- 50,000 teachers from 180 countries turn to the Tes community to share classroom expertise online.
- Tes invests over £50m in Tes Resources since launch in 2006, now used by 8 million educators around the globe.
- Tes Resources connects teachers with 640,000 free and paid lesson plans and resources created by their peers, helping them to deliver inspiring lessons.
A global community of eight million educators has downloaded one billion lesson plans and resources from Tes.com. Since launching in 2006, the Tes Resources platform has grown exponentially. It’s now home to over 640,000 individual lesson plans created by 50,000 teachers. This library is the product of collaboration by teachers across 180 countries. Covering all major curriculums in the English language, two thirds of the lesson plans (420,000) are available for free. Paid lesson plans were introduced in 2015, allowing teachers to sell their best materials for a small fee. There are now 220,000 paid resources on the platform.
The billionth download was a free Ancient Greece Murder Mystery resource created by Jon Whitley. In the resource pupils must investigate the murder of an Athenian hoplite, Agathon, using the videos and paper-based evidence. Designed to take 80 minutes to complete, the resource has been downloaded 141,631 times by 9,712 teachers in 87 countries since being uploaded in 2010.
Sharing expertise can improve the quality of lessons and reduce workload related stress. The average teacher delivers over 800 lessons a year and spends seven to eight hours a week preparing them*. Millions of teachers turn to Tes Resources for help with this task, tapping into a global network of their peers for inspiration and support. On peak days, more than a million resources are downloaded across early years, primary, secondary, special needs education and over 30 subjects.
Oliver Rutherford, UK secondary maths teacher said:
“I find absolute gems: engaging, well-differentiated presentations and worksheets that provide simple and minimally-different examples to ensure that my students keep up. Even if I had enough hours in the day to produce all of these myself, I would never be able to do so with the same rigour and quality as some of the world-class teachers who frequently post their resources. Thank you for helping me become a better teacher!”
Teacher Coreen Burt said:
“Every weekend millions of teachers all over the world are studying their timetables and preparing for their classes. During a career at the chalkface, I saved countless hours by acquiring my own personal collection of resources. These are proven and trusted resources designed by experienced teachers who have found them to work in the classroom. Teachers can save precious time and deliver better lessons at school.”
Rob Grimshaw, CEO of Tes said:
“Since 2006 Tes has invested over £50m in partnering with teachers to build the ultimate lesson plan library. Teachers are the centre of our world and this is one of the most valuable things we can do to support them. We’re proud to reach one billion downloads and grateful to the many thousands of teachers that have contributed lesson plans. It’s a special community dedicated to helping their fellow teachers inspire and engage children. Tes Resources is transforming the way classroom content is created and distributed. In the process it’s also making a massive difference to the professional lives of teachers all over the world.”
Teacher created resources are fast becoming a flexible and cost effective alternative to textbooks. Research from a team of Stanford University academics shows how much teachers value lesson plans from Tes Resources. Of 10,000 teachers surveyed, 90% rated them above-average for both quality and relevance, 86% believed that they produce better lessons than textbooks, and 81% that they help teachers access new, innovative methods of teaching. Out of all the materials downloaded from Tes Resources, over two thirds are used in the classroom.
Quality is key for teachers using Tes Resources and a peer review system is in place to ensure the best materials stand out. A Net Promoter Score (NPS) that consistently tops 70+ demonstrates how highly teachers rate the service.
Downloads have come from over 180 countries, with Australia and the United States the most active outside of the UK in the last 12 months. The most popular subjects are maths, computing and English. Since launching in July 2006, significant milestones came in October of that year with the millionth download, 10 millionth in August 2009 and 100 millionth on Christmas Day 2011.
Access to Resources is available for free and more information can be found here: https://www.tes.com/a-billion-thanks
The billionth resource downloaded:
Ancient Greece Murder Mystery created by Jon Whitley
First resource downloaded in April 2006: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/short-phonic-games-3000290
Author’s username is jambam, and they are still seeing downloads and reviews on that resource now.
Download milestones
- 1k – 24/07/2008
- 10k – 07/08/2008
- 100k – 26/08/2008
- 1 million – 13/10/2008
- 10 million – 25/08/2009
- 100 million – 25/12/2011
- 500 million – 22/11/2014
- 1 billion – estimated May 2017
Top five most popular subjects of all time
- English
- Mathematics
- Cross-curricular topics
- Whole school
- History
Top five most downloaded authors/ organisations of all time
- Bevevans22 (8,112,643)
- DavidHowes1977 (7,762,832)
- HamiltonTrust (5,753,367)
- Eric_t_viking (5,340,095)
- NGfLCymru (5,339,071)
Top five most downloaded resources of all time
- I can statements English, Maths, Science. Primary New Curriculum 2014 (1,193,071)
- Year 6 Maths SATS QUESTIONS 2 - 20 grouped topics (1,124,742)
- Y6 MATHS SAT QUESTIONS 1 - 20 grouped topics(970,295)
- Fractions of amounts, including real life (844,014)
- Punctuation Worksheets (840,794 )
Top 10 countries downloading resources worldwide in the last 12 months by unique downloaders
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- Australia
- Canada
- Ireland
- UAE
- India
- New Zealand
- Spain
- Philippines
– ENDS –
NOTES TO EDITORS
Tes.com resources marketplace at a glance
- Global digital community of 8 million educators
- Over 640,000 free and paid resources created by teachers for teachers, including 65,000 videos
- Over 1 million downloads on peak days
- One in five UK teachers have purchased a paid resource in 18 months
- Purchases have been made from over 180 countries
Data sources
* Education at a Glance 2014: OECD Indicators http://www.oecd.org/edu/EAG2014-Indicator%20D4%20(eng).pdf