A school where children develop their natural curiosity, build their confidence and resilience, discover a passion for learning and have lots of fun; where dedicated, highly motivated teachers inspire them. In our school we foster a love of learning where students of all abilities can flourish and believe that our mission statement really does encapsulate what Windsor Park stands for.
Windsor Park CE Middle School has been using Accelerated Reader and Star Reading since 2013. In 2021 the school introduced Freckle to promote maths engagement and accelerated maths practice amongst pupils throughout Key Stage 2.
Since implementing Freckle, both attainment and math progress for last year’s year-six cohort were classed as sig+. This means that they were significantly better than national averages.
- The expected standard nationally was 71%, and we got 90%
- Greater Depth Nationally was 22%, and we got 40%
- Our progress measure was +1.8 – which is very, very good
Jodie writes:
“Freckle places all students at their personal level, allowing students who need more support to start where they need to, build confidence, and feel progress.”
We are thrilled with the integration of Freckle and Star Maths. Before using Star Maths, we utilised a different assessment programme but have now solely switched to Star Maths due to its accuracy and online convenience. In addition, Freckle’s adaptive questions provide ability-appropriate, curriculum-mapped tasks to pupils, which satisfies our need for a program that can cater to individual needs without adding more workload to staff.
Our school’s Freckle provides an excellent opportunity for personalised learning, allowing students to progress quickly to engaging and challenging material. We also use Freckle for homework through its convenient “rucksack” feature, which enables teachers to assign tailored tasks in specific math domains. Being easily able to assign tailored tasks keeps pupils engaged in their learning outside the classroom and helps streamline the teacher’s workload by reducing the time required to set homework. Freckle is a valuable tool for creating personalised and efficient learning experiences.
Freckle places all students at their personal level, allowing students who need more support to start where they need to, build confidence, and feel progress. Meanwhile, more gifted students can also learn at their pace. Finally, we appreciate the instant recall facts and the practice they offer in areas like times tables and number bonds.
The link between Freckle and Star Maths has been a bonus, saving us money as we no longer need to use different software. In addition, all resources are accessible from one place, making it easier for students to log in and remember passwords. We are eager to explore the Key Stage 3 option and eventually roll it out to our Years 5 to 8.
“Star Maths helps us baseline our students and identify their gaps, especially during the transition from different feeder schools.”
Star Maths helps us baseline our students and identify their gaps, especially during the transition from different feeder schools. We share the reports with parents if requested, and it also helps with special needs applications. We compared the ranking from Star Maths with our own ranking of students based on our knowledge of them and were pleased with the correlation. Unlike other programmes we’ve used in the past, Star Maths provides consistent information about a pupil’s ability.
Star Maths is a highly effective tool for evaluating a pupil’s ability at our school. Unlike other programmes that often place students in inconsistent categories, Star Maths consistently ranks students based on what we already know about their abilities through observation and different outcomes. As a result, Star Maths doesn’t produce massive outliers like some other programmes but instead gives us a reliable trajectory of a student’s progress.
Moreover, unlike many other assessment programs that take a long time to complete and create a huge workload for teachers, Star Maths can be completed in just 15 minutes. This quick and efficient process saves time and links directly to Freckle maths practice, providing individualised learning points for pupils to improve upon. We highly recommend Star Maths as a reliable and time-saving tool for evaluating student abilities.
“The success we’ve seen in our SATs results is a testament to the effectiveness of Freckle in supporting and enhancing student learning and performance.”
At our school, we have found that Freckle saves time and increases our capacity for effective teaching. Freckle keeps students engaged in their online learning, allowing the class teacher to pull out small groups for targeted interventions without needing an additional staff member. Knowing pupils will remain engaged with Freckle saves money and allows us, as class teachers, to directly provide the necessary support and intervention to those who need it. Freckle creates an efficient and cost-effective solution for personalised and practical learning.
At our school, Freckle has proven to be a valuable tool in our arsenal of educational resources. In 2022, our SATs results were exceptional, with 90% of our students achieving the expected standard for mathematics – the best results we’ve seen on record. The success we’ve seen in our SATs results is a testament to the effectiveness of Freckle in supporting and enhancing student learning and performance.
Evidence
Click here to find out how your school can utilise Freckle maths practice to reduce teacher workload and assign bespoke maths practice.