As strong as the 

teacher next to me

As strong as the 

teacher next to me

What is the Squad?

Think of the School Kit Squad as a secret club of NZ classroom teachers. 

Operating for fifteen years, and made up largely of teachers that have used our kits in their classroom before, most members first discover us when they register to teach one of our free resource boxes. 

We call ourselves the School Kit Squad and together we share a common goal of seeking innovative, unconventional and challenging teaching experiences for our students.

Of course this isn't actually a secret club - We just don’t shout about it, we don’t seek the limelight, we just get on with it. Here, we’re teaching together, even though our classrooms are miles apart. We're sharing ideas and challenging ourselves to teach things differently. 

We think that makes it some of the best professional development you can find. 
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sounds like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest.

It’s not about fake friends, but real professional connections with over 15,000 New Zealand classroom teachers - colleagues who truly understand the ups and downs of teaching. 

It’s a space where shared experiences come to life, where you might all be teaching the same thing in your own way, separately yet together, creating a sense of unity across classrooms. 

Here, genuine support is always at hand - whether you’re wrestling with a tricky new curriculum framework or feeling confident in it, there’s always someone who gets it. 

And just as importantly, it’s a celebration space, where those “OMG that was awesome” teaching moments can be shared with people who instantly understand their significance.

The School Kit Manifesto

The kits

We design high integrity, compelling, student-centred learning opportunities that teachers love.

Our kits are beautiful, physical, tangible, tactile things but we also provide support to teach them well and celebrate the powerful learning experiences that result.

Every kit comes in three parts.

The Box

  • Our kits are designed to be used - each kit comes with enough contents for up to 32 students.

  • Once a teacher has confirmed their registration, kits are delivered to your school.

The Community

  • We call our private, online, teacher-only network The School Kit Squad. It’s here that we deliver our teacher support materials and online professional support to teach them well.

  • In here you’ll find your teacher support materials - professional readings, explainer videos, how to guides, cheat sheets and digital copies of everything you find in your hard copy kit.

  • In your dedicateh kit space you’ll find every other teacher that has registered to teach this kit. They’ll be using the space at the same time you do and experiencing similar roadblocks, having similar questions and (we hope) sharing similar successes.

We know teachers don't want worksheets, colouring in sheets, word-finds or 'Design a [insert word here]' competitions. We also don't believe any professional teacher worth their salt needs a 10 page step-by-step teaching guide. But our kits are more than a box.

The Support

  • Contact our hosts at anytime to answer kit queries, to seek teacher support or share your progress.

  • Book a zoom / call with one of our Teacher Champions here.

  • The support isn’t just online. We visit 800 schools every year giving us a chance to meet, chat, troubleshoot and celebrate with quad members in person.

Register for a kit

Classroom teachers really like us

  • “This resource was beyond words. We all learned so much together. I'm so impressed by this kit and have raved about it to anyone who would listen."

    Katie - Year 8 Teacher

    Something Happened Here

  • “The resources in this kit are amazing! So many different ways that you can teach your students. How you use it depends on their needs and the direction they show you."

    Colleen - Year 2 Teacher

    Respectul Relationships

  • “This kit was a great opportunity to teach chemical reactions. Some cakes worked well, others failed. So we had great discussions about trial and error, just like scientists do.”

    Soazik - Year 5 Teacher

    Make Vege Cake

  • "The kit provided us with resources for a great local beach / dunes clean up. The data collection task showed students the amount of rubbish from local stores."

    Erin - Year 4 Teaher

    Sea Cleaners

A secret club for teachers

When you register for a School Kit you are placed in a private dedicated kit space. In here you’ll find your teacher support materials but you’ll also find every other teacher that has registered to teach this kit. They’ll be using the space at the same time you do and experiencing similar roadblocks, having similar questions and (we hope) sharing similar successes.

It’s a chance to address that professional loneliness. To share a teaching experience with hundreds, even thousands of classroom teachers who are creating the same powerful learning experience for their students as you are, right now with yours.

“School Kit is like the My Food Bag of great teaching resources”

— Enthusiastic Squad Member

Squad Members only

The Huddle

Each term Squad members follow the journey of eight classroom teachers as they road test one of four books in their classroom. You’ll see updates, progress, successes and failures as they unpack the book with their students. When they're done, we wrap it up into a single unit and share it with everyone in the Squad. Squad members receive a special squad only discount when purchasing Penguin books.

Teach with Toitoi

For 10 years and over 36 beautifully designed issues, the Toitoi team has worked tirelessly to honour the writing and artwork of our students. They have an archive of thousands of fabulous pieces of artwork and heart-stopping writing. Squad members receive free access to samples from the Toitoi Archive. New teaching activities are released weekly accompanied by PDFs of previously published student work.

everyday.

For 10 years and over 36 beautifully designed issues, the Toitoi team has worked tirelessly to honour the writing and artwork of our students. They have an archive of thousands of fabulous pieces of artwork and heart-stopping writing. Squad members receive free access to samples from the Toitoi Archive. New teaching activities are released weekly accompanied by PDFs of previously published student work.