Twinkl for English Teachers: What I Discovered in 30 Days

A month of testing, dozens of downloads, and a few honest surprises—here’s what I found when I gave Twinkl, one of the Internet’s biggest resource platforms, a real chance.

This isn’t a paid post, and I’m not affiliated with this platform in any way. I just spent the last 30 days exploring Twinkl as a teacher and teacher trainer—and I wanted to share what I found, in case you're also on the lookout for quality resources to ease your planning load. And, I have to confess, the story in the “About Us” section got me curious.

I’ll start by saying I was skeptical. Platforms with large libraries often promise a lot and deliver little beyond cute clipart and worksheets that need too much editing to be truly useful. But Twinkl turned out to be more than that—especially for teachers in Brazil.

Here’s what stood out to me:

Wide coverage across ages, levels, and formats

Twinkl isn’t just for young learners—though that’s where many people start. The platform has materials from very young learners to adult students, covering levels from A1 to C1. What I appreciated most was the range of formats: worksheets, full lesson plans, slides (PowerPoint or Google Slides), and printable versions in color, black and white, and even dyslexia-friendly fonts.

There’s a dedicated exams section

You’ll find a solid range of materials for Cambridge exams—from A2 to C1—mostly exercises, but with a few (good) lesson plans as well. It’s a useful starting point if you're prepping students for Preliminary, First or Advanced and need extra practice or warm-ups that reflect the exam format. There is even materials for Young Learners.

CPD materials for teachers are included

I was pleasantly surprised to find a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) area with guides, tips, and printable support for teachers. One document that stood out was their Cambridge Exams Guide, which I actually found clear, well-organized, and handy for new teachers navigating the exam landscape. Another was a range of materials, from information to posters, about Dyscalculia, something we rarely talk about. And there's a lot more.

There is a full section for… Business English!

There’s also a decent Business English section. I’ll be honest—the design here could look more professional (some activities still have that cheerful, school-like layout), but it does feel more adult than the rest of the site, and the black-and-white version usually solves the problem if you want a cleaner, simpler look.

Games and escape rooms for language learning

This was unexpected. There’s an entire section just for games, plus a newer Escape Games collection, something that’s quite popular right now. These are ideal for group classes, review sessions, or even demo lessons when you want to show you can make learning engaging and structured.

Surprisingly good writing lessons, especially for beginners

This is where I expected to roll my eyes—and didn’t. The writing lessons, especially the section for lower-level learners, are actually very well designed. They scaffold the task clearly, use appropriate models, have lots of controlled practice, and can actually help learners develop structure without overwhelming them. If you’ve seen your share of shallow writing tasks online, you’ll notice the difference here.

They’re also trying to innovate with AI

Lastly, Twinkl has started investing in AI tools, including a custom worksheet generator and planning support. I haven’t tested this thoroughly yet, but it’s worth knowing they’re exploring ways to support teachers through tech too.

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Now, for the honest part:

As much as I liked many aspects of the platform, navigation remains, at least to me, a weak point. The categories are not always intuitive, and it often takes a while to find what you need—even when you know it exists. Even when you've been there before. This isn’t just a “getting used to it” issue. With so much content available, a stronger system of organization and tagging is badly needed, in my opinion!

That said, once you find a few folders that match your style and save your favorite links, the site becomes easier to work with. But I do think it’s something the team at Twinkl could improve significantly.

Twinkl may not be your one-stop shop for every class, but it’s far more helpful than I expected—especially if you work with multiple levels, need support for exam classes, or are juggling several groups at once. It gives you a bit of structure when you're short on time, and some of the content might pleasantly surprise you.

If you’ve tried it too, I’d love to hear what you thought. And if you're curious, they offer a free trial. That’s how I started—just 30 days to browse, download, and decide for myself. But I warn you: you're probably going to need more than that, either due to the extension of their library or because you will want to keep going back for the new content.