Home Learning & Digital Learning

At Milton Road Primary School, we strive to ensure outstanding teaching and learning provision for all of the pupils under our care.

We have researched and trialed a wide range of educational technology resources to assist us with this aim and there are a number of key platforms and systems that we have adopted which we believe will best support progress and learning outcomes for our pupils, optimise parent/family communication and help our pupils prepare for the modern, digital age.

We are aware that it can get rather confusing, keeping track of all of the different technological systems in use. We hope this information will be a helpful reference point to guide you through them.

Seesaw (a whole school resource)                                              

• Seesaw is a digital learning platform that acts as an online portfolio of your child’s work. Their journal follows them throughout the school, storing their wonderful achievements as they progress through the years at Milton Road and demonstrating the development of their skills and knowledge.
• It also offers a communication system, allowing you to send and receive messages with your child’s class teacher and receive photos and videos showcasing their achievements and allowing you insight into the school day and your child’s learning experiences.
• We hope this interactivity will aid easy communication with your child’s teacher and increase your feelings of connectivity throughout your child’s learning adventures at Milton Road. Staying closely connected with our incredible parent/carer community is one of our biggest priorities at Milton Road Primary School.
• In the event of your child learning remotely (in instances such as self isolation), Seesaw can be used by the teacher to share lesson and activity resources, to share your child’s work from home and to receive feedback from your child’s class teacher.
• Important documentation such as curriculum plans and the weekly class timetable will also be shared on Seesaw.
• There are some differences in how Seesaw is used across the school, to tailor our approach to the needs of each of our cohorts:
• In KS2, Seesaw is used as a communication tool, to share announcements with all of the parents/carers in the class (e.g. a reminder of an upcoming event) but also to send individual messages and to host conversations with specific parents/carers to allow parents/carers easy communication with their child’s class teacher. As described above, photos and videos of children’s learning experiences at Milton Road are regularly shared with the parent community. When appropriate, pieces of work will also be shared to children’s journals to “showcase” children’s achievements and share this with their families.
• In KS1, Seesaw is used as a communication tool, as described above. In addition, it is also used as a tool to set home learning and to provide feedback for children on the home learning they have completed. Each week, a new task will be assigned to children in Year 1 and Year 2 which will either be focused on preparing children for upcoming learning topics, or revision and recapping on the curriculum already covered in school.
• In EYFS, this journal is the portfolio storing evidence of your child’s progress towards each of the Early Learning Goals. You have unique access to this and will regularly see new posts in your child’s journal, documenting their educational experience and celebrating their creations. This is not dissimilar to platforms you may have experienced in a Nursery setting e.g. Tapestry.
• If you have any questions regarding seesaw access please speak to your child's class teacher or alternatively email the office team who can pass on your query to the teacher  office@miltonroad.cambs.sch.uk 

Century (KS2 only)

https://www.century.tech/.                                   

• Century is an award-winning educational platform that is based on artificial intelligence to create a tailored learning pathway for your child. Home learning in KS2 centres around Century, as it is fully bespoke to each individual pupil’s learning needs. The programme identifies gaps in your child’s learning; gives them personalised tasks to address the misconceptions and then checks to ensure they have understood it before moving on. It is exactly what both teachers and parents dream homework could be like! Personalised tasks specifically created for each individual child to focus specifically on the areas that child would most benefit from practising further! Teachers can monitor pupils’ progress through the materials, set additional work and use the data collected to inform classroom interventions.
• This completely revolutionises our approach to home learning/homework, meaning each child can work through their own bespoke programme of learning, tailored specifically to their own needs, receive instantaneous feedback and working at their own pace. The platform will generate more resources as needed, so families can take control of how much learning at home their child completes, rather than feeling restricted by the amount that has been set, confident in the knowledge that all of the learning specifically follows our school curriculum. Whilst offering flexibility and the ability to fit in with busy home lives. The platform gives students regular tests on material they have covered in English, maths and science lessons which aids understanding and improves retention. We will also be using Century as a learning tool in the classroom.
• Each child has their own unique username and password. Once logged in, the students follow their ‘path’, which automatically appears. From here, students just click ‘start’ under the subject they are focusing on that session e.g. multiplication tables or place value. Century will get them to do an initial baseline assessment, this is to give an initial insight into the activities that should be set, it will continually refine as your child progresses and grows in confidence, or as gaps in knowledge become apparent.
• The modules that pop up on the pathway show you the areas pupils should currently be focusing on, it may also ask pupils to complete specific assignments allocated by the class teacher here. The class teacher has access to the results and will continually monitor these so they can use this data to make appropriate interventions to support all of the students’ learning.
• You can monitor your child’s use of the platform yourself too by logging in with their student login details, which will allow you to see their revision time spent and average testing scores.

Times Table Rock Stars (www.ttrockstars.com)

(Year 2-6)                                                                                  

• Times Table Rock Stars is a website which specifically focuses on building children’s confidence, speed and accuracy with multiplication and division facts. Confident recall of times table knowledge hugely aids children’s progress in mathematics in general and has beneficial impact across the mathematics curriculum.
• All children should be fluent and confident in their multiplication tables as early in their school career as possible. There is now a national ‘multiplication table’ test in Year 4 to assess children’s speed and accuracy in this area. The test is of a very similar format as Times Table Rock Stars and we feel this is an invaluable resource to help children prepare for this.
• We have purchased a subscription and created individual accounts for each of our pupils. Each pupil has their own log in details, which they can use to log in directly from the website from any device either at home or at school.
• The game encourages their progress by awarding coins for the questions they answer, which they can ‘spend’ on customising the appearance of their avatar.
• There are multiple game types:

Garage mode: this is the best place to improve children’s confidence and speed. The class teacher can set specific times tables in Garage mode to customise the level of challenge for specific groups of children e.g. they may choose for children to be fully secure in the 2, 3, 4 and 5 times tables before introducing the 7 and 8 times tables into the mix.

Studio mode- this mode includes all multiplication and associated division facts up to 12x12, children can challenge themselves and build up their speed in all multiplication tables. Their ‘speed’ is calculated from this game type.

Arena mode- in this mode classmates can play against each other. Teachers will set specific tables that they would like pupils to focus on.

Festival mode- children can play against other children across other primary schools. All times tables up to 12x12 are included. As a school we have set up opportunities for inter- class/school/national tournaments to inspire and challenge the children to learn their times tables and promote use of the platform.

NumBots (KS1)                                                      

This is a partnership platform with TTRS, specifically tailored to KS1 children. This website is aimed at 5-8 year olds and helps develop fluency in key mathematical skills. Children each have their own log in details and can use this programme both in class and at home.

Nessy                                                                                                

Nessy is a resource used to support children in building their confidence in spelling and reading. The following youtube link is a useful introduction to this programme -

https://youtu.be/_FO9jdXYfo

Recommended Use
Nessy recommends that the programme is most effective when used 4 x 20 minutes per week. As it is a web based programme, these sessions can be accessed on the class PCs, tablets or at home.
Assessments
These are the Reading and Spelling Challenges which must be completed independently (younger children may need support with the instructions) so that appropriate targets and lessons are set.

You will be contacted if we feel your child would benefit from a Nessy account. Children who already have a Nessy account will already know their log in details.