VIEWS


BRITISH EDUCATIONAL SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION (BESA)


Making homework ‘work’ with Educake


In our latest update from BESA, the British Educational Suppliers Association, ALISTAIR FOSTER, Head of English at The Beauchamp College in Leicester, describes his experience of working with BESA member Educake.


Consistency is a key principle in my department. I want all our learners to have the same experiences and opportunities in their lessons. This can be difficult to balance; staff need to feel a level of autonomy and their creativity should not be stifled. Equally, students should not feel that they are getting a different ‘deal’


from their peers. One way this can be achieved is with homework.


Setting centralised homework – without the marking burden As Head of Department, I use Educake to set centralised weekly homework for all of our KS3 and KS4 students. I know exactly what each of our 1000+ students are being asked to complete each week meaning I am certain homework will not be disrupted by staff absence, forgetfulness or any other disruption that can occur. I also find submission rates are near-perfect when a whole cohort of students has the same task and deadline. This may sound like I am doing a lot of the ‘heavy lifting’, but with Educake, this really isn’t the case. Setting the initial question is where my input ends – there’s no marking (it’s all auto-marked), and individual teachers review their classes’ results.


Revealing and dealing with misconceptions A colleague asked me what I was doing with the scores from each quiz. Was it the marks themselves that I was interested in, or did I simply want to know that work had been completed? This was a good question. Really, I had just been setting quizzes as a means to an end. This is when I asked staff to bring Educake into the classroom. The useful colour-coded percentages at the top of each task allow teachers to easily see the content and question types that their entire class (and for me, the whole cohort) are struggling with.


Teachers are now regularly using lesson time to unpick questions where students have been less successful. Through this we have recently discovered that the majority of our Year 11 cohort didn’t understand that Charles Dickens begins A Christmas Carol in an informal tone when he describes Jacob Marley as “dead as a doornail”. We also found out that 24% of our students could not recognise how sentence lengths can be used to create meaning in descriptive writing. Stamping out misconceptions is essential to learning. With this type of feedback, we can do that quickly and effectively. I believe this empowers teachers; they have an instant visual representation of their students’ areas for development that they can act upon. This in turn, helps us achieve consistency. As a department, we’re on the same page when it comes to capturing and analysing results, which is pivotal to reliable and informed decision-making. Educake not only facilitates this consistency, but ensures homework is both productive and informative.


Educake is an award-winning online assessment and revision platform. It saves you time setting homework, marking and analysing results. Auto-marked quizzes can be set in seconds, choosing from thousands of high-quality questions. You get immediate insights into strengths and weaknesses, and students get instant feedback. Visit www.educake. co.uk to get free access for 30 days.


14 www.education-today.co.uk EARLY YEARS


Are standardised tests failing children?


This month, in our ongoing collaboration with Edge Hill University curated by ALICIA BLANCO-BAYO, Early Years Lecturer and WTEY Programme Leader at the University’s Faculty of Education, we’re delighted to hear from CHLOE MAKIN, who has recently completed a PGCE in Primary Early Years Education at the University.


It is often said that children’s wellbeing


is not just a priority, but the priority. Teachers, like me, often devote an excessive amount of time to ensure that children’s wellbeing and health are supported. Fostering healthy relationships and stimulating environments are essential elements of school life, and to promote a healthy mindset.


I have always had a passion regarding children’s wellbeing, rather than solely prioritising a lack of attainment, whilst closing the gap. As a trainee and soon to be qualified teacher, I value that a child’s levels of attainment do not reflect their individuality and that a child should have the opportunity to shine elsewhere, rather than through a test paper. Therefore, this Ied me to believe that standardised tests are failing children. With the intention to measure children’s educational progress and attainment in maths, reading, and grammar, punctuation and spelling to be achieved. However, it is putting an excessive amount of pressure on their young brains.


It is from now, my own experience of becoming a teacher, that I


have been able to recall my opinions towards standardised tests. I think back to when I was younger, and how the overwhelming pressures, along with a source of worry and anxiety have impacted my levels of self-esteem and self-confidence to date.


There is a contrast between the strengths and weaknesses on the opinions of SATs. Similarly in education today, many of us teacher feel that SATs have damaging effects on pupils’ wellbeing, and that they are designed to challenge the children’s capability. However, others do see value in the administration offering a valuable introduction, preparing children for formal exams.


As from September 2023, at the end of Key Stage 1 SATs assessments will no longer be compulsory, and instead become non-statutory and optional. The removal of the national curriculum assessments will reduce the additional pressures on children to achieve working at the expected standard and lessen the impact on their health and well-being. With this significant change impending for key stage 1, and no mention of key stage 2 being considered, I believe we are enabling the damaging consequences to continue for key stage 2 children. Perhaps now is the time for educators to call up regarding the abolition of Key Stage 2 SATs, after many children across the UK experienced increased stress levels, whilst teachers witnessed tears flowing following the 2023 papers.


My beliefs are in accordance with Jim Rohn who once said, ‘formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune’. His words reiterate my opinion; there is more to a child than their outcome of a standardised test paper.


October 2023


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