The changes and uncertainty of the past 12 months have put an incredible strain on everyone, not least teachers. From delivering lessons remotely to supporting pupils with both their studies and their mental health, it’s been an enduring challenge that continues to this day.
In order to help teachers cope with constantly moving goalposts alongside their usual workload, a number of solutions have been designed and implemented with varying degrees of effectiveness.
However, one tool aims to manage classroom data and curriculum planning without the need for assessment trawls of filling in non-stop trackers.
Reducing workloads and saving time with Balance
Balance claims to be the teaching and learning tool that can help teachers get back to what they do best: teaching. It’s an innovative web-based application that’s been developed with remote teaching and learning in mind.
After you’ve created your curriculum, you can use the simple drag and drop functionality to organise how and when to teach each module. Instead of drowning in unnecessary Word documents full of tracked changes and versions, you’ll be able to map out the sequencing of your curriculum on one page.
This seamless view of lesson planning enables you to focus resources based on where your class is right now. You can easily spot gaps in knowledge for both individuals and whole classes. Analysis tools also show trends over time to drive school improvement forward.
But the ‘Professional Judgements’ feature is a real standout. This allows teachers to give a simple “point in time” assessment for the children in their class, which means you can see how students are progressing through the curriculum at a glance. This saves you a great deal of time, effort and admin.
As Jordan Whiffing of St Jerome’s Catholic Primary School explains: “A big positive is professional judgements that support manageable and easy data collection and an incredibly valuable display which makes assessment easy to analyse.”
The key benefits of Balance
- Focus on what’s important – Stay on track with your teaching by helping to define and plan the key content students need to know (sometimes known as KPIs). After you’ve figured out what it is you want to teach and what you want to assess against, Balance automatically shifts to focus on your key objectives, making assessments more manageable.
- One-click assessments – Formative assessments in Balance are based on each child and what they’ve achieved in the curriculum – not numbers. Easily take control of what you assess against, which will not only save you time but also give you more scope to ensure students are secure with key parts of your curriculum.
- Reduce workload – Say goodbye to late-night marking or creating charts to satisfy Ofsted. You can manage and export classroom data, curriculums and day-to-day school life at the click of a button. That means there’s no need for assessment weeks, filling trackers, or even time wasted prepping for parent’s evening.
To see what all the fuss is about, sign up for a free demo of Balance.