Classfern for schools
Free planning tools for every teacher, and a Classfern Pro school license that adds a principal dashboard, the School Report Writer and whole-year planning. Student data stays on school devices, not on our server.
Email us about a school licenseSee the sample school dashboardEverything Classfern does
What every teacher gets free, today
No account, no sign-up and no limits on these. Staff can start in the next lesson.
- Lesson plan maker: 14 formats, including 5E, Madeline Hunter, UDL, SIOP and Understanding by Design. Export to Word, PDF or Google Docs.
- Year Planner: a whole-year plan for any of 772 UK and US courses, fitted to your school calendar and schedule, with a coverage report. The first half term is free; the whole year is in Pro.
- Teacher Information Packs (TIPs): the official curriculum or standards for a grade or course, with codes, key dates and trusted free resources.
- 493 free practice tests in math, English, science and reasoning, marked straight away, with no student accounts.
- Classroom tools: Class Screen, timers, name pickers, groups, seating charts and more.
- Field trip planning and activity safety plans.
What a school license adds
- Classfern Pro for every teacher on the license.
- School dashboard for the principal: how the school is doing, from year groups down to classes (details below).
- School Report Writer: marks, attendance and quick notes through the year; statistics and subject comments are filled in from your marks, and teachers write the personal comment. Comments are built from more than 550 original sentence parts, not written by AI.
- Principal review of reports: teachers send an encrypted review pack; the principal adds comments and approves, with no server involved.
- Consistent curriculum coverage with the Year Planner: the whole year saved to the teacher's account, shared with colleagues or a department, and a coverage report that shows when each standard is first taught and what is not yet planned.
- Ask Fern: an AI helper that searches the Classfern pages to answer questions (50 messages a day, 400 a month).
- Lesson plans synced between devices, the teachers' forum, job board and Exchange Finder, and no adverts.
- Classroom (a virtual class for setting work and tests)Coming soon: we will say more here when it opens to members.
What the principal sees
The school dashboard is live. Teachers send an encrypted class pack by school email or your shared drive, and the principal imports it. The dashboard then shows:
- learning curves term by term, report progress and homework completion;
- a drill-down from year groups to classes to individual students;
- a support list: students that teachers' own "At a glance" suggestions have flagged, with the reasons.
It does not show teachers' daily notes or report text. Exports show small groups as "fewer than five", and every view is logged. Lesson plans are not collected centrally: teachers share Year Planner plans with colleagues (Pro), or send Word and PDF files in the usual way.
Privacy by design
- No student database on our server. Report Writer data is kept in each teacher's browser, on their device, and is never part of Pro sync.
- Student codes, not names. We recommend a number or code for each student. Names are only added at print or export, from an optional name key that is held in memory and never saved.
- Encrypted files. Backups and review packs are locked with a passphrase (AES-256) in the browser. We cannot open them, and we cannot recover a lost passphrase.
- Registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a data controller. Registration number: ZC280610.
Because there is no central student database, Classfern does not connect to your student information system (SIS) or import class lists from it. That is on purpose: there is no store of student records for anyone to leak. Your data protection lead can read using the Report Writer safely.
Prices
| Who | Price |
|---|---|
| Schools with 5 or more teachers | £20 per teacher a year (minimum £100 a year), the same price at any size. Pay by card or invoice. |
| Principal | Free: every school license includes a free principal account. |
| Schools with 30 or more teachers | 5 more free accounts for department heads: pay for 30 teachers and get 36 accounts. |
| One teacher | £30 a year. Founder offer: the first 500 teachers get Pro for £15, covering two years. |
| Free tools | Free, always, with no account. |
Prices are in UK pounds (GBP).
Recommend 5 colleagues who join this year, or join as a school of 11 or more teachers, and your next year is free. Full details: Pro for schools and pricing.
What Classfern does not do
To save you time comparing: Classfern is not a student information system or a learning platform. It does not keep a central student record, link to other school systems, send messages to parents, or let the principal log in to read teachers' plans. If you need those, Classfern sits alongside your existing systems.
Get started
Email us about a school licenseJoin Classfern ProWatch the 2-minute video
Tell us your school's name and roughly how many teachers would use Pro, and we will set up your seats.
Questions schools ask
Is Classfern free?
Yes. The lesson plan maker, TIPs, practice tests, classroom tools, templates, field trip and safety plans and home education records are free with no account. The Year Planner is free for the first half term. Classfern Pro (£30 a year, or £20 per teacher a year for schools of 5 or more) adds the School Report Writer, the whole-year Year Planner, Ask Fern, lesson plan sync, the forum, jobs, the Exchange Finder and no adverts.
Does it need an account?
Not for the free tools: you open the page and start. Classfern Pro needs an account, which you make when you join.
Can a principal see staff plans?
Not automatically. Classfern does not collect lesson plans in a central database. Teachers can share Year Planner plans with colleagues or a department (Pro), or send Word and PDF files as usual. The principal's school dashboard shows class progress from encrypted class packs that teachers send, not lesson plans, daily notes or report text.
What happens if I clear my browser?
The free tools save your work in this browser on this device. Clearing the site data deletes it, and because we never receive it, we cannot restore it. Download a backup from My plans (and from the Risk Assessment Maker) and keep the file safe. Pro members can sync their lesson plans between devices.
Does it use AI?
The free tools do not use AI to write your plans: you write the plan and the maker formats it, and the Year Planner is built by rules in your browser. Report Writer comments come from a bank of original sentence parts. For the practice tests: answers are checked by computer programs, and every test is reviewed by an independent AI checker that didn't write it. Ask Fern, in Classfern Pro, is an AI helper that searches the Classfern pages, with daily and monthly limits.
How much is a school license?
£20 per teacher a year for 5 or more teachers (minimum £100 a year), the same price at any size. Every school gets a free principal account, and schools with 30 or more teachers get 5 more free accounts for department heads. Prices are in UK pounds (GBP).
Does Classfern store student data on its server?
No. The School Report Writer keeps student data in each teacher's browser on their device, and it is never part of Pro sync. We recommend student codes instead of names. Classfern is registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office, number ZC280610.
Does it connect to our student information system (SIS)?
No. Classfern does not keep a central student database, so there is nothing to connect or import. This is a privacy choice: there is no store of student records to leak.
Is the Classroom (virtual class) available?
Not yet. Classroom is coming soon for Classfern Pro members; this page will say when it opens.
Teaching in the UK? See the UK version.