Key benefits
- 91% of parents engaged in a couple of weeks
- Positive impact on attainment
- Immediate, positive impact on parental engagement
- Motivates pupils to put in extra effort
- Reduces the workload for teachers
- Fully GDPR compliant.
About Birkbeck Primary School
Birkbeck Primary School is a school of 500+ pupils aged 3 to 11 based in Sidcup, Kent. The school is a larger than average primary school, with pupil premium, EAL and SEND numbers below the national average.
The challenge
For many schools, the challenge is getting pupils to achieve. However, for Birkbeck Primary, they also have the additional challenge of keeping a large proportion of pupils at the high attainment level they are when they join the school, as Mrs Lloyd, Deputy Head Teacher at Birkbeck Primary School, explains:
‘Our school goal is to help all pupils regardless of their starting point to progress as much as possible and support them to reach their full potential. A number of pupils tend to join us at a high standard of education, and we want to ensure that this is built upon and accelerated whenever possible.
Covid-19 presented many challenges for us, as it did for all schools. Even when schools re-opened following lockdown, social distancing made it very difficult for teachers to speak with parents and tell them about their child’s day and achievements. This is hard even in regular times, especially when trying to involve working parents and separated parents who might not be able to visit the school very often.’
Sharing good news
‘We looked at a few systems, but as I had used MarvellousMe at a previous school, I knew that it would work for us. It enables us to share positive news with parents quickly, easily and regularly, and without risking teacher workload.’
With MarvellousMe, children know that their hard work and achievements are valued and recognised by teachers and leaders in school and their parents and wider family members at home. This ‘double’ impact motivates them to do well and to keep it going.
‘We have made MarvellousMe part of the school day. Teachers award MarvellousMe badges to the children for our school rules and awards such as ‘learner of the week’, resilience, respect, being kind, contribution and great work on Times Table Rock Stars. Every time a child gets a badge, they know their parents are being told the great news at that moment in time. It makes them feel very proud of themselves.’
It is this power of sharing positive news with parents that stands MarvellousMe apart from other systems and, because of this, it has such a significant impact on children’s motivation and esteem.
Parents love MarvellousMe too. It gives them regular insight into their child’s life at school and helps them have better conversations with their children about the day and celebrate their accomplishments.
Parents enjoy the simplicity, personal touch and positivity of the app and can recall, and enjoy again, their child’s learning activities and badges whenever they want and for all the school years.
Improving outcomes
It is well known that when parents or carers are involved in children’s education, their happiness, motivation, and outcomes improve. This is why Birkbeck Primary wanted to engage parents as much as possible, especially in the topics, values and skills that matter most.
‘MarvellousMe has had a positive impact on pupils’ performance in class. It has made a real difference to their motivation levels and wanting to do well. Their parents are involved in their child’s hard work and success, and the impact has been great.’
High 5s mean teacher-appreciation
‘I often wonder what parents think about the school. The fact we regularly get ‘High 5s’ back in MarvellousMe demonstrates that they appreciate being kept informed about their child’s learning and character development and value our teachers’ hard work.’
‘Our parents are truly engaged with MarvellousMe. It’s brilliant.’
Next steps
As a school using EdTech to help reduce teacher workload and improve parental engagement, what’s next?
‘With MarvellousMe, we will be looking to see what other features we can roll out in school. I know that there are other features like Reading Log and Quick Links, and we will see if these can help us work smarter.’
