June 29, 2026 - I'm just thinking
Support staff opting for a boring ordinary planner. They'll be missing out on having the days and dates prefilled. I should be offering basic planners without lessons filled in... Add to the to do list.
June 12, 2026 - Official School Supplier
School management have decided to offer all staff a personalised Bespoke Teacher planner or a "boring ordinary" planner. I'm not doing the order myself this time - i can invoice the school Suddenly lots of staff asking to have a look at my planner, asking questions. Very happy to oblige
June 11, 2026 - 47
47 staff want my planners. 7 have chosen the ordinary ones (6 of them not teachers). By doing some maths I reckon that about 20 staff don't use a physical paper planner at all - more than i would have thought.
September 28, 2025 - Mission Statement
I have been a teacher for more than 30 years, and I still think it might be the best job in the world. But I utterly detest the mindless repetition of filling the same information into my planner every week, as well as the confusion it causes me if I write the class in at the wrong time of day. A few years ago I decided to do something about it. I mail-merged lesson information from a spreadsheet onto a Word document and printed out my personal teacher planner on 120 sheets of paper. This took way longer than you would believe. Certainly a lot longer than it would have taken me to sit down and write a years worth of lessons into my planner in one go. But it was interesting in a way, and I liked the result. Except I didn't like carrying around my planner in an A4 ring binder. Particularly when I accidentally left it unclipped and spilled pages around the classroom when I picked it up. So the following year I used an industrial-looking spiral binding machine I found in the reprographics room. It's still a lot of work, and I would prefer a smaller A5 planner, which adds another level of complexity. And then I moved to a new school, which is thoroughly wonderful, except for having no fancy spiral binder nor a reprographics room to put it in. Which led to a complete rethink… Because it occurred to me that I could pay for somebody else to do the binding. And I could pay for somebody else to do the printing. I would be very happy to pay £25 to have my bespoke planner without the hassle of actually making it. If I'm happy to pay for this service, I think other teachers might be too. I would like to think enlightened school leadership will recognise £25 is a very small price to pay for increased teacher well-being and efficiency. Which is where bespoke teacher comes in. I'm not a businessman, I'm a teacher and a geek. I used to teach physics (I love physics) and now I teach computer science (I love computer science too!) I learned how to set this company up and set this company up because I believe in the product. And I use my own bespoke teacher planner every day.
September 03, 2025 - colleagues and customers
Long walk to the train station with a borrowed pink shopping trolley. (I don't have use of a car and this is the only way I'm going to carry them with a broken collarbone!). Lay out the planners in the staff room and let my colleagues know where to find them. And brace myself. There is no way I can be fully sure that the planners work, i.e. that each school day is loaded with the correct class and room, except to have teachers using them. If there is anything wrong with these planners then I will want to find a cupboard to hide in. But nothing except praise and gratitude. It's a good feeling.
September 02, 2025 - delivery
A small and surprisingly heavy box just inside my front door when I get home. Equally unloaded onto the dining room table. They are not perfect, but they are still pretty impressive.
August 20, 2025 - paid on my credit card
15 orders submitted to lulu.com. Paid for on my credit card and trusting I will be able to claim it back from my school. Relief to get this done - now the nervous wait to see what comes in the post.
July 04, 2025 - orders
Last day of term! I have 15 confirmed orders for planners for the beginning of term, with a further 6 colleagues who would prefer to wait until mid September to order when the timetable is more likely to be stable. I have work to do!
June 13, 2025 - The first customers
Make my announcement in staff briefing: dear colleagues please fill in the form I have sent by email to let me know what you think about having a bespoke planner. By morning break I have nearly a dozen very positive responses; it is going to happen!
June 10, 2025 - We are go!
Meeting with management - green light! All I need to do now is persuade some of my colleagues to take the risk and order our planner from me instead of requesting one from the usual source.
June 07, 2025 - The Physical Object
The first bespoke teacher planner has arrived! Okay, so this is the prototype I need to show school management it is a viable proposition. In my hands it is heavy and I immediately know that ordering the higher quality paper is not only a waste of money but makes for an inferior product. And the cover is testament to my colour blindness, but it's a start.