David Gash, Head of Science at Gateacre School, talks to Tassomai about how he and his Second in Department, Cara Harris, are giving students a head start in their learning and ensuring all of his pupils have equal access to Tassomai… 

We have been using Tassomai for all 5 year groups across KS3 and KS4 for several years now and it’s really embedded within the school. 

We do several things to make sure students are using their Tassomai each week, the most established is using it as a starter activity for the first 5 minutes of each lesson. Almost all students take part in this, as we make sure there are always 2 laptops in every science classroom for those without a device to complete their Daily Goals in class.

Giving a head start

The rule is that students have to have their phones flat on the desk so that teachers can make sure they’re definitely using it for Tassomai and not just using it as an excuse to use their phones. We have used this starter method since we first introduced Tassomai and always give teachers the discretion not to do it if they wish but the vast majority do so that their students are given a head start towards their Daily Goals for the week.

Students are usually half way to completing a Daily Goal after these quick starter sessions so it’s an easy win for them when they log back on a bit later in the day and complete it quickly. We’ve found this really helps to keep up momentum and gets students talking about the platform. 

Levelling the playing field 

Our students come to Gateacre with their KS2 scores slightly below the national average and it’s our mission to open up as many opportunities as we can to them while they are with us. More than half the school is made up of Pupil Premium students, so we want to make sure that Tassomai is used to everyone’s advantage, which is why we allow time for it to be used and accessed during the school day.

We have the additional laptops in most classrooms but also run a drop in session every Friday for students to come and use Tassomai. It’s very important to us to make sure everyone has equitable access to tools like this that we genuinely think will have a positive impact and help improve learning outcomes for all.

Keeping track of progress

We encourage all the teachers in our department to look at their students’ stats at least once a week so they can keep track of their progress and are able to spot where any gaps are appearing. 

Cara will reward different stats each week – sometimes it’s based on accuracy, other times it’s on the number of questions answered etc. The students with the best results for that week then win things like a packet of oreos or other small prizes, just to keep a level of competition going between them all as an added incentive. 

When we are teaching we often change the custom date range on the teacher dashboard to that day’s date and keep refreshing the board as students complete their starter so we can see their usage increasing in real time. This is also a great way to make sure everyone is doing it and seeing where some students get stuck.

Driving good usage by carrot and stick

For our KS4 students in particular we have to think about both the carrot and the stick in our approach to make sure they engage with the product. We didn’t want to come on too strong with sanctions at the beginning, so we raised the bar of our expectations slowly using a variety of approaches until the students completed 4 Daily Goals every week.

One KS4 year group in particular has gone from being the year group with the lowest usage to the highest as a result of this initiative. Just like Tassomai breaks down learning, we introduced it slowly so that it didn’t feel overwhelming for the students.

Reinforcement and parental engagement

There needs to be constant reinforcement for students to be on their A-game with Tassomai. This isn’t necessarily anything to do with the product, just students will always try to find an excuse to avoid homework. It simply wouldn’t work to remind them once a month that they should be keeping up with their Daily Goals, it has to be more thoroughly embedded and emphasised. 

We encourage all of our teachers to send out praise texts to parents of students who have been doing particularly well on Tassomai each week. Just a quick congratulatory message can go a long way in helping parents to feel involved with the process - when parents are on board then they take on part of the responsibility of reminding students to complete their Daily Goals too, so it’s a win-win. 

Earlier this year, David Gash taught a Live Lesson for Tassomai on Forces and Elasticity for Physics, which you can view here.