• Rural Academy 123 pupils in North Lincolnshire
• Ofsted rating: Good
• FSM: 35%

Review rating:

Average rating across all now>press>play reviews: 4.8/5

The children enjoyed using the resources and they are easy to set up. We will be using for a year but might not continue the subscription for the following year as the experiences would become repetitive.

How well does it match the curriculum?

Well: It covers the curriculum as well as we expected

There are different time periods covered but it would be useful to have more than one experience from the time period.The content is engaging but an experience targeted at lower and upper key stage 2 would be good.

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 challenge. Differentiated content for ks2 ages would be good.

Some of the in-experience content needs more explaining for students or questions read to them. Several times I had to stop the experience and explain tasks which took children out of the immersion

How well does it engage and motivate pupils?

Well: Pupils generally enjoy using it and tend to welcome doing so

The pupils enjoyed the stories for the experiences, they reacted well and were enthusiastic to do more.

How well supported is it by any included formative assessments?

Reasonably: There is some formative assessment included, but its usefulness is a bit limited

The comprehension questions are useful and the follow up tasks are good.

How well does it support planning?

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

The resources are well thought out on the whole and easy to pick up and use. Some of the resources could be differentiated further for groups of pupils.

How well does it support home use / independent learning?

Badly: It’s not really suitable for home use or independent learning

It isn't designed for use at home as it is for a group of pupils to work together with the headphones.

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

If there were more experiences linked to the themes- eg History more than one experience per age period would be very good for progression rather than one and done.

Would you recommend it to a colleague in a similar school to yours? 7/11

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