• Urban Academy 258 pupils in Derbyshire
• Ofsted rating: Requires improvement
• FSM: 36.4%

Review rating:

Average rating across all Education City reviews: 3.9/5

Really love this program and so do the kids. It is the program that children prefer most out of all educational programs.

How well does it match the curriculum?

Brilliantly: There is more content (eg support / extension activities) than we expected

Strengths- perfectly matched. Age appropriate and sets the work at level applicable to the child depending on their ability.Weaknesses- none. I feel this program is great

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

Brilliantly: There is a wide enough range of resources to provide a good range of options for all pupils

I can’t see anything that would be needed to develop this program further. Perhaps having some teaching tools that adults could use to support the children if they’re stuck or maybe presenting the questions in a different way if children don’t understand. E.g. a different visual.

How well does it engage and motivate pupils?

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

The children love the games and are very motivated by it. They will ask to ‘play’ on it. It would be great if it highlighted their personal target more clearly so that children could recall this if asked by Ofsted

How well supported is it by any included formative assessments?

Well: We could (or do) use it for monitoring individual pupil progress

I like the use of algorithms to set the work. Perhaps something that could be printed out for teachers where they can see the progress made, hours played, maths age, time to answer a questions, time spend in different areas of the programme.

How well does it support planning?

Brilliantly: It has everything you could need and is straightforward to use with classes

Matches the curriculum perfectly so no issues here at all. Perhaps for teachers to login and be able to assign children set tasks and then for this to link with sims Integris, seesaw so you can notify staff and parents easier with progress.

How well does it support home use / independent learning?

Brilliantly: We’d have very few reservations about using this extensively to support home learning

Children are motivated so will use the program. There are some children without access to tables or the interest so perhaps something in a paper book to support learning online.

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

School love the program. However, it is expensive in comparison to doodle, TTRockstars and Ed shed. With budgets being tight it is hard to have all programs. Perhaps a discount for trusts schools who would purchase say 20 schools worth of pupil logins.

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

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