Welcome to Planet Castor! 

Planet Castor is much more than a teaching and learning resource:

it is a creative visual representation of learning journeys that ensures all stages of every learning intention are meaningful to every learner—all delivered through the familiar Powerpoint program.  

Teachers are continually spinning plates while juggling an endless number of balls. The need to include all elements—synonymous with outstanding lessons—inevitably makes teaching an extremely time-consuming and challenging job.

Planet Castor is passionate about supporting teachers in this process and improving the consistency with which learning is presented.    

Our signature planning canvases are the vehicle for teaching outstanding lessons in a simple, learner-friendly manner.  They enable learning journeys to be efficiently brought to life during the planning, delivery and reflection stages of every lesson.     

• A simple, innovative set of canvases that will present learners with all the elements needed to ensure that they shine in front of their excelling teacher.   
• A consistent interface that displays lesson outcome, success criteria, engaging hooks, differentiated learning challenges and a set of questions that will challenge misconceptions. 

Our approach does not replace the abundance of great materials that teachers already possess. On the contrary, our teaching and learning resources will become the vehicle (canvas) that makes it possible for all those fantastic resources to be effectively cast into classrooms.

If teachers have a fantastic worksheet that they have acquired the rights to use, it can be inserted in our canvases before being put to great effect. Should teachers have a film, audio file, PDF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, photograph, image, series of questions, success criteria, or learning outcome (you get the idea!), these too can be brought to life on our pedagogical canvases. And, with so many resources contained in each of our toolkits, you can be sure that you also will be in the ideal position to bring learning journeys to life.

So, if you are ready to enhance the way in which you plan, present, teach and assess your students’ learning, come on board a growing community who are launching Planet Castor into their classrooms today!

Meet Mr Castor

Having taught in a spectrum of British and international schools for over two decades, I am firm in the belief that education is the best profession on Planet Earth. Children show awe and wonder towards learning daily, and this is what still really excites me.

Along my journey, I have worked with some amazing educators who have questioned my own pedagogy. Yet my approach and philosophy are a direct result of my own students, who have moulded me into the teacher that I am today.

I have a wonderful wife and two amazing children. My wife is also a teacher who delivers from the heart, and her support, encouragement and patience have enabled me to give of myself for so many years.

While teaching is extremely rewarding, we all know just how demanding it can also be. We teach our students to be lifelong learners. This also applies to those delivering that message. The ever-changing initiatives and expectations in teaching can come thick and fast; and, in these busy times, managing our time effectively is of paramount importance.

I believe that conscientious teachers never really switch off and are always on the lookout for resources with which to enhance their students’ learning journeys. For many years I lacked the means to store and display such inspirations in a way that would optimise my time, then and in the future. That was until I met the enthused and knowledgeable Mr Pollux—someone with IT skill far superior to mine, who showed so much promise on his first teaching practice, and someone who has delivered on that promise throughout his first year of teaching.

Mr Pollux and I agree that all skilled workers are better when equipped with the right tools. So we set about the mission of creating toolkits to ensure that others would have the means to cast out their inspiring pedagogy to a growing community of like-minded learners.

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Meet Mr Pollux

With a long background in IT and training experience that spans several sectors, I was inspired to become a primary school teacher by a passionate and long-serving teacher: my wife. During my teacher training, I was also fortunate to meet and work alongside another inspiring teacher, Mr Castor.

I have been married to a teacher for over ten years, and I thought I knew a lot about the profession. I was wrong. It wasn’t until I actually walked into my own classroom that I fully understood the pressures and demands that are put on today’s teachers. There are generally twenty-eight reasons why we endure these pressures each day, and we are responsible for the education and well-being of each of those reasons.

It was during my teacher training that Mr. Castor and I formed Planet Castor, with the vision of creating something that could not only facilitate the creation of meaningful learning journeys but also give back what all teachers need: time. Now facilitating learning in my own classroom, I believe that Planet Castor has been invaluable in ensuring that my students have memorable and engaging learning journeys—journeys that can now be saved, reflected on and improved upon for future learning while ensuring that I find that all-important balance between life and work.

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Meet Planet Castor’s A team!

We are Mr Castor and Mr Pollux’s first students. 

It is our job to help them both bring the journey of Planet Castor to life. We come from all corners of the world and represent the one thing that we all have in common: diversity.