Key benefits
- Supports Independent School goals for education
- Improves motivation levels and outcomes for pupils
- Immediate, positive impact on parental engagement
- Re-enforces the support network outside of the classroom
- Fully GDPR compliant.
About Our Ladies Preparatory School
Our Ladies Preparatory School (OLPS) and Nursery is a small independent school set in Crowthorne, Berkshire. With 267 pupils aged 0-11, OLPS is a happy, caring school with a strong vision for the school and its pupils.
The challenge
As with many schools, one challenge for the OLPS was engaging with parents positively.
Sometimes, it’s tricky to communicate the many wonderful things that happen during the school week. This was something that OLPS wanted to address, then the pandemic struck. Fortunately, the school had recently signed up to MarvellousMe.
Simon Cassell, the Deputy Headmaster at OLPS, explains how the school have used MarvellousMe with pupils and parents during the last 18 months.
‘An essential part of any independent school education is to develop pupils so that they are well-rounded, as well as academically successful and achieve their best. However, education is so much more than what happens in the classroom; the support network goes way beyond the four walls, including education at home, school events, life experiences, and learning in the playground.’
‘At our school, we have built excellent relationships with our parents and carers, and our school community is one that we cherish. Throughout lockdown, and with the ongoing restrictions as pupils have returned to the classroom, it has been challenging to keep these great relationships going. MarvellousMe has really helped with this. Throughout home-learning, our school-home partnerships have worked very well.’
Motivation matters
One of the benefits of MarvellousMe is that teachers can share good news with parents as it happens.
‘When the pandemic hit in February 2020, the school knew how crucial it was to reach all parents of pupils at their school, and it was important that even when pupils were working at home, they were recognised and praised for their hard work and achievements.’
‘Using MarvellousMe during lockdown meant that our pupils who were working well at home could be rewarded in the same way that they would be if they were in school.’
‘Our many school rewards, as well as the Deputy Headmaster and Headmaster’s Awards, were still distributed, and the school also praised children (and informed their parents) with digital badges via MarvellousMe, which sometimes included a photo of the child’s work.
‘Another bonus, now that we are back in school, is that rewards make it home and parents know what they are for.’
Positive impact
‘It’s clear that there are big outcomes when giving children praise’, says Simon.
‘The ability to effortlessly share work and positive information with parents is excellent, and parents enjoy the classroom insight and seeing the effort that their child is putting in.
‘Children are motivated by the praise received from parents, and you can see that the incentive of getting an MarvellousMe badge improves the child’s effort, commitment and focus. There’s a positive impact in the classroom and at home.’
Putting teachers in control
Being mindful of teacher workload, one of the advantages of MarvellousMe is that it is just one-way communication from the teacher to parents. Teachers don’t worry that by sending a simple message home, or by giving a child a MarvellousMe badge, they will be burdened with unnecessary or off task replies.
‘With social distancing enforcing limited conversations in the playground, MarvellousMe has been excellent for teacher to parent communications.’
‘MarvellousMe is only used for positive communications, and we get ‘high-fives’ back from parents, so we know they have seen the message. We use it mostly for praise, but also for the odd reminder message for swimming kits etc. It’s great to boost pupil morale through giving badges.’
‘The teachers control the good news messages going out, and parents know precisely what is happening in school. MarvellousMe has been brilliant.’
Next steps
As a school looking to technology to improve parental engagement, what is next?
‘We’ve been using MarvellousMe to maintain our excellent relationship with our parents, families and communities. We may look at using the Reading Log in the future, but at the moment, it’s working well to give badges to praise pupils who are working hard, and involving parents in that special moment.’
