.
In this post, we take a look at the value of this content to schools, with some examples of resources we have recently created. As you’ll see, charity resources not only save teachers time on planning and enrich the curriculum but also support school ethos, mental wellbeing, and community involvement.
The Value of Charitable Resources in Education
Many charities create and promote free educational resources for schools aligned to their mission and area of expertise. Topics covered range from health and wellbeing to social issues and environmental sustainability.
What educators may not always be aware of is that these resources are often created in collaboration with teachers. This ensures that the content aligns with educational goals, supports the curriculum, and provides valuable real-world perspectives through engaging, age-appropriate activities.
Enhancing the Curriculum with Expert Content
Depth of Knowledge
Charities often provide materials grounded in expertise, such as the first aid teaching resources developed by the British Red Cross or Greenpeace’s information on climate anxiety. Educators can trust the information in this content, knowing it has been developed based on thorough research and with input from specialists.
Curriculum-Aligned and Perfectly-Pitched Resources
Content containing accurate information are essential but as all educators know, it’s also imperative that resources to be shared with their class has been tailored with their learners in mind. Many charities, such as Cats Protection, utilise the market research services provided by The Education Company, to ask teachers about the content they would find most valuable to use in their schools. Research enables charities to explore the current educational landscape and challenges facing schools, teachers and pupils in order to develop effective next steps to address those challenges. A great example of this is the recent Schools for Nature report conducted by The Education Company on behalf of the World Wild Fund (WWF).
Materials need to be accessible to pupils of a certain age and stage, with age-appropriate content conveyed and presented in a way that is understood and of interest. They also need to be flexible so that teachers can decide how to use the resources and adaptable so that teachers can provide differentiation for their pupils’ varying learning needs and styles.
This is why the content we create for the charities we work with is written by or in collaboration with educators to ensure they cover national curriculum objectives, making it easy for teachers to integrate them directly into their existing schemes and lesson plans.
Real-World Relevance
Materials from reputable charities connect students to pressing local, national and global issues, adding a meaningful dimension to subjects like geography, science, or PSHE (Personal, Social, Health, and Economic education) and citizenship. These topics are often more challenging for teachers to devote time and focus to when prioritising planning and assessment in the core subjects, such as English and maths, so high-quality, trustworthy resources that are ready to go are worth their weight in gold.
Professional Development for Teachers and Leaders
Training Opportunities
Highlight any teacher training or webinars provided by charities, such as Save the Children’s global citizenship toolkit for key stages 3 & 4.
Enhancing Teaching Skills
Using structured and up-to-date resources from charities can help teachers develop skills in areas like health education, social justice, or environmental sustainability.
Staying Informed on Key Issues
Charity-provided resources help educators stay informed about critical issues affecting students, such as:
physical health-focused resources from Asthma + Lung UK and Cystic Fibrosis Trust;
mental health and wellbeing teaching resources from Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust; and
global current affairs-focused material, like the Newsthink teaching resources from the British Red Cross, covering issues such as conflicts and climate change-related crises.
Building Empathy and Awareness in Pupils
Real-World Engagement
Engaging with materials from charities allows pupils to connect classroom learning with real-world issues, fostering empathy and social responsibility.
Social and Emotional Learning
Resources, such as those from the GOSH Charity, Starlight Children’s Foundation or Save the Children, often include content on wellbeing, empathy, cooperation, and community impact, helping pupils understand and appreciate diverse experiences and challenges, as well as to learn to identify and share their emotions.
Encouraging Student Activism
Many charity resources encourage pupils to take action – such as monitoring levels of air pollution for Asthma + Lung UK’s Clean Air Champions campaign – empowering students to be proactive citizens.
Engaging Families in Learning and Wellbeing Initiatives
Family Involvement
Charities often include activities or campaigns that families can do together, extending learning beyond the classroom and fostering family bonds.
Greenpeace’s 2024 event, The Big Plastic Count, campaigned via schools to encourage pupils and their family members to count their plastic waste for one week. Resources were created especially for schools and shared with educators to raise awareness of the plastic problem and to plan and host an event during which results from the event could be shared with the wider community, including the local MP.
Support for Health and Wellbeing
Charities like Asthma + Lung UK offer resources that help families manage and understand health conditions, making them invaluable for children with specific needs and their caregivers. They also promote general awareness and challenge misconceptions or stereotypes that children and young people might hold relating to mental or physical health conditions.
Raising Awareness in Communities
Charitable campaigns, such as those from the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, provide information and activities to spread awareness, helping families and communities better support one another.
Supporting School Ethos and Culture
Alignment with School Values
Many schools aim to instil values of compassion, resilience, and social responsibility, and charity resources align closely with these principles.
Celebrating Diversity and Inclusivity
Materials on inclusivity and equality, often provided by charities, help schools foster a welcoming, understanding environment for all pupils. Through positive representation and carefully-written educational content, teachers can educate on sensitive topics, such as refugees, racism and the LGBT+ community, and support learners to experience a sense of belonging at school.
Community Engagement
Schools can also join charity initiatives, like GOSH Charity’s RBC Race for the Kids at School fundraising event and Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day, fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose.
Addressing Cost and Accessibility Benefits
Cost-Effective Resources
Free charity resources offer high-quality content at no cost, making them an accessible option for schools with limited budgets.
Widespread Accessibility
All schools can access digital resources, such as downloadable lesson plans or videos, regardless of their location or funding level.
Inclusion of All Learners
Charity resources often cover a broad range of topics, ensuring inclusivity by addressing issues relevant to different demographics and needs.
Conclusion: The Lasting Impact of Charity Resources on School Communities
That email from a charity containing a link to a free assembly discovered by a teacher (who is still wading through a mountain of planning and marking at 9pm) on a Sunday night, may well be a get-out-of-jail-card equivalent.
However, as we’ve seen here, these excellent resources sent out from charities to schools offer so much more than a last-minute, life-saving lesson plan. They provide schools with a range of academic, social, and emotional advantages that likely support curriculum goals, school ethos and whole-school-community values.