Launching Tassomai with a tune

We know that a successful launch (or even a January relaunch) can make all the difference when it comes to engaging students and motivating them to keep up their daily goals - especially if they’re working remotely - so we are always keen to hear from Tassomai teachers to find out what approaches work best.

This recent tweet from Charters School in Sunningdale, Berkshire really caught our attention (we strongly encourage you to take a look) and we thought it would be a “tragedy” not to find out more. It turns out that it’s not the first time Head of Science Paul Herbert has used his musical talents to engage his students…

At the start of the academic year our new headteacher at Charters, Mr Fletcher, really wanted to find ways to support our Science GCSE students in Year 10 and Year 11 after the disruptions to learning they had all suffered throughout lockdown. 

We had used Tassomai previously with Year 11 students and told him of its success. We suddenly had the go ahead to enrol not only Year 11 students in the Tassomai program, but Year 10 too - no expense spared! The only caveat was that we needed a big promotional push to get students engaged. 

I seem to have developed a reputation for theatrical tendencies (school show, staff karaoke, science song rip-offs etc) and was 'volunteered' for the role to make a video. I asked if anyone had ideas or could I just do what I wanted, and I was told I could do anything to promote Tassomai in a 2-3 minute video... So, while I was editing together about 15 minutes of footage of students acting out being bored in my lessons (as if 🤣) and not remembering anything, then me explaining how humans learn, why we forget, how to log in, I realised the video was potentially getting a bit boring and needed some oomph at the end. 

I was listening to Tony Blackburn on his Golden Hour show on Radio 2 and heard the Bee Gees song Tragedy, to which I suddenly started singing TASSOMAI as the chorus instead. During a bit of 'down time' in a Science Department meeting the thought came back to me about doing a song, so I scribbled some 'funny' lyrics down and got excited about filming some situations that matched the lyrics, eventually venturing to Bracknell town centre to climb the steps 'to the top'. 

The full video certainly helped launch and explain Tassomai in September, but I'm sure the song at the end is the only thing our students really remember. They kept requesting to be sent a copy, so it was eventually posted on the school website. I still say the star of the video is the little boy on the steps that is wondering what on earth this silly man is doing singing and dancing next to M&S.

Watch Charters School’s Tassomai launch video

If you would like to watch Paul’s full 13 minute intro video, or share it with your students you can find it on Vimeo or watch it below.

As well as being entertaining it also includes some really important points about how and why Tassomai works as well as some excellent explanations of how the brain makes memories. 

If you’ve got your own launch story that you’d like to share on the Tassomai blog do get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!

Watch Charters School’s Tassomai launch video