Case Study: Fitzwaryn School

At Fitzwaryn, we wanted to modernise our summative assessment and how we capture evidence of the progress made by our pupils. Our aim was to use a multi-media system which clearly showed how pupils progress rather than simply recording that they had made progress. Within this we wanted a system that was sensitive to the much personalised nature of our curriculum and had a positive impact on teacher workload. In June 2016 we launched MultiMe for each of our 96 pupils aged from 4-19. The use of MultiMe is now embedded within school practice and has enabled us to achieve not only our initial aims but also to provide a secure social media network for our pupils and look to further develop the communication between school and home

Improving Practice

Video Evidence

MultiMe has enabled teaching staff to assess pupils more comprehensively and with greater efficiency. The previous video evidencing system used involved teaching staff spending an average of 3 hours per term to record, download, edit and save one example of each pupil’s progress towards an individualised target. Using MultiMe, within the same time period, teaching staff are now able to include at least one piece of video, photographic or written evidence against upwards of 5 targets and also record progress within areas that do not necessarily sit within a specific target. This is able to be quickly and efficiently saved onto a secure cloud based system that provides ease of access for staff across the school and, in the near future, parents.

Goals

Teachers record progress against IEPs (Individual Education Plan) and EHC (Education, Health and Care) plans targets through the use of the ‘Goals’ function which allows targets to be divided into categories. This has made the progress each pupil has made easier to track, allows for clarity in understanding how a pupil has completed a task and supports a more effective transition for pupils when moving through the school. School leaders are also able to remotely track progress made across the school through this feature and are updated through an email alert whenever evidence has been recorded.

“I find MultiMe incredibly easy to use, and I enjoy putting all evidence on the individual diaries as a way of recording. This enables me to gather lots of evidence against their IEP targets, and also just to celebrate the children's individual achievements.”

“As a teacher, I find it quick and easy to use especially when we need to link our evidence to our IEP (Individual Education Plan) targets and I find it is an ongoing assessment tool that records progress throughout the term of all topics covered not just the ones that we need to provide evidence for.”

Moderation

Rather than requiring folders of work and observation sheets, through MultiMe, we now have all required for assessing an individual in one place. This has enabled moderation across the school to become a simpler process and information across different strands of the curriculum can be accessed quickly. Recording evidence into the different Areas of Learning for those within the EYFS enabled the County EYFS Profile Moderation Meeting to be a more straightforward process. Using a laptop, evidence of attainment across each Area of Learning for each pupil could be accessed.

Extending our offer

Diary

The ‘Diary’ provides a learning journey for each pupil which includes videos, pictures and text linked to their targets and also evidence of progress that may not sit within such targets or evidence of different activities or experiences. The use of the ‘Diary’ has proved particularly popular with teaching staff.

Social Media

Through the use of the ‘Chats’ function, different classes have created monitored discussion boards across a range of subjects. By managing those MultiMe users within an individual’s ‘Circle’ of friends, and by assigning a ‘Buddy’ (linked member of staff) to pupils, teaching staff are alerting to and therefore able to monitor anything posted. Pupils have thoroughly enjoyed commenting on each other’s work, videos of school performances and on specific curriculum topics through the ‘Chats’ function. In addition, pupils have found the access to different emoji’s extremely motivating to include.

Future steps

The adaptability of MultiMe and our appreciation of what the platform has to offer enables us to reflect on and set new aims for what we hope to achieve. In the near future we will be providing parental access to the pupil’s individual diary pages. This will mean parents can view the progress their child is making and they are alerted to any new entries. We are also endeavoring to move towards paperless meetings. Through the use of MultiMe we will be able to include pupil voice, parental thoughts, the view of professionals within the same multimedia platform.

If you would like further information regarding the use of MultiMe at Fitzwaryn, please contact the school office on 01235 764504