At Up Learn, we enable teachers to help students continue their learning outside of class. School leaders and teachers have asked for greater insight and overview of their students and departments. It’s this feedback that has helped shape the new dashboard. 

The new School Dashboard gives you reporting and insights to ensure you and your students get the most out of Up Learn. You’re now able to check if students have completed their tasks, track their progress, and understand where they need support.

So what features make the School Dashboard particularly valuable?

The key benefits of our functionality for schools and teachers are as follows:

1. Detailed reporting

The ability to view progress, student’s effort, and subject knowledge at a department, cohort, and student level – making information easy to understand for all school personnel who are involved in progress and reporting.

2. Progress tracking

The new dashboard helps teachers understand whether students have completed work that has been allocated, whilst understanding student progress by time spent or by topic covered. This should give a better indication of where the educational gaps are and help teachers fill them. 

3. Easy to use

Improved design means that it’s easy to understand results and progress. Our new dashboard provides insights and data clearly and concisely, which means that schools can quickly understand progress and focus on supporting their students.

School Dashboard: View Activities

From the Department Overview page, you will be able to access an Activities view.
This page displays students’ performance against weekly goals you have set for them by time or by topic.

The Activities page also features an automated weekly report and Leaderboard.

This will help you to identify who is performing well and who may need further support.

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The post Introducing the School Dashboard. Giving schools, departments and teachers an even better overview of progress. appeared first on Up Learn.

Pupil premium is funding given to schools to help raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils to help them reach their potential. The EEF’s menu of approaches outlines that the PP funding can be used for technology and other resources to support high-quality teaching and learning. Our GCSE science course leverages the latest technology in cognitive science, ensuring the students achieve mastery outside the classroom. Some of the key principles you will find in our courses include: 

• Dispelling misconceptions – ensuring every learner understands even the most complex science concepts
• Retrieval Practice– supporting students to embed knowledge in their long term memory- a key reason why students struggle at GCSE science.
• Interleaved Learning – our courses support students to make links and connections between the topics in chemistry. 

What makes Up Learn unique? 

• Fun lessons and interactive quizzes to embed learning
• Easy-to-use dashboards to provide teachers and schools with the insights needed to address attainment gaps. 
• Track students’ understanding and progress weekly
• Ideal one-stop shop for GCSE science homework setting and weekly intervention 

How do Up Learn’s GCSE courses support Pupil Premium students? 

Our GCSE sciences courses can be used and embedded in a number of ways to support both disadvantaged and non disadvantaged student, raising the attainment and outcomes for all: 

• Catch up resource to support students who have missed lessons 
• Intervention resource used in tuition, tutor periods, GCSE catch up
• Homework tool to increase independence and reduce teacher workload
• Early support to ensure your highest ability students extend their learning beyond the classroom 
• Set summer homework for students to support with summer learning loss, before entrance to Year 11. 

As outlined by the DFE, Schools and academies do not have to use pupil premium funding solely for PP students. PP can be used for whole class interventions which will raise the attainment of all, benefiting both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. Buying Up Learn will raise the attainment of all your students at GCSE.  Our course is designed to support students from the lowest grades, all the way up to a 9. 

What does the GCSE Science course cover? 

GCSE Combined Chemistry (AQA) is currently live. Trilogy science is launching October 2024. 

How do we get students set up? 

We know that getting a whole cohort set up on a platform can sometimes be time consuming but with our dedicated customer success team and data integration using Wonde – students can be Up Learning within 2 weeks. We’ll work with your data manager to connect to your MIS system while our team will provide you with in-school resources such as assemblies, parental letters and staff CPD to ensure pupils get the most out of the platform, from the moment they get their account details. 

Pupil premium is a great funding resource for schools and working in partnership withUp will help create the best possible outcomes for your students and increase science progress 8 at GCSE. With teachers having greater insight into where the gaps are in their students’ knowledge, academic progress is accelerated. If you’d like to find out more about how Up Learn can work with you – get in touch. 

The post Making the most of Pupil Premium Funding: Raise attainment in GCSE Science with Up Learn appeared first on Up Learn.

When the clock is ticking for your students, time-consuming study methods just won’t cut it. This is where Up Learn’s Summary Content steps in. Condensing complex topics into bite-sized, digestible chunks, this feature streamlines the revision process, allowing students to grasp key concepts swiftly and efficiently.

One of the most significant benefits of the Summary Content feature is its flexibility. Students can complete topic activities chronologically, culminating in the Summary Content to consolidate their understanding. The final step could be done imminently, or to practice spaced repetition students return to Summary Content at a later date. It’s a tried and tested metacognitive practice which encourages scholarly autonomy, and is time-efficient in the summer term.

For those students who are feeling particularly confident in a topic, they can start their studies with the Summary Content. Using this as a starting point, Summary Content’s recall practice will help students to identify knowledge gaps. Afterwards, students can then complete the specific, thorough topic activities to get up to speed and have greater confidence in their understanding. You can either instruct students to choose one of these methods given your understanding of their strengths, or allow students the choice to revise as they wish.

Teachers, too, can harness the power of Up Learn’s Summary Content in their instruction. You can incorporate Summaries into set tasks to reinforce key concepts, create meaningful intervention tasks and be assured that students will consolidate their learning effectively. The result? A dynamic learning experience where students are not just passive recipients of information but active participants in the run up to their summer exams.

In essence, Up Learn’s Summary Content feature is more than just a study aid—it’s a catalyst for academic success. By distilling complex subjects into manageable chunks, and fostering long-term retention, use Up Learn to empower your students this summer.

The post Unlocking Success: How Up Learn’s Summary Content Empowers Students and Teachers appeared first on Up Learn.

One of the most clear issues for schools is recruitment. At secondary level, the Government has missed its target for 10 out of the last 11 years. This year, recruitment was 50% below target. These figures are a symptom of a broader recruitment crisis across the sector. Consequently, it’s harder than ever to have subject specialists in front of the children that need it, especially in the STEM subjects. Without these specialists, students find it hard to develop both wonder and mastery in their subject. At the same time, staff without specialism are asked to work harder than ever to cover new subjects. This expectation of staff is in turn creating new workload burdens. 

The further knock-on effect of teacher shortages is increased spending on supply teachers. In the previous academic year spending on cover increased by 50% up to £1.27 billion. In an ideal world this is money that schools would not be paying out. Instead, it should be funding school plays, trips and sports teams. 

And it’s not just a lack of teachers in classrooms. School leaders are having to manage with greater absenteeism than ever before. Amanda Spielman’s final report as Head of Ofsted explicitly raised concerns about increasing rates of non-attendance amongst students. Not being in school creates a whole host of issues for students and teachers. Nobody wants these children to fall behind. But to help children catch-up, teachers need to set, track, mark and follow-up on additional work. Whilst at the same time school leaders are trying to create a welcoming, nurturing and valuable environment for students and families.  

Finally, schools are facing a rapidly changing technological landscape. The rise of Large Language Models such as Chat-GPT will create new fissures to overcome. School leaders will need to remain agile and consider how we set homework and plan lessons. We’ll also need to consider what type of knowledge we value in our fast evolving technological age. 

Given these challenges it’s important that school leaders continue to think creatively in serving their communities. During the pandemic we saw schools rapidly adapt to teaching students stuck at home. This new reality will also require new ideas. I’ve been particularly struck by schools choosing to adopt new technology. I worked as an advisor to the online learning platform Up Learn in 2023. Their platform strikes me as a clear tool in the armoury of schools. It enables students to gain subject specialist teaching when departments have lost a member. It has given pupils unable to access the classroom a new way of staying in touch. And it’s helped many schools achieve outstanding results through embracing the powerful technology that some may perhaps be wary of. 

Tools like Up Learn will have an important role for schools in the coming decades. The pandemic has changed the way many people work. And it may well require that schools begin to think creatively about how we operate. There are of course a number of strategies that the Government could put in place to ease the current burden faced by schools. But it is also a time for schools to think creatively and embrace new ideas. 

As George Couros said “ Technology will not replace great teachers but technology in the hands of great teachers can be transformational”.

Julian Drinkall – CEO, GLF Schools

The post Transformational Technology and Teaching – the opportunity for a paradigm shift appeared first on Up Learn.

With thousands of students studying for A Levels across The Harris Federation, the partnership with Up Learn is designed to empower the Trust’s students to gain greater depth of knowledge and track their progress through world-class animated instructional content, interactive dashboards and AI-powered personalised learning journeys. Teachers will have a greater overview of each student’s knowledge gaps and be able to set targeted work to plug them. 

Building on the strong foundations of teaching that students have received at Harris Academies, the Up Learn solution supports The Harris Federation’s goal to create a successful transition from Year 11 into Year 12 and embed substantive learning habits from the start. Up Learn’s model enables students to add hundreds of hours of independent learning across the STEM subjects – utilising AI and tailored learning interventions to ensure that every student can reach their full potential, get top grades and a place at the university of their dreams. The Harris Federation’s track record of educational excellence combined with Up Learn’s platform cements Harris’ mission to close the educational gap between young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. 

In the last year, Up Learn has seen increased interest from Multi Academy Trusts choosing to use its platform to support students and enhance their academic experience. In particular, Up Learn’s fundamental belief that the solution should be for every student supports Harris’ incredibly successful trajectory for pupils who come from a wide range of backgrounds.

Guy Riese, CEO and Founder of Up Learn says, “We are delighted to be working with Harris Federation. Up Learn was built to create the most effective learning experiences in the world – an education solution where every student learns successfully regardless of their background – and distribute access to everyone. To be working with an organisation that shares our values and vision and to be able to positively impact thousands of students, is an incredibly exciting moment for our team.”

Matt Osborne, Principal, Harris Federation Sixth Form comments, “We are looking forward to working with Up Learn to maximise the platform’s impact on the quality of education and outcomes for our Sixth Form students.”

The post Up Learn Announces Transformative Three-Year Partnership with The Harris Federation appeared first on Up Learn.

Sutton High School is an independent girls’ school based in the heart of Sutton, Surrey. As a member of the Girl’s Day School Trust, Sutton High School champions the building of independence and resilience in its students. A driving ethos behind the school is the personalisation of learning: focusing on the needs of each individual, and enabling them to be the best that they can be. This ethos has been the foundation of Sutton High School’s partnership with Up Learn. Since 2022, Up Learn has provided Sutton High with a complete suite of STEM courses: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Economics and Psychology. Beth Dawson has been Sutton High’s headteacher since 2019 and a champion of Up Learn’s meaningful impact on her students’ independent learning, motivation and study skills.

‘Uplearn gives pupils a clear revision pathway, focusing on active learning.’

Since implementing Up Learn into free periods, Beth Dawson and her team have seen wonderful improvements in students’ attainment, driven by dynamic and engaging independent learning. One fantastic example has been students identified as suitable for ‘targeted intervention’, who utilised Up Learn to fine-tune and personalise their revision, enabling them to ‘reach their full potential’: a wonderful achievement for the girls and their resilience! 

Providing students with a personalised revision plan is a key benefit that Up Learn provides for students’ independent study. Beth Dawson states that ‘Up Learn gives pupils a clear revision pathway, focusing on active learning’ which is of the utmost importance – especially in the transition from KS4 to KS5. Alongside effective time management, students’ ‘confidence’ in some of the trickier content they encounter increases with Up Learn’s application of cognitive science methods, such as mastery. 

Students are not the only ones to benefit from Up Learn at Sutton High. Staff are able to use the handy tracking tools Up Learn provides teachers to monitor individual and group progress over time; Beth Dawson herself highlights that ‘pastoral staff can track a pupil’s commitment to revision, and subject staff can see the areas where a pupil is strongest and weakest’. From this, it is clear to see that Up Learn can empower a holistic approach to tracking student progress, staging interventions where necessary and celebrating successes! 

On this note, Beth Dawson shares special success stories from Sutton High where they have ‘seen pupils’ grades increase in both Maths and Economics, through the practice offered on Uplearn. In one case, a pupil who undertook 96 hours on Uplearn in one term has increased her grade by two’ – a fantastic achievement for the students, staff and school.

The wonderful partnership between Up Learn and Sutton High is one of a shared vision: empowering students to recognise and reach their potential, regardless of starting point. We at Up Learn want to say a huge thank you to all of the staff and students at Sutton High; we cannot wait to see what successes you make in the future.

The post Supporting KS5 Independent learning at Sutton High School appeared first on Up Learn.

Last half-term, we had the pleasure of visiting Launceston College and Bideford College. These two schools are part of the newly-established Athena Learning Trust based in Cornwall, where the executive team are doing wonderful things. From behaviour to CPD to homework, Athena Learning Trust are building a world-class school environment in a traditionally under-served part of the country. 

As part of their new teaching and learning strategy, our team has been involved in rethinking Athena Learning Trust’s approach to KS5 independent learning. 

Anyone who has taught KS5 will know that it’s a strange sort of middle ground. In September, many Y12 students are still GCSE students in shiny new suits. Yet there’s an expectation that, by the time these students leave in Y13, they will be fully fledged “independent” learners, ready to enter into university education. 

Upon joining the 6th form, KS5 students are expected to engage in “independent learning” during free periods. Schools facilitate this time in different ways, from timetabled lesson hours to complete student freedom. 

This is the key space in which the Athena Learning Trust has spotted low-hanging fruit. They’ve seen an opportunity to make every second count, to squeeze every ounce of learning they can from students’ time in school. They’ve taken a bold step and done away with the notion of “free” periods. 

Athena Learning Trust has replaced all independent learning time during the school day with timetabled lessons, set in computer rooms with a dedicated member of staff. Students now spend this time on Up Learn, working independently through the topics most relevant to them, reviewing taught concepts and addressing their weaknesses to guarantee the highest grades.

In Up Learn, students have a resource that can both teach and consolidate the entire course specification from scratch. Thousands of optimally sequenced, bite-sized lesson videos and a wide range of adaptive assessments ensure that, by completing an Up Learn course, students will have learned every single detail they need to succeed at A Level. 

School leaders have set the expectation that students complete 3 hours of learning per subject per week on the platform. These scores are available 24/7 for teachers to hold students to account and praise those hitting targets. 

After one half-term, the results have been remarkable. Over 200 users across the Trust have been using the platform, with the average student completing 45 hours of learning: the equivalent of 7.5 additional days of timetabled lessons. 

And yet, 45 hours is just the average. The top student within the MAT has completed over 120 hours on the platform. That’s the equivalent of adding over 4 weeks worth of lessons to a students timetable in a single half term!

These countless hours of learning have been achieved without any additional burden on staff workload – Athena Learning Trust has not asked teachers to make any changes to the way they’re teaching. In fact, the opposite has begun to happen – in one school, teachers have decided to replace weekly homework with Up Learn, alleviating the expectation for staff to set KS5 homework at all if they don’t think it necessary. 

We don’t yet know what results these students will achieve. But if each student in year 12 can add 7.5 days to their timetable every half-term until their exams in 2024, then the average Athena Student will have completed almost 82.5 days, or 4 full months of additional learning, than students not using Up Learn.

The post Low Hanging Fruit: Supporting KS5 Independent learning at Athena Learning Trust appeared first on Up Learn.

We’ve made some minor changes to layout within our courses to help students focus revision on the most important topics ahead of summer exams this year.

Advance Information for 2022 Exams

Due to the disruption faced by current A level students over the past two years, exam boards have published Advance Information indicating which topics 2022 summer exams will mainly focus on. The government intends this information as guidance to help schools and students focus revision and exam preparation.

It’s important to note that the government guidance states that the topic lists provided by exam boards will form ‘the focus of the exam, or parts of it’. This doesn’t mean the pre-announced topics will be the only ones to be assessed by exams, so it’s still important to revise the full course material.

What We’ve Done to Help You

In response to the Advance Information, here at Up Learn we’ve made some temporary changes to our platform to help you more easily find and focus on the most important topics for your course(s).

• For all Year 13 modules, topics that exam boards have listed in their Advance Information are now clearly marked with [2022 Exams] in the section title
• We’ve also marked topics you’ll need to understand in order to fully grasp the 2022 Advance Information topics

These changes will enable you to more easily identify the material most important for exams this year.

Please note that no changes have been made to our recently launched Biology Exam Pack. No adjustments have been made to our exam practice papers due to exam boards indicating that any topic may still be included in exams. If you’d like to skip the questions that are not on the Advance Information list when doing practice papers, please do so! Simply leave those blank as you work through the exam and mark those answers correct.

All other features and aspects of our courses, including Year 12 modules, are unchanged. You can still access the full course, including topics not included in exam board Advance Information, via the Course Overview page.

These changes are temporary and will be reversed after the 2022 exams season has concluded.

How Does this Affect the Up Learn Algorithm?

We’re not removing any course content, so the algorithm will work as normal and try to send you to lessons you are weaker in or haven’t completed yet. This can include topics that are and are not listed in Advance Information.

To focus on Advance Information topics, simply click directly on the [2022 Exams] topic you want to revise rather than clicking the ‘Begin Up Learn session’ button. You can also whizz through videos from topics not listed in Advance Information by using the video skipping feature.

How Does this Affect My A*/A Guarantee?

Usually, our A/A* guarantee requires students to complete their course in order to be eligible for a refund if they don’t achieve an A* or A in their final exams.

This year we’re extending our A*/A guarantee to students who complete the course material on the 2022 focus topics only. You no longer need to achieve 90% Up Score to qualify for the money-back guarantee in 2022 exams.

To qualify, students will need to:

• Complete and master all of the topics marked with [2022 Exams]. “Complete and master” means at least 9 of the 10 progress bars for the topic are filled in and coloured dark green, instead of grey (indicating incomplete) or red/orange/yellow/light green (indicating complete but not mastered)
• Complete all exam papers to 90% (feel free to skip questions that are not included in the Advance Information and mark them correct)

Please note that the ‘Your current level’ progress bar on Course Overview pages will continue to show your level across the full course, not just 2022 Exams topics.

Where Can I Find Out More?

For more detailed information or to see the full Advance Information for 2022 exams, visit your exam board’s website or the guidance for your specific course(s):

Edexcel exams 2022:

• Economics A
• Mathematics

AQA exams 2022:

• Economics
• Mathematics
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Psychology

OCR exams 2022:

• Mathematics A (PDF download)
• Chemistry A (PDF download)
• Physics A (PDF download)

No advance information has been provided for Cambridge International, so our courses for this exam board remain unchanged.

The post What We’re Doing to Help You Prepare for Summer 2022 Exams appeared first on Up Learn.

After much demand, we’re very happy to announce the launch of our new Biology exam pack (AQA).

This pack is designed to give students everything they need to feel confident in their exams, including recall practice, exam technique help and exam practice questions.

The pack is now available for students to get started on, with 100% of the content being released by March 2022. Following the exam pack, our full Up Learn Biology course is planned to launch in 2024.

Sign up for a free trial below to get going!

The post Course Launch: AQA Biology Exam Pack appeared first on Up Learn.

Want to get ahead over half term?

Our students get the best results from Up Learn when they use it for preparation and consolidation.

Here’s how you can make the most of that in your week off…

Preparation

With Up Learn, your entire A-Level course is available in one place. You can use this to get ahead by:

• Going over topics ahead of covering them in class.

• This means that your lessons will become easier – you’ll be revising the information, rather than learning it for the first time.

• Your teacher will become impressed with your understanding and your ability to ask deeper questions.

Consolidation

• Use Up Learn to go back over the topics you didn’t quite understand the first time around, and to practice the topics you’re more comfortable with.

• If you’re in year 13, go back and refresh yourself on year 12 content, so you’re not left trying to learn it all over again before exams.

Remember

• Up Learn has everything you need – video lessons, quizzes, and online tutor support. The only thing it requires from you is a bit of sustained effort.

• Our best advice is to use Up Learn for at least 1 hour a day – a little can go a long way.

• The more spaced out your learning is, the better, so split up your work into small chunks – maybe 20 minutes in the morning, at lunchtime and after dinner.

The post Half Term: Our Top Tips appeared first on Up Learn.