BESA CORNER


BESA CORNE R


This month, in our ongoing feature highlighting the work of members of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, we hear from education platform TASSOMAI; and 1-to1 online tuition provider THIRD SPACE LEARNING.


Thismonth, in our ongoing feature highlighting the wo work ofmembers of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA,we hear fromeducation platformTASSOMAI; and 1-to1 onl ine tuition provider THIRD S PACE LEARNING .


HowE Tech is enabling peer-


dTe r-to-peermentoring -


and earning studentsmoney Formost teenagers, a Saturday job involves working in a cafe or the


local supermarket. But for some sixth formers in Rochdale, itmeans going back to s chool on Saturdaymornings to tutor their peers an d help themimprove their chances in their upcoming GCSE exams. MatthewMoss High School runs a programme called “D6” every Saturdaymorning; this is available to every learner in the school regardless of which year they are in, and is staffed and run by students fromthe local sixth-formcollege who come in and tutor - and get paid for doing so. This scheme has been hugely successful, attendees performing in line with the top 5 schools in know that peer-to-peermentoring has huge benefits, successful in particular? And why?


"Children have access to pre teaching in an enviro


they are not afraid to share re


re re


recision


ronmentwhere re their


re


ideas, andwhere vere verbal reasoning is encouraged and nurt re


rtured "


but how is D6 so the country!We with regular D6


One of the challenges faced by teachers all over the country is figuring out which specific areas a student needs help on. Often, when students are struggling with a topic, the input they give their teachers can be pret ty vague - “Miss I don’t understand any B iology” doesn’t really give the teacher enough information to effectively target intervention! You would imagine that this problemis exacerbated with peer-to-peermentoring - how are sixth-formstudentsmeant to know which areas a student froma different school needs help with? Claire Crichton-Allen, CurriculumLead for Science atMatthew Moss, has found that using EdTech, and the data it can provide,means this is no longer a problem. GCSE science students atMatthewMoss use an online learning programcalled Tassomai, which helps to reinforce knowledge - but it has also helped the sixth-formmentors to easily identify theirmentees’ strengths and weaknesses.


Tassomai teaches students throughmultiple-choicemicro-quizzes, spread over as l ong a period of time as possible Tass omai’s content is mapped to each examboard’s specification; therefore, as students answer questions, the programis able to accurately identify which themes and topics a student struggles with, and target those areas. Crucially forMatthewMoss and D6, it also visualises this information via a self-populating PLC grid.


.


The teachers atMatthewMoss quickly realised that they could use this data tomake D6 sessions evenmore effective. They give both the mentors and thementees access to this data; thismeans when students aren’t sure what specifically they want help with, the sixth- formers are able to immediately identify suitable areas. As well as helpingmentors to identify what areas theirmenteesmight need help with, this has al so helped the students to take contro l of their learning . Claire says that access to the data has “enabled learners to use their agency to direct their own study on a Saturdaymorning”. Instead of spending their weekends earningminimumwage at a fast food chain, these sixth formers are now earningmoney while helping local students’ study - and gaining valuable skills in the process.


We know that as a teacher, in an ideal worl every single one of your pupils engaging in


the classroom. However, d, you would get to see


as a teacher you will also know that this is unfortunately extremely unrealistic.


You’ll know that some pupils are simply not confident in front of a large group, and that trying to develop engagement amongst these particular pupils can prove to be challenging. That challenge is one that forms a large part of the focus here at Third Space Learning, and as a result our 1-to-1 tuition has been designed to engage primary school children with maths in a way that may not be possible in the traditional classroom setting.


Our engaging online classroom provides them with a safe space in which, with their tutor, they can verbalise their learning and explore any misconceptions. The virtues of 1-to-1 education are well known throughout the teaching world, and by giving children the chance to engage with the same tutor every week, those who may struggle to engage with learning in the classroom soon come out of their shell. Teachers are also using Third Space Learning’s 1-to-1 tuition to manage the amount of time pupils are taken out of lessons when compared to traditional 1-to-1 help. By taking 1-to-1 tuition online, schools have been able to arrange support for multiple pupils at once (each pupil working online with their own tutor via a headset and microphone), at a time to suit all parties. This means that a smaller proportion of the teaching timetable will be affected by pupils going out at different times for their interventions.


The fact that our tuition lessons can happen on any computer or laptop that’s connected to the internet means that, for schools, it’s easy to access 1-to-1 support and provide a high-quality, tailored maths lesson for all of their target pupils.


Many schools use TSL interventions as a way to support those pupils that need an extra boost in their confidence in maths.We’ve already supported over 40,000 pupils across more than 1,50 0 schools around the UK, so we know that w you want to see how our online 1-to-1 mat


hs interventions can raise hat we do works! So, if


your overall school’s performance then visit: thirdspacelearning.com to find out more, or if you are looking for a way to help the parents at your school boost their children’s confidence in maths, take a look at our parent facing website: matr.org .


14 www.education-today.co.uk.co.uk www Apri l 2019 2019


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