Using ClassFlow to improve results in school

Raising your school’s profile and getting it to the top of the league table, whilst keeping students’ needs at the heart of every decision remains a continuous challenge.

Helping to support your school improvement initiatives, ClassFlow is the free, one-stop-shop for all your educational technology needs.

The Challenge

Leadership and management are key to any school’s success, with standards, attainment, policies, SATS, and Ofsted constantly at the top of the headteacher’s agenda.

However, while Ofsted guidelines can change, improving education ultimately comes from enthusiastic, knowledgeable and focused educators who understand how to inspire and engage pupils.

A modern-day teacher enablement tool, technology offers a strategic way to improve results and deliver the collaborative, relevant, and engaging educational experiences your school seeks to provide.

Solution

Supporting educational improvement without any financial commitment, ClassFlow brings your whole school together on one simple learning platform; helping you to achieve your student attainment and reputational objectives.

But what is it?

ClassFlow can increases student engagement and performance in your school through the delivery of:

• Interactive lessons
• Collaborative learning
• Resource sharing
• Flipped learning
• Differentiated learning
• Formative and informal assessments
• Instant feedback
• Digital note-taking.

In a nutshell, ClassFlow is a teacher-friendly learning platform that allows educators to create and deliver lessons. It is part presentation tool, part assessment tool, and part student-response system.

Find out more about increasing pupil engagement with ClassFlow

With ClassFlow you can:

• Make the most of your existing IT without any additional spend
• Provide teachers with a wealth of educational information and support
• Set your school apart as a leader in the use of new learning and teaching techniques – without any complicated software
• Implement a high-value educational tool with the minimum of fuss and no change in teaching approach
• Work with your existing hardware or the students’ own devices (e.g. SMART Boards, ActivPanel, tablets, notebooks, laptops, Chromebooks, etc.)

Customisable to the learning experience of each pupil depending on their unique abilities and learning style, ClassFlow also extends learning beyond the classroom, instilling independent problem-solving skills.

Crucially, ClassFlow will always be free for teachers, so it offers a long-term, future-proof solution to improve academic performance.

How it Works

1. Implementing ClassFlow in your school

A cloud-based platform, teachers and pupils can access ClassFlow via any web-enabled device (e.g. a computer, tablet, smartphone etc.); all they need is stable internet access.

Device agnostic, ClassFlow also supports the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiative, allowing children to use technology the way they do at home, and in the most natural way for them.

Teachers can use all their existing teaching materials from platforms such as Google Docs, PowerPoint and other web-based content.

Teachers create their own ClassFlow account; all they have to do is sign up for a free account.

To implement ClassFlow into your school, start by appointing a teacher/teachers as digital champion(s) to begin the piloting process. A digital champion will trial the benefits of ClassFlow, and share their knowledge and experience of the platform with other teachers.

Getting started on ClassFlow is easy:

• Create a free ClassFlow account at https://classflow.co.uk
• Sign up using your email address, Office365, Google or Facebook account
• To edit your profile, click the User Centre icon in the top right corner of the screen
• Once completed click Submit and Save
• For a wealth of information on how to use ClassFlow in your school, click the drop-down Support icon in the top right corner of the screen for instant access to Online Help the ClassFlow Support Community and built-in support videos that match where you are on the ClassFlow platform.

Once up and running, teachers can set up and share lessons, import content, and use fun quizzes and assessments to improve the learning experience. Pupils can also create their own ClassFlow accounts at https://classflow.co.uk

2. Using ClassFlow for instant assessment

With regular assessment a core part of the learning experience, ClassFlow helps teachers to engage pupils while gathering insight into their progress to ensure success.

Facilitating instant assessment, ClassFlow allows teachers to mark and collate responses at the moment of learning, in real-time. By immediately identifying and addressing any gaps in knowledge, educators can then tailor their lessons to the real needs of each pupil.

To manage assessments via ClassFlow teachers should:

• Go to Resources and open the lesson they want to add questions to (or create a new lesson)
• Click on the card they want to add questions to
• Select Add Questions in the toolbar to go to the Assessment Builder. Here they can set the parameters for the assessment
• Select Add to create a new question
• Select the question type (e.g. text, multiple choice, creative response, etc.)
• Complete the process, completing as many fields as needed depending on the question type
• Add the appropriate scoring details and click Save
• Repeat until they have added all their questions
• Click Exit and return to their lesson (with the assessment now included).

With ClassFlow Assessment Builder, teachers can also set different questions for individual pupils (or groups of pupils) depending on their ability and/or learning style. By assessing students in a manner appropriate to them, pupils are less likely to become frustrated and more likely to succeed academically.

To deliver an assessment, teachers use ClassFlow’s Presenter functionality. Responses can be seen in real-time, allowing teachers to intervene and support as necessary. Assessments can also be paused at any time to allow for additional clarification.

To deliver an assessment teachers should:

• Go to Resources and select the relevant assessment
• Select Deliver and click on the correct class. Presenter will automatically launch once a class is chosen
• Share the assessment code with pupils so they can join in
• Click Play to start the assessment (they can click pause or stop at any time)
• Monitor incoming responses by selecting the progress bar. Teachers can also check who hasn’t yet responded via Pending Responses in the top left window
• Close the Results Viewer once done.

3. Real-time reporting in ClassFlow

With ClassFlow, you can generate a report based on the assessment for learning data that you have collated from both lessons and stand-alone assessments.

To create a report:

• Go to More
• Go to Reports
• Check that the Report Type is set to Performance
• Enter the information on the report filters. You can choose to run a performance report by an individual class, or by a course
• Click Done
• Choose the performance band that you want to run the report against
• Select the band you want to highlight from the drop-down menu and then view your report
• You can run a performance report on assessments, assignments, or both
• Click to remove or add the columns you want to see in your report.

4. Rewarding pupils with ClassFlow

Acknowledging and celebrating success is core to creating a positive learning environment for pupils. Creating motivated and confident students that are inspired to do their best, reward systems help to raise educational standards while improving behaviour and attendance.

ClassFlow can be used to give badges to pupils in recognition of their behaviour. These badges can also be tracked within ClassFlow to measure patterns of behaviour over time. Teachers can award badges to an individual pupil, or an entire class. Badges can also be edited, shared with others, or kept private.

To use badges in ClassFlow:

• Click the Award Badges icon in the top-right corner of the screen
• Select individuals or groups by class
• Type the reason for the award (optional) and select a badge
• Click Undo to un-assign a badge
• Select Close.

Results

ClassFlow allows headteachers to implement changes that will make their schools more successful. As such, by helping to improve academic performance, ClassFlow should be an essential consideration of any school improvement programme.

ClassFlow was created for educators, by educators; as it doesn’t require any additional resources or budget, it delivers value that can be measured in your school. Because buy-in is important, ClassFlow also comes with a wealth of resources and support that you can share with your team, so you can be confident you’re making the right decision.

Helping schools of all levels to strive for continuous advancement, ClassFlow is the one-stop-shop for any headteacher seeking to improve school performance across the board

Sign-up to try out ClassFlow today and uncover the benefits for yourself – it’s free!