He was also banned from using the internet, although this was lifted on appeal after his lawyers said it would prevent him from working after his release. Then 23, he had been working as a reception teacher at a primary school in Warwickshire. In 2005, he was jailed for nine months for making and owning indecent and explicit images of children. This was the second time Kinge had been convicted for child pornography. She's a high-level TA and she was really shocked. 'Our headteacher told us in the morning meeting. 'Everyone was completely taken aback,' says Zena Fish, a Year 3 teacher in Wandsworth, south London. Although Sparklebox was a one-man band, it continues to be available online while he is in prison. While many learning grids subsequently lifted the ban (there is no evidence to suggest that Kinge involved Sparklebox in any of his offences) many teachers felt it would be immoral to use the site because of its association with a sex offender.

The effects rippled through schools across the UK. In the days following Kinge's conviction, the explanation for local authorities' ban of the site at last became public. The man behind some of the most widely used primary school resources was a paedophile.

On January 8 this year, Samuel Kinge, the creator and editor of Sparklebox - and a former teacher - was convicted at Worcester Crown Court of downloading 424 indecent and fake photographs of children.

'We have been given a reason that I quite frankly find very hard to take on board and would like to try and find out if it is true or not,' wrote a teacher on the TES forum.Įventually, the reason for the embargo became clear. While many teachers were left in the dark, those who had an inkling about what was going on could not quite believe what they were hearing. As well as the wealth of material available, what made it so appealing for teachers was that resources were categorised by subject as well as by type and could be previewed before they were downloaded and printed out.Īs one of the biggest repositories of online resources - relied upon by thousands of teachers for lesson planning - the speed with which Sparklebox had been placed out of bounds caused frustration and bemusement. Sparklebox is a website with thousands of free primary school teaching resources available for download. Does anyone know what the real reasons behind the block are?' It is an amazing website which cuts my resource-making time by 50 per cent.

'They are claiming it is for safeguarding reasons. 'Has anyone noticed that Sparklebox has been blocked again by various LAs (local authorities)?' she asked. In November last year, 'Kiki', a primary teacher in London, started a discussion topic on the TES online forum.

Sparklebox early years