• Rural LA school 371 pupils (oversubscribed) in Northumberland
• Ofsted rating: Outstanding
• FSM: 11%

Review rating:

Average rating across all Busy Things reviews: 4.3/5

Good resource with lots of engaging features. The children love it. It is great for homework activities and short tasks; however it lacks the depth to cover all areas of the curriculum sufficiently.

How well does it match the curriculum?

Reasonably: It’s good enough for the money, but needs some additional resources

Its strengths are that it engages the children and covers the basics of the curriculum well. It also has some possibilities for creating your own resources. Its main weakness is that the challenge is limited, in that some of the activities are very straightforward and simple.

How well does it support adaptation for different groups of pupils?

Reasonably: Essentially there’s enough for most pupils but there isn’t enough extension or challenge.

One option would be to add difficulty levels to activities, have activities that gradually get harder or add a wider range of activities that challenge children further.

How well does it engage and motivate pupils?

Brilliantly: Pupils love using and are excited when they know they are going to do so

They love the characters and noises! They also seem to enjoy how straightforward it is to choose activities. They don't like the limited search function for activities, which uses characters but doesn't offer the option for text search.

How well supported is it by any included formative assessments?

Badly: There isn’t any / enough formative assessment or what there is, isn’t very useful

It isn't really useful to track children's progress at all. It does have the option to set work and view work that has been completed, but there isn't an obvious way of gaining an overall view of a child.

How well does it support planning?

Reasonably: Mostly we can use it without an unreasonable amount of effort or additional resource requirement

The search facility isn't the greatest. It can be quite frustrating trying to find a resource. I like how easy it is to allocate work to children, though.

How well does it support home use / independent learning?

Well: Pupils could be expected to use this at home or independently, with a minimum amount of support or additional resources

It's easy to access for the children and they can use it with very little support; however, at times I'd be concerned about the depth of learning.

How would you rate it for value for money compared to similar resources?

Well: It’s worth the money and effort to introduce – more so than many similar resources I’ve seen

Provide more challenge for the children to extend their understanding further as some of the activities are quite limited in their scope. Perhaps add a better search function.

Would you recommend it to a colleague in a similar school to yours? 8/11

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