A FORMER primary school teacher and an agricultural sales representative are on a mission to get current affairs into primary schools.

Picture News has been created by Katie Harrison and her husband Rob after former teacher Mrs Harrison noticed there were few resources available to help schools teach children about news and current affairs.

Together they have created a business which offers a weekly resource schools can sign up for, giving teachers everything they need to teach pupils about what is going on around the world that week.

After launching the business last year they are now hoping for success in the New Business of the Year category.

Mrs Harrison explained: “The business was built to offer schools a product that would make teachers’ lives easier and help children all over the UK to learn about the world around them.”

She came up with the idea when she heard a headteacher comment that she would love to teach children about the news during the EU referendum campaign but had no time to plan and create resources, as the news changed so quickly.

Initially 25 schools were chosen from 40 requests to take part in an eight-week pilot, where - provided feedback was given on all the resources - the posters and resources each week were sent free of charge. The responses were overwhelmingly positive, leading to the first wave of schools signing up after just halfway through the pilot.

The model worked well and, with Mr Harrison’s head for figures and strategy and Mrs Harrison’s creative talent and knowledge of what schools need, the company grew quickly. By the end of the first term, 80 schools had subscribed to the service.

Mrs Harrison said: “Word of mouth played a key part in the quick growth as did free ‘Inspiring Young Minds through Teaching the News’ events held in primary schools and mailings offering a free sample promoting the Picture News brand.”

After only 13 months of trading, 330 UK schools have signed up to the weekly service.

Looking forward, the company has recently launched Picture News in Scotland and already has 30 schools subscribed. This term has also seen the launch of Picture News Online, a bank of all previous posters and resources for subscribed schools to search and access historical resources. The company is aiming to take on another 600 schools.