• City LA school 320 pupils (oversubscribed) in Birmingham
• Ofsted rating: Good
• FSM: 10.3%

Review rating:

Average rating across all Discovery Espresso reviews: 3.7/5

A user friendly, relatively easy accessible catalogue of resources for aiding teaching and learning

How well does it match the curriculum?

Well: It covers the curriculum as well as we expected

A range of resources available in various formats to support all areas of the curriculum for KS1 and EYFSchild friendly language and age appropriate images in all resources

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

Reasonably: Essentially there’s enough for most pupils but there isn’t enough support, extension or challengein regards to teaching the whole class at a time resources are chosen based on year group and/or key stage. if challenge, extension or differentiation is needed for specific children then option to choose different year group/key stage resources.

Maybe resources could be presented in a differentiated format....start low/easy level, then progress to the average/mid level, ...then end with challenge and extension for more able children. e.g. video could then be stop/fast forward to the relevant sections for the needs of the children being taught

How well does it engage and motivate pupils?

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

Today's children are more familiar with looking at screens and accessing technology regularly they enjoy viewing information on class IWB, and also images, videos etc that are presented are in child friendly formats

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

At present we haven't utilised any resources that could form part of our assessment or data systems. However the resources are used as part of the teaching process prior to school based assessments.

How well does it support planning?

Well: It’s fairly self-contained and can be used with minimal preparation

As the resource has a catalogue of materials for all year groups/key stages it is mostly possible to find relevant documents, videos etc to match core and foundation subject planning needs.

How well does it support home use / independent learning?

Reasonably: It could be used at home or independently, but pupils would need some extra support or resources

Home access is an option, which would offer lots of learning opportunities for the children and their families. however, due to costs we do not consistently offer access to school subscription sites

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

Reasonably: It represents about the same value for money as similar resources I’ve seen

due to cut-backs and limited budgets schools are thinking twice about continuing with subscriptions, ultimately this means that children do lose some experiences....therefore costs to subscribe are key!

Would you recommend it to a colleague in a similar school to yours? 10/11

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