Testimonials

Published Apr 28, 2020 by Dave for Calibrae

Testimonial topics...

• Ease of use
• Power to teach remotely
• Activity types
• Setting tasks and assessing work
• Relationships with children whilst working remotely
• Reactions from parents
• General
• Recommendation to fellow headteachers from a headteacher

Ease of use

"Easy to use, and a really helpful quick start guide that explains how to set up learning activities clearly."

"Easy to use. Great support"

"Having modules, exercises and assignments is really helpful for me to organise activities daily. Generally it’s user friendly and you can suss things out as you use it."

"A bit tricky for me at first but once you start using it, it soon becomes familiar and easy."

Power to teach remotely

"Definitely, I am able to set a range of tasks, uploading them as I prepare them, then making live to the children when I choose. It has been a good way to communicate with the children, particularly the facility to respond to their work."

"Massively, lots of potential. Enjoying trying the new options."

"Yes! If you want to ‘teach’ it allows you to create videos so children can learn new concepts and follow along with you. And then the discussions can be used to support individual children."

"Yes - we wouldn’t have this facility otherwise and would have to email work to parents."

Activity types, relevance of

"So far I have used question bank, hotspot and categories and they are all great. Brilliant to set different activities for different types of tasks and different types of learners."

"I have mainly used articles and assignment exercises. Being able to add in links to these is really helpful as everything’s in one place."

"Yes - gives the children a wide range of activities to access and different types of learning - text, pictures , photos , videos and PowerPoints . I think having the range of activities is the best . The videos and signposting to other resources are good."

"The range of activities that the platform allows you to create are amazing. I have spent many hours searching the internet for online games that allows pupils to recap a certain concept, and often they just aren’t right in some way. Now I can just create my own! And the auto-generated question tool is fantastic."

Setting tasks and assessing work

"The exercise activity helps with assessment of the work as they have to submit answers. It’s great to have one platform on which to set a variety of tasks."

"Massively, extremely useful and gives us the options to still have the link to our classes rather than just generic learning."

"Yes! There are so many different options for how you set tasks, and can personalise it to your children, their age and ability."

"I have been able to constructively read and respond to the children. In the event that they need to address something in their work, they have been able to resubmit a newer version."

Relationships with children whilst working remotely

"Yes, there’s the opportunity for them to ask questions, for me to respond, for them to give feedback on activities and for me to respond to work they submit."

"The system really does help. Options can be personalised to welcome class, lots of interaction, options to read to them and talk them through exercises."

"The platform definitely helps to maintain relationships with children. It is lovely to have a personalised page. Updating the welcome message whenever I want to is great. I love reading the children's comments on the different activities, and love being able to reply to them."

"Definitely. The children who are accessing it have enjoyed being able to speak to me and tell me how much they’re missing everyone!"

"Very good . The children are motivated by knowing the teachers can see their work. They love having their work marked and seeing my responses. It helps to motivate the children."

Reactions from parents

"They are really impressed. They like the way it adds structure and timetable to their day. They also like the fact the teachers voices have been recorded eg stories / demo for maths activity. Adds a personal touch. The welcome message helps it be more personal. Good that all the info is in one place, rather than going to lots of different sites."

"They were very happy with the idea and grateful for the work being set in this way."

"Great reaction from parents. Also a parent myself, this is making life so much easier. Thank you."

"Parents loved that I shared videos of myself talking the children through the work. They said that their child worked along with me and meant the parents didn’t have to try to ‘teach’ a concept."

"They’ve been very positive."

"They are enjoying it."

General comments

"Since we've had the platform things have settled down. Teachers are teaching again."

"I like being able to set a range of activities for the children to complete in these challenging times, all saved in one place and especially the chance to communicate with the children."

"I like how personal it can be, also how straightforward it is for the children."

"I love that you can create a personalised platform for your children."

"It is great that I can set tasks, then be notified when work is submitted ready for marking. Being able to respond to the children is great. It doesn’t feel like a pointless task for either party.

"Great platform. Thanks for making it the best learning platform for our children."

"The range of activities that the platform allows you to create are amazing. I have spent many hours searching the internet for online content that allows pupils to recap a certain concept, and often they just aren’t right in some way. Now I can just create my own! And the auto-generated question tool is fantastic."

"Really happy with platform and facilities it offers. Looking forward to exploring more of its capabilities over the next few weeks."

"Brilliant! Such a clever platform. This is not something primary schools usually use and we are so pleased that we have been able to use it."

Copy of email from a Gloucestershire headteacher to fellow heads in her county.