That is the question that many of us ask ourselves at some point in the year. Often, it is asked within the boundaries of our school’s policy on the matter but many of us (even if only theoretically) will think about the question more broadly. One thing is for certain, we will have all thought about them in some capacity as we all will more than likely have had to create one!

This brings us to some important questions to ponder… What is the purpose of a classroom display, how might it support or detract from learning, and what effect might it have on our classroom environment and students? As with most things in teaching, the answers to these questions can be susceptible to the, somewhat, cyclical nature of educational trends. They will also vary person to person.

Some teachers absolutely love to create a 3D masterpiece that showcases what the children have learned, hoping to turn their classroom into a confidence-boosting gallery of work; others prefer to use them as working walls that change and adapt with the learning, acting as an additional resource to scaffold the children’s work. Others still want to limit, or even eliminate, what goes up on their walls in order to create a calm atmosphere that seeks to reduce cognitive load- and their impact on the environment.

With this in mind, we reached out to a few teachers asking them to share a display that they have created and explain what their thought process behind it was. We’d also love to see your displays and hear your thoughts on them so please share them with us in the comments. On a final note, whilst there will always been differing opinions on the matter, I think there is one think that (nearly) all of us can agree upon when it comes to displays: triple backing is an absolute waste of time and paper!