Frequently Asked Questions

Question about Virtual Teacher

• Q: Who has set up and runs Virtual Teacher?
  • A: Virtual Teacher is run by teachers for teachers and fellow educators. VT was set up in 2004 to sell History lesson plans for KS4 and KS5. More recently we decided to open the site up to others wishing to do the same and that is where we are today. We are still building content and looking for contributors but at the end of the day our aim is to help teachers receive some extra reward for the massive amount of additional work they put in over and above the working day.
• Q: Why is Virtual Teacher doing this?
  • A: As teachers we know only too well the amount of work that goes into good lesson planning and preparation. There are many sites on the web offering "free" teaching resources and teachers contribute content to them but we wanted to provide a way for teachers to be rewarded for preapring high quality lesson plans and teaching material.

Question regarding selling plans on VT's website

• Q: Why should I give you my lesson plans that I have worked hard to create?
  • A: You shouldn't and we don't want to own your plans. The plans remain yours and you can add/remove them from the site as you wish. VT are offering you a mechanism to sell your plans to earn some extra income.
• Q: How much do I have to pay to Virtual Teacher before I can sell my plans?
  • A: Nothing! There are no charges at all for contributing to the site. There are no up fron fees, no subscription, no charge per plan you load and nothing hidden. If you only ever contribute to the site you will not have to pay anything at all to Virtual Teacher. Only teachers wishing to purchase plans pay a fee.

Questions regarding buying plans from VT's website

• Q: Why should I buy lesson plans from Virtual Teacher when I can download them for free from other sites?
  • A: There are a number of reasons for this...
    • There are very few sites that offer quality lesson plans for KS4 and KS5 courses. There is much more support for primary and KS3 teachers but we feel KS4 and KS5 are poorly covered, which is a shame as they are much more difficult to plan.
    • We do not believe that teachers should be encouraged to "give away" their teaching material for no reward.
    • We believe that teachers could make use of the extra income that VT provides
• Q: When will I receive payment for plans I sell through the site?
  • A: We pay all money to contributers monthly. This is generally during the first week of the month following the sale of material on the site but my be delayed slightly for major holidays such as Christmas and Easter although we try to minimise this.
• Q: Does any of the money I pay for lesson plans get back to the teacher that actually did the work?
  • A: Absolutely! This is the primary reason we started the site and getting money back to teachers is our goal.
• Q: Nobody does this for nothing! What's in it for Virtual Teacher?
  • A: Our aim is to get as much of the money paid for plans to the authors as we can. Sure, we have cost to cover for the website, taking card payments, accounting, etc. but we try to minimise these costs as far as possible. Absolute percentages vary as plan prices vary but we generally give around 70% of the price paid back to the author.
• Q: How do I know the plans I am considering buying are any good?
  • A: Each plan has a preview page where you can get a feel for the quality of the material. Once plans have been purchased the buyer has the opportunity to rate the material using a simple star system and this is shown next to each plan. Who better than teachers to rate the quality of teaching material.

Terminology used on the VT website

• KS3: Keystage 3. The collecive name given to students in years 7, 8 and 9 which spans from age 11 to 14.
• KS4: Keystage 4. The collecive name given to students in years 10 and 11 which spans from age 14 to 16.
• kS5: Keystage 5. The collecive name given to students in years 12 and 13 which spans from age 16 to 18.