Ted Wragg, professor of education at Exeter University, answers your professional problems, big or small, every week. Ask him for advice - or offer some of your own - by writing to: Dear Ted, Friday magazine, Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1W 1BX.Or email: dear.ted@tes.co.uk

Ted says

I sympathise, not being especially tidy myself, and the feeble excuse “Ah yes, but I have an interesting and creative personality” soon collapses when you lose something, or trip over your own debris.

Why not invent a project about the environment (your own)? “It is our collective duty to society,” you can say, without a hint of irony, “nay, a central plank of the school’s citizenship programme, to make sure that we keep the place tidy.” Without becoming too embarrassingly confessional, you might even admit your own shortcomings on the orderliness front, and explain why your class can be better than you. Provided you roll your own sleeves up, and do not simply act as cruel foreman to an exploited gang of slaves, you will probably get away with it.

The next question is: what is the nature of the room’s untidiness? Do piles of books clutter up the floor? Can no one find anything? Does your desktop look like an entry for the Turner prize? Your pupils and the classroom assistant can join you in seeking solutions. Perhaps you need more containers, appropriately labelled. A decent filing system could help locate papers. You may not be making the best use of shelf space, cupboards and wallboards.

Finally, who will do what? Children can work in teams to relocate materials and equipment, or take responsibility for a particular part of the room. Professor Jerry Freiberg of Houston University has done excellent work giving pupils, often in tough schools, responsibility for their own environment (for example, working out how to reduce noise in the dining room). His idea of “one-minute monitors” allows children to perform a simple classroom job for a few weeks, such as keeping an area spruce, or making sure there is paper in the printer. That way the room will stay orderly and, who knows, you might even become tidy yourself. Better one sinner that repentethI You say

There’s nothing like plastic

Get your school to provide you with some of those big plastic boxes with lids. Ours gives us four each and a proper toolbox for pens, scissors and so on. Then all you have to do is remember to clear them out from time to time. Another thing that helps is to get the kids into routines for clearing away. Practise your Joyce Grenfell voice: “Now then class, we all know where the pencils go, don’t we?”

Sarah Greene, email

File it to hide it

Get a load of those magazine files. Label them and put in all your exercise books, textbooks, literacy support books, and so on - virtually anything will go in. Line them up, complete with your computer-generated labels, and they will look attractive and suggest an organised owner. Go to a homewares store and get lots of little plastic storage boxes of varying sizes. Most of the awkward stuff will fit into those. Label them. Finally, chuck out anything you don’t regularly use. If you can’t bear to do this, find a little hideaway elsewhere in the school to stow it.

Mark Edwards, Bedford

A net worth

If you have some spare tables, get some net curtain wire and two hooks that will screw into the table side, hang a bright piece of material from it and, hey presto, somewhere to hide all those large plastic boxes full of things that really need “sorting”. Also, one of my Year 5 girls is the most organised person I have ever met, so she files all my non-confidential paperwork for me.

Anonymous, email

A base in place

If you’ve got large items and equipment in the room such as balances, musical instruments or art and craft items, a good idea is to draw round the item’s base and cut the shape out of black paper, then cover it in sticky back plastic, sticking it in place on the shelf. That way the children will know exactly where to put the equipment back when they’ve finished.

“Hawker”, email

Make it a special job

Try allocating special jobs to particular pupils and perhaps give small rewards to your helpers. Ask the children how best they can help you - some of them might be tidy-minded.

Reception teacher, south London

Try a reward scheme

I’m a student teacher who’s found that offering rewards is a brilliant way to get the children to clean up. They want the reward (I use points). I also asked for more storage boxes to keep the items lying out hidden away.

“Ms Scruff”, email

Turn a chore into a cha-cha-cha

A piece of “tidying-up” music at the end of sessions encourages children to tidy up and lets them know how long they have got to do it. Examples are “Soul Limbo” by Booker T and the MGs, and “Respect” by Aretha Franklin. Other colleagues favour “Flight of the Bumblebee”. This sometimes encourages dancing while they tidy up, but it’s always done with a smile.

Clare Cook, email