I have been a teacher of Physics for 28 years. With the IoP and PAGEANT I have been running teacher training projects in both The Tanzania and The Gambia for over 10 years. The projects concentrate on re directing teaching from teacher lead board work and rote learning to focussing learning based on practical experiments. A £10 'Lab in a Bag' along with a training book of ideas is given to each attending African teacher to form a starter pack from which a teacher can start to use locally available materials to develop their own ideas. The ideas and igenuity required to use the kit may be transferred to the classroom in UK schools.
Talk to me if you are interested in teaching projects in Africa or if you want to use some low cost ideas to enhance the practical element of your work in the UK. I don't pretend to have all the answers but our conversation may spark off ideas of your own.