24th September 2008

Teachers in schools across England will benefit from Espresso Education’s increasing focus on professional development, as Espresso has teamed up with Teachers TV, the digital channel and web service for all those in the education workforce.
Teachers have less release time to attend training, while professional development requirements are becoming ever more rigorous. This new partnership will assist busy teachers in over 10,000 Espresso subscribing schools to keep up-to-date with changing curriculum standards by providing them with some of the best Teachers TV videos and resources.
Teachers, assistant teachers, and head teachers alike can find the support they need with direct, relevant links from Espresso (in primary schools) and Clipbank (in secondary schools) to Teachers TV's web-based content.
Espresso’s newly re-designed ‘Staffroom’, its online teacher support area, will include ‘subject buttons’ taking teachers to particular pages within Teachers TV; a ‘Notice Board’ promoting Teachers TV weekly themes for each term; and a Teachers TV ‘Search Box’. Espresso will also embed Teachers TV links within its content ‘modules’, collections of video and multi-media resources created around specific curriculum objectives. All these links, hand-selected by educationalists, will provide teachers with even further teaching and curriculum support on a subject or topic. These ‘just-in-time’ training opportunities from Teachers TV allow teachers to prepare for what they may need in lessons the next day, right when they need it.
Within Clipbank, teachers can review Teachers TV clips featuring the newly updated secondary curriculum. It also includes the Teachers TV ‘Search Box’ as well as Teachers TV secondary themes for the autumn term.
Through this partnership, Espresso is also planning to extend its popular pupil-focused ‘News Bites’ feature to inform teachers. In November, ‘Teacher News Bites’ will be available on both Espresso and Clipbank, building on Teachers TV’s recently launched new-look news programme, first broadcast via TV and web on 19 September. ‘Teacher News Bites’ will be condensed versions of whole Teachers TV programmes and will include news of special interest to teachers as well as ‘feature’ stories. Delivered fortnightly, this news service will keep teachers updated on the latest educational news, trends, issues and debates.
Teachers TV aims to improve standards of teaching and learning, offering curriculum support and strategies to tackle key issues in schools today. Online, on-demand, anytime, Teachers TV has over 2400 programmes available on its website and broadcasts on digital satellite and digital cable TV 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
In March 2008, Education Digital 2 Limited, consortium made up by Brook Lapping/TenAlps PLC (75%) and ITN, was confirmed to retain the prestigious Department for Children, Schools and Families’ (DCSF) contract for digital TV channel Teachers TV for a further five years. This consortium offered more extensive reach through ITN’s business links with Espresso Education and Channel 4 Learning.
Espresso for primary and Channel 4 Learning Clipbank for secondary are cross-curricular, digital libraries of high quality, video-rich teaching resources.
Quotes:
Espresso Education Chief Executive Lewis Bronze said: “Espresso reaches thousands of busy teachers every week, who use our time-saving digital resources in their lessons. We’re delighted to now be bringing them up-to-the minute training and development video clips from Teachers TV. It’s a great extension to our service, and will help Teachers TV reach even more teachers directly in schools.”
Andrew Bethell, Chief Executive of Teachers TV said “Teachers TV is delighted to be able to work with Espresso. Espresso has unrivalled access to over 10,000 schools and it’s a fantastic opportunity to share Teachers TV’s high quality content even further. Teachers TV is committed to this relationship and we look forward to seeing its future success.”
Notes to Editors:
Teachers TV
About Espresso Education
Espresso Group
The Espresso Group is a market leading group of companies based in the UK dedicated to developing and delivering content, learning platforms and web portal applications to the education markets.
The group consists of three subsidiary businesses: