At the same time, how does an edtech developer prove their product is impactful and fit for purpose?

The truth is, it isn’t easy. One way might be to publish evaluations of outcomes showing pupil progress from a recognised baseline over time, following the use of their platform or learning tool. However reliable and robust such a study is, though, it might be open to question about its veracity. After all, edtech innovators are in the business of building commercial products.

Another is to have that effectiveness verified with a quality mark to show that specific criteria have been met. Participants to the UCL EDUCATE research accelerator programme have a chance to do so by applying for the accelerator’s own quality mark, the EdWard.

In line with UCL EDUCATE’s core belief in the need to build an evidence base of edtech, recipients can apply to be rewarded with one of two levels of EdWard: Evidence-Aware or Evidence-Applied, depending on the extent to which they have met the set criteria. 

For the companies, working towards, and achieving, an EDUCATE EdWard is a process of reflection, self-challenge and, ultimately, the satisfaction of having achieved a formal recognition. For many, it has facilitated conversations with prospective clients because they have something to show for the success of their involvement with the programme, and their approach to research.

What it means for edtech companies to be “evidence-aware”

Recipients of the Evidence-Aware mark must demonstrate an understanding of UCL EDUCATE’s unique evidence-led approach and have understood the importance of using research evidence, by acknowledging pedagogical expertise and knowledge.

Moktar Alqaderi, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Progressay, which receives an Evidence-Aware EdWard, said: “As a hallmark of educational excellence, the EdWard has really helped us to validate our product. Now we are gaining a reputation for being an EdTech start-up that is rooted in evidence, which is important because schools deserve to use tech that is proven to work. 

“We boast of our EdWard with pride as it is a sign of our dedication and commitment to evidence-based research and lets our partners and customers know, too.”

Why edtech companies should be “evidence-applied”

Companies who receive the Evidence-Applied mark have demonstrated that awareness to research by applying it to improve the quality of delivery or development of their product. In some cases, Evidence-Applied recipients will have reviewed their idea or concept in the light of research evidence, to finesse their work. They will also have carried out their own research to evaluate the effectiveness of their product as it evolves.

Bella Alexandroff, Senior Fundraising Manager of Founders4Schools, which has achieved an Evidence-Applied Edward, said: “EDUCATE has not only given us the tools to evidence our impact, but also highlighted the importance of a robust monitoring and evaluation framework which is now integrated into our EdTech service allowing us to collect and evaluate data on a continuous basis. The EdWard is the acknowledgement of that.”

Participants who receive the EdWard mark can use it on their websites and marketing material, signalling to prospective users and customers that the product or service they offer has a sound basis in research, and its impact has been evidenced by what works and is effective in teaching and learning.

Professor Rose Luckin, Director of EDUCATE and Professor of Learner Centred Design at UCL Knowledge Lab, said: “EdWard recipients represent what makes the UK a world leader in EdTech development – innovation, creativity, commitment and enthusiasm – all of which are in abundance among these companies. They are among the very best in their field, anywhere.”

To learn more about how to get an EdWard, and how to add it to your EdTech Impact page (like Pobble and Tassomai), visit the UCL EDUCATE website.

Long have we seen the rise of science and computing programs ostensibly designed for girls in our schools, and although this seems to be working for science, this does not appear to be the case for computing. In 2014, approximately 40% of entries for the ICT exam were from girls – but 5 years later, they don’t seem to be taking up computing in the same numbers. Computing, it would appear, is not alone in this respect. The Durham Commission reported this week an overall downturn of entries in Media, Film, the Performing Arts and Design Technology, and is a crucial read for any teacher! 

In its annual analysis of GCSE entries, the Wise Campaign this year reported that entries across the UK in Design & Technology were down significantly once again for both boys and girls, the latter by 29% – although, as with computing, those girls that did take these subjects consistently outperformed boys. We seem to be in danger of losing female talent.

It’s clear, we still have a long way to go for girls and not a lot of time to fill that widening digital skills gap.

A Microsoft report on “How role models are changing the face of STEM” stated: “The number of UK girls interested in STEM increases when they have role models compared to those who do not (30% of girls without a role model report an interest in STEM subjects, versus 41% with role models) The reverse is also true, that having a role model significantly reduces the number of UK girls who say that they are less interested in STEM subjects (43% of girls without a role model are less interested in STEM subjects, versus 28% of girls with a role model)” 

Where are the female role models in our schools? 

Dig deep into the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) data for 2018-2019, and you might spot a few differences between male and female role models in certain subjects. Whilst most STEM subjects were equally represented by men, others were not. There were significant differences in Computing ITT trainees where 68% were male and 32% female last year, and there were still fewer women teaching Physics (29%). What’s that saying…’If you can’t see it, you can’t be it?’.

Gender stereotypes in GCSE entries across a range of arts have also grown over the past five years, with an emergence of a bigger gap between the numbers of boys and girls taking GCSE music and performing arts, blamed largely on the EBacc. Interestingly, 74% of ITT trainees in drama were female. Perhaps ‘seeing it’ and ‘being it’ works both ways.

What about our leadership? Yes, we have female leaders in STEM and other subjects, and yes, we have amazing computing role models I hear you cry… and I entirely agree. But, these sadly appear to be the exception rather than the rule, as a quick look at the School leadership in England 2010 to 2016: characteristics and trends DfE report published in 2018 will show you. 

As their analysis pointed out, one reason for this could be the speed of career progression for women, or rather the lack of it. They state: “… career progression to both first leadership and headteacher roles was on average faster for male teachers than their female counterparts”.

How can we make sure we seek the best talent regardless of gender?

The answer, I believe, is to make sure we continue to fight stereotypes within our schools, in lessons and in professional contexts. The truth is, we need both men and women equally represented in areas of leadership, and as role models for our young people across all subjects. Sadly, at the moment, there are still far too many imbalances. With around 3 out of 4 school teachers being female, we should not be short of talent…. So, why not go and check out your staff room. I bet there is loads in there.

For further reading and practical advice to close gender gaps in your school, visit The Gender Equality Collective website.

Formation

Having begun as a software house in 2006, Derventio entered the education sector with a visionary desire to improve schools, colleges and training organisations in such a vibrant and rewarding industry. Managing Director, Stuart Reece had previously successfully designed and written education languages software that were used in a range of organisations. A conversation with Sir Mark Grundy (now CEO of Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust) identified the need for software to support schools in their efforts to achieve improvement and maintain high standards. Mark commented that edtech should not to be used for the sake of it, but instead, should be a key tool to efficiently improve standards in education and have clear measurable outcomes. This is at the heart of the software being offered by Derventio Education to schools, colleges and training organisations.

Developing Edtech

Initially, Derventio developed electronic self-evaluation forms that were developed to support schools with their inspection preparations and ongoing school improvement. This allowed multiple senior leaders to collaborate on live working documents. The functionality, based on customer requirements, was later expanded to include staff appraisals, improvement planning, lesson observations/monitoring and managing continual professional development. The integration of these key processes has enabled a strategic approach to improvement which has seen hundreds of schools choose SchooliP.

With improvement planning applicable to all phases of education and the private sector, product offerings were expanded. CollegeiP was developed to support further education colleges and for universities, there is UniversityiP. A particular highlight is the recent development of Alto supporting the Ministry of Defence with Alto, a solution that facilitates the management of training portfolios and education provision. Working with a diverse range of institutions has led to a comprehensive customer base that has furthered a detailed understanding of education. Derventio appreciate that the world of education is constantly evolving and; therefore, enhances its software based on customer needs.

Sustained Success

Success of Derventio Education is attributed to listening. As development experts, bespoke solutions are created to meet customer requirements and deliver satisfaction. Customer account meetings, with account managers with an education background, ensures regular conversations with senior leaders to determine development road maps. As a result, there is a heightened awareness of the demands of the sector and Derventio are able to stay ahead of trends in an ever-changing environment.

Despite appraisal being sometimes perceived as a mundane process, having an electronic portfolio of evidence is invaluable. Teachers and support staff are easily able to demonstrate their strengths and identify key areas for development. Ensuring teachers have the opportunity to develop their skills is paramount to advancing teaching and learning. Therefore; products have evolved focused on improving the quality of teaching and organisation improvement.

The Future

Education is moving towards a more collaborative approach with the creation of multi-academy trusts, groups and federations. As these organisations become larger, so does the need to align and create efficient systems. They allow increased purchasing power to make informed decisions. In recognition of this, Derventio’s solutions are evolving to cater to the needs of education and for greater collaboration.

The advancement of technology represents an exciting time. Having already embraced web-based tech and mobile development, the challenge is to create products to make organisations more efficient and avoid the repetition of processes in multiple systems. With the increased usage of mobile/tablet devices by educators, plans are afoot to increase the functionality of mobile applications. Increased functionality and links with a commitment to reduce teacher workloads and allow teachers more time to do their role of teaching rather than administrative tasks. Derventio is proud to be at the forefront of education and actively assist academic institutions to maintain their integrity and ensure the wellbeing of their staff.

For more information about SchooliP’s impact in UK schools, visit: https://edtechimpact.com/products/schoolip.

Of course, many of the most regular mistakes were of concepts that are hard to learn such as punctuation in the grammar, punctuation and spelling paper and fractions in the maths paper, but others are easily avoidable mistakes that often lead to unnecessarily lost marks. So, in reverse order, here is my run down of needless mistakes that, with a little practice, can help your students to avoid deducted marks. I’ve included free access to our Question Sets to help your students re-learn and refine their skills before the big day!

In fifth place we have a section from the grammar, punctuation and spelling paper, namely ‘ly’ adverbs. Children often come unstuck here because they have learned that most adverbs end in ‘ly’ and of course many do, but others don’t.

The reason I have picked this common mistake is not only because it’s easily avoidable but also because in the 2018 SATs paper, pupils were tested specifically on this understanding. The following Question Sets from Using and Identifying Adverbs and Express Time, Place and Cause using Conjunctions, Adverbs and Prepositions, will help to reinforce their learning and address this 5th place common mistake.

Coming in 4th place is from the reading test: namely not using the text to answer questions. In the SATs reading papers many questions include some information which the students have to read and use to answer the question.

In third place from the maths paper, we regularly see confusion with carried digits. Rather than a simple and avoidable mistake this is generally because of a lack of understanding of place value.

We often see children reversing or not adding carried digits, so if the ones column totals 41 they carry the one instead of the four, not recognising the 4 as having a value of 40. Here are a few questions that will help to teach them this concept and consolidate their understanding: Add Numbers up to 3 Digits using the Column Method.

Coming in a very close second, we have forgetting capital letters and not forming them correctly. If you had a pound for every time you’d reminded your class about capital letters you probably wouldn’t still be teaching! However, sadly, it’s a very common cause of lost marks. While news earlier this year suggested that markers will be more lenient with punctuation in 2019, it is worth getting your students to carry out some additional questions to refine their skills. Letting your students run through a few of our practice SATs Question Sets will hopefully help to avoid these lost marks.

And in first place… we have ‘not reading the question properly’. Nerves, worry about running out of time, whatever the reason, this is one of the main causes of lost marks and more importantly, unnecessarily lost marks!

When children skim read questions, they can easily miss key instructional words such as ‘not’. For example, answering ‘Which sentence is punctuated correctly’? rather than “Which is ‘not’…” Our Question Sets provide many of these types of questions, to teach children the importance of spending time reading the question carefully: Is There Life on Other Planets? Another example is with questions that ask for multiple answers. We regularly saw papers where the question has asked for ‘two examples’ or to tick all that applied, and only one was given. Try creating your own ‘reading papers’ on any specific topic by using Learning by Questions’ question collection feature. Simply select the relevant topic area and the Question Sets you want to take from and add questions from the list provided. Questions from our GPS Question Sets are correctly scaffolded to help them to develop the necessary experience.

I hope these examples are useful and that having the extra questions to practice on will give your students more confidence as they go into their SATs papers. Good luck! If you would like access to all the Question Sets mentioned in this article, and over 1,000 other Question Sets covering curriculum aligned topics in maths, science and English, register for a free account today.

Former British Prime Minister and now chair of the global Education Commission, Gordon Brown, has called the learning crisis the ‘civil rights struggle of our time’. World leaders are rightly calling on every sector to join the fight — to use all the tools and resources at our disposal to tackle this effectively. To win this struggle would prevent another generation from being deprived of basic abilities and reduce many drivers of instability and conflict.

Globally there is a shortage of about 69 million teachers and the teachers who are working in low or middle income countries are frequently under supported. Often they teach in rural, remote areas; many of the classrooms have poor learning materials and many teachers feel abandoned and can struggle to understand for themselves the content that they are teaching.

These are all very significant challenges, but not insurmountable. There is a global effort underway to tackle this, centred around UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 for 2030. On current trajectories the SDG4 target will be missed, but progress will be made towards it.

A social enterprise called Bridge International Academies, or Bridge, is focused on helping to achieve this UN goal of quality education for all in Africa and Asia. We serve communities living in extreme poverty and have helped to educate three quarters of a million children over the last ten years at nursery and primary level. Bridge is significantly improving learning outcomes by putting teaching best practice straight into the hands of local teachers around the world, using technology and in-person teacher training and coaching. The vast majority of the work Bridge does is with government teachers in government schools, and some of the work is in our own community schools and nurseries.

A Bridge teacher in class at Bridge International Academies.

After government teachers have been through an intensive up-skilling and training scheme, they are ready to use hand-held tablets that give them access to very high quality lesson guides based on their local curriculum. They are trained to use best practice teaching techniques. In addition, we support them with regular in-person coaching inside the classroom every one or two weeks. In this way, both technology and continuous professional development help these teachers to deliver more child-centred lessons that result in higher learning outcomes for children.

Our approach is to treat learning as a science as we implement best practice across all the schools we run or support. We are focused on how children learn, tweaking, adapting and iterating lessons and teacher training in the light of data and evidence, to make sure children learn as much as possible.

A government school classroom in Nigeria supported by Bridge training and technology.

By collecting information at scale on what lessons work best, and how children learn, local academics in-country work to improve lessons for all children. The approach means that not only can a few schools be served in a few areas but that tens of thousands of schools and millions of children can benefit anywhere in the world.

The use of technology to deliver quality education is bearing fruit in children’s lives. The results have been very encouraging. Kenyan pupils who sat their primary school leavers’ exam have surpassed their peers in other schools for the four consecutive years. In Uganda children have outperformed the national average in the two consecutive years they have sat the national exam. Children’s learning gains in Liberia, where we support government schools, showed pupils learning at twice the speed of their immediate peers. In Nigeria, a DFID report showed equity of high attainment at Bridge schools for children from all types of socio-economic backgrounds. Children in Bridge supported government schools are learning far more than previously. In India we are running community schools in the southeast region in partnership with the local government.

Social enterprises doing this sort of work is an idea supported by the majority of the UK public, and it’s also now part of the official UK Aid strategy for education. From the poorest regions of India to the low-income communities of Nairobi and even areas affected by the terrorist group al-Shabaab, well-supported teachers are thriving and making an impact.

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Microsoft Teams is a communications platform that combines file storage in the cloud with a suite of different apps all in one place. Being part of the Office 365 family, Teams can be set up for free as part of a school-based licence, which in turn makes it accessible for pupils and staff to collaborate online.

A screenshot of the Teams app in use in the classroom.

Share files

One its the biggest benefits is the ability to share files and assignments from a central storage base. Instead of having resources in a variety of different places, Teams can pull it all together, assisting in keeping content streamlined and organised. This means that pupils can locate key information quickly, whether that be in school or at home.

Marking rubric

The assignments tab is particularly useful for when teachers issue a new task or project, as a marking rubric containing success criteria can be attached alongside points for completion and submission dates. Within the same class, different sets of pupils can be assigned different tasks which supports differentiation in the classroom. This can be achieved all through one tab which makes it easier to administer and manage. 

Celebrate pupil achievements

The praise tab enables teachers to celebrate pupil achievements through digital badges and comments. This is an effective way of promoting inclusivity in the classroom by recognising individuals for their progress or effort. Pupils can keep track of which badges they have been awarded through the year and the reasons behind attaining each one. This is then shared on the class channel, helping to recognise individual successes among peers.

The praise tab allows teachers to celebrate individual pupil successes during lessons.

Learning can be transparent

Due to Teams being a digital hub for teachers and pupils, learning can be transparent for all. It engages pupils in new ways by giving teachers creativity to deliver content through text, video, voice, stickers and animated GIFs. This appeals to the 21st century learner as pupils can interact in a digitally social way, transforming the learning experience as dynamic, collaborative and fluid. With Teams, individual needs in a class can be addressed with the capacity to tailor content and resources to different groups. This allows progress to be maximised whilst encouraging productivity to get things done.   

Learning journey

Teachers can have more control over the learning journey that is taking place when using Teams. Being able to modify, change and filter posts and messages, this reinforces the need for establishing a safe and productive classroom environment all of which is achieved through Teams. The quietest of voices can be heard when encouraging pupils to interact through this platform as the social networking type interface makes it a familiar and appealing layout for pupils. 

Develop digital literacy skills

By using Teams, teachers can offer learning experiences that enable pupils to take ownership and develop digital literacy skills as they communicate and collaborate with peers. Differentiation and individual learning needs can be met when teachers develop assignments for either group or independent projects. This can be strengthened further when paired with other apps such as OneNote Classbook or Microsoft Forms. There are also opportunities for personalised learning as the platform can be set up to offer online intervention sessions which has the potential to support pupils who are finding concepts in class difficult to master. This subsequently prepares pupils for the future workplace in that they are using industry standard tools and practices to solve problems. 

Flipped learning

Lastly, Teams encourages flipped learning in a seamless and rich way. By integrating video services such as YouTube or Stream, pupils can be set out of class learning experiences all from the click of a tab. In addition to this, OneNote can be implemented for collaborative note-taking to gain multiple perspectives on topics, or to assist pupils in order to catch up following an absence. Regardless of subject, Microsoft Teams could be a cost saving solution to creating an inclusive digital classroom.

Though I’ve been teaching for over a decade in lots of different groups and guises, I too am starting a new role, taking over the Drama department (a department of one) to lead the subject for the next year. I’m not new to teaching like the NQTs, I feel I have my own style and plenty of experience. I know my subject well and the exams as well as you can. The school is not new, as I’ve worked here a year already, but what worries me is that I’m not the old drama teacher. See, everyone loved old Sir! He was funny and friendly and knew his stuff. He did fun lessons and achieved top results! The classroom feels like his, in a nice way, it’s filled with twenty five years of teaching. He’s even left me a kettle and a fridge in the little office.

So how can I make sure I am still myself, in a role that was once someone else’s? How does an NQT take the best from their mentor but not replicate them?

Being brave enough to be ourselves through:

‘But Miss used to do it like this!’

‘We usually sit in a different place!’

‘That’s not what Sir said!’ 

The teacher before me was undoubtedly successful and popular, I do not resent that. In fact it makes my job easier in that they have built a strong following and raised the stature of our often diluted subject. If anything, it is not a begrudging feeling, it is nervousness – how can I fill those shoes? I’ve spent a few weeks in summer agonising over lessons, picking through the old schemes, my own schemes, writing new schemes, talking to other people about their schemes, speaking to staff and students about existing routines and the usual this and that. Trawling twitter and reading plays. After a while I was all in a spin; too many comparisons. Some of this was useful, but after two weeks of the new term I realised, as I told the NQTs, you can’t do it all ‘new’ in the first term. 

The only innovation I needed was to trust myself. I’ll keep a few old things, use plenty of my own things and try a couple of new things. That’s it. It’s only been two weeks, but I’ve learnt that the only approval I need is from myself, and to treat this role like any other. Don’t try to be something that I’m not and enjoy my teaching. Enjoy the successes and learn from the mistakes as I would anytime, anywhere. 

Innovation is often mistaken for making everything new – innovate yourself, by sometimes being your old self!

Researchers, futurists and those in the human resource profession agree that the future world of work will be influenced by things like technology, globalisation and population ageing. But it is soft skills – also known as human, life or employability skills – that are deemed by professionals to be as important, if not more so, than hard or technical skills in the modern day workplace.

The irony is, soft skills are actually really hard to develop. To get good at them takes time and lots and lots of practice. It’s the development of these soft skills in the K-12 context that I will talk about in this blog.

Why Soft Skills Matter

To successfully function in all aspects of one’s life, soft skills like communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity – also known as the 4Cs – are important. That’s because organisations with employees that have them are, amongst other things, more harmonious and productive.

But of all the soft skills out there, what are the ones that employers desire most in those they hire?

Time and time again, it’s the 4C’s, decision making, resilience, confidence, emotional intelligence, time management and cultural awareness that top the lists.

And it’s these skills that should be the focus in any soft skills programme that is developed in a K-12 context.

The Best Ways To Develop These Skills

It’s no good talking about the importance of soft skills if we don’t understand the best ways to develop them in young people.

Here the research is pretty clear about the most effective way to develop these skills: explicit instruction and extracurricular activities.

Explicit teaching of soft skills in a classroom is more effective than implicit teaching approaches. But what does that actually look like? In real terms, it means bite-sized explicit teaching activities and continued practice. Which means that even secondary teachers should be able to manage this within crowded curriculums.

Extracurricular activities, however, are more challenging. That’s because there are substantial socioeconomic gaps in access to extracurricular activities. Therefore it won’t surprise you to learn that young people with the best soft skills usually come from independent schools.  

What Interventions Work Best?

According to research conducted by The Sutton Trust, the programmes that have been trialed and look promising at developing soft skills in young people include:

• Teacher training. Training teachers to improve mindsets and resilience in their students, either in pre-service training or as professional development.

• Structured after-school clubs. This can include music, sports or social clubs.

• Social action activities. These can be community or school-based.

• Social and emotional learning programmes.

Next Steps

Soft skills development should be at the heart of every education system. Education systems in Singapore and Canada are placing increasing importance on character development within their curriculum.

Although it would be great if both the UK government prioritised this also, in the short term there are things that schools can do.

A more focussed whole school approach to the development of these skills is needed – and possible. The development of soft skills should and can be part of the day-to-day curriculum.  

As a former curriculum coordinator at a secondary school, I can tell you that this is possible. But this type of initiative needs to have support from administration. Teachers need to have time to not only understand why it’s important, but more importantly to show them what explicit teaching of these skills looks like. 

For instance, to be a good communicator, you need to be good at a number of communication skills, like listening, reading and writing. These skills can be further broken down into things like active listening.

When we break these important soft skills down into more manageable chunks, explicit teaching of these skills in any context doesn’t look so daunting, does it?

Explore Further

 “We must put values and character development at the core of our education system.” Singaporean Education Minister Heng Swee Keat

If you’re at all interested in reading more about this, here are some useful links to get you started.

Character and Citizen Education Singapore

Global Education and Skills Forum

OECD Education 2030

The Sutton Trust – Life Lessons: Improving Essential Life Skills for Young People

World Economic Forum 2017 – Preparing People for the Future of WWorld Economic Forum – Ten Best Countries for Skills and Education

This is a positive step towards meaningful assessment; a concept that strives for assessments that focus on the student developing academically and gaining real skills. This is different to learning to recite set content and allows teachers to effectively assess whether their students are improving and if not, where the areas for improvement lie. 

What is ‘Intent, Implementation and Impact’?

Intent focuses on the aims of education. Ofsted wishes to move away from creating a ‘conveyor belt’ style education where tests form the key purpose. Instead, they emphasise the importance of asking ‘what do we want to achieve?’. Schools must therefore demonstrate a varied curriculum that displays their commitment to providing an enriching educational programme that will benefit learners academically; not simply teach students how to pass the next test.

Implementation aims to expand this by ensuring that the curriculum is providing the broader content required. This means providing just as much focus on other subjects, as it does for core ones, and offering a wider curriculum that focuses on overall enrichment; requiring focus on the process of learning rather than just the outcomes. 

Finally, impact considers how effective these new methods are at engaging young people in learning by assessing whether they have developed their knowledge and skills, and whether they are interested in their studies, creating a far more holistic approach than previously.

How can we achieve this?

As with the delivery of most educational approaches, its success relies upon teachers being at the helm when deciding what form of assessment is right for their class. By incorporating a blend of formative, summative and unit assessments, and by employing a more personalised approach, teachers can track areas students need to work on and set tasks accordingly.  

This can, of course, be difficult, especially given the stretching workloads many teachers already face. However, by utilising online resources such as EducationCity, which now provides over 90 Assessments across English, maths and science, which are automatically marked, generate corrections and revision pathways for each child based on their specific answers, pressure can be alleviated. Teachers can decide which assessments are right for their class, set them accordingly and use the curriculum-correlated content within the revision pathways to address the areas that students need to develop.

Education is about setting young people up with the very best start to life and a vital part of this is meaningful assessment; stepping away from the one-size-fits-all model will ensure each student can achieve their very best. 

For more information or to take a free trial for your school, please visit https://www.educationcity.com.

In our experience, many supply teachers fear covering a maths lesson. Whether that is down to a lack of confidence in their maths ability, because they didn’t enjoy maths at school or because they know that students can often be unengaged in a maths lesson, Sparx Maths can help alleviate these fears.

In the classroom and at home, Sparx Maths provides a complete solution that delivers important benefits for school leaders, teachers, students and parents, from personalised learning for every student to incredible real-time insights into class and student progress.

Rigorously tested content, covering the KS3 and GCSE maths curricula, is devised and handwritten by our in-house teams. Over 35,000 questions are backed up by more than 8,300 tutorial videos that help explain concepts in accessible ways and encourage independent learning. Based on years of research and collaboration with schools, we’ve developed our own scheme of learning which maps the national curriculum and is aligned with every major exam board. Sparx can also be mapped to a school’s existing scheme of learning.

With Sparx Maths, schools, subject teachers and supply teachers receive detailed lesson plans which contain learning objectives and content aligned to the scheme of learning the school is following, suggested timings for each lesson, and teaching notes which outline which methods are used in the tutorial videos. Our carefully crafted questions, which range in difficulty, challenge students who can then watch video tutorials when they get stuck.

Throughout the lesson, teachers can access real-time insights into their students’ progress, and students who are struggling are flagged to the teacher so they can provide targeted intervention where needed. Insights can help teachers understand how a child behaves in a maths lesson. For example, they can see how many times a student has watched a tutorial video, how long they are watching the video for and whether they are watching the video before attempting the question. 

Teachers can also see what a student’s incorrect attempts at a question were and how long it has been since they last attempted a question. This helps supply teachers no end as they might not know much about the students they are teaching, but can easily identify those which need their support.

Sparx Maths will also automatically set an hour of personalised homework for every student each week based on what was taught in that week’s lessons, previously mastered content and skills they need to work on. 

By providing supply teachers with a detailed lesson plan to follow, relevant handwritten questions, and video tutorials they can watch with students to help them understand the skills needed to answer questions, Sparx Maths ensures that your learners receive a consistent, high-quality lesson whilst your supply teacher feels empowered and confident to deliver the lesson. 

If you have any questions about Sparx Maths, please visit www.sparx.co.uk or get in touch via schools@sparx.co.uk or 01392 440 440.