Spotlight Sessions: what did we learn?

Over the last year and a half, now>press>play have reached some fantastic milestones, from launching our npp At Home package to getting our #pinkheadphones in over 500 primary schools. However, our proudest achievement to date has been building our wonderful now>press>play community.Both this term and last term, as an opportunity to check in with our community following a challenging year of education, we held regional Spotlight Sessions for our subscription schools. The purpose of these sessions was to provide updates on the exciting new Experiences and features we are releasing as well as to ensure that all now>press>play schools are getting the most out of our powerful approach to learning.

We’ve put together the key points covered in the sessions, including the lessons we learned and feedback from our brilliant attendees.

What was covered:

• What’s new at now>press>play?
• What did you tell us?
• Feedback from sessions

What’s new at now>press>play?During the sessions, we also announced new features that we are currently releasing to support teachers. Here's what you can look forward to:

• • Our new app which is available to download now. Plan, prepare and deliver high quality lessons with ease
  • New and updated follow-on resources for all 80 Experiences, including SATs-style Reading Comprehensions for KS1 and KS2 Experiences
  • New Experiences for EYFS, KS1 and KS2 including Pirates, On Safari, Mary Seacole, Harriet Tubman, Transition and Diwali

We're starting to get some feedback from our schools who are already using the now>press>play app and we can't wait to hear from more of our schools on how it has helped support lesson planning.

What did you tell us?

We’re constantly in dialogue with our schools because it’s vital for us to understand teachers’ key priorities and themes and how we can best support them. Here's what our teachers told us were the topics they want to focus on going forward:

• Wellbeing e.g. encouraging movement both in and out of the classroom and utilising play time
• Catch up e.g. making up for lost learning time and the development of key skills
• Developing life skills e.g. empathy and resilience
• Cultural capital e.g. extending pupils’ life experiences through learning about new places and cultures
• Flexible learning to suit pupils’ needs

We also had the opportunity to chat to our teachers about some of the aspects of now>press>play they really love and the key benefits of our Experiences for their pupils.One teacher noted that their school specifically uses our EYFS Experiences, mainly our Traditional Tales, for children who have EAL. Being immersed in an Experience through audio has helped EAL pupils to concentrate and pick up key language.Another teacher who's school is in quite a deprived area explained how our now>press>play content has helped extend pupils' life experiences and has increased engagement in the classroom. She also confirmed that this has positively impacted pupils' emotional development.now>press>play has also helped in developing certain life skills such as empathy. One teacher based in the North East mentioned how some children got emotional following an Experience. Whilst their reactions were unexpected, the teacher was pleased that these Experiences were able to bring out emotions from the children.

Feedback from sessions

Our main goal for these sessions was to have the opportunity to speak with our schools and learn how we could continue to support them in the future. These sessions were successful and left us with some excellent feedback.

It’s just been better than listening to a teacher at the front of a classroom, where it’s something different - it has definitely increased engagement in lessons. Rachel Frew, Year 4 Teacher, Maybury Primary School

We’ve just found the quality of the writing and the description that we are getting out of the children is a lot better than if we just showed them some pictures and say write a story. Chelsea Chapman, Loose Primary School

We did now>press>play first thing in the day and we found that the knowledge and learning it provided carried through the rest of the day. The children were confidently using some of the terminology from the experience, because they’d heard it, applied it and knew what the action looked like. Sam Ashman, ICT Lead, Front Lawn Primary Academy

Our EAL children are able to use it just as well as our non EAL children and SEN children as well. They all get involved and they really enjoy it. There’s no barriers to it, they can all use it and it’s nice and easy. Eleri Bowen, South Camberley Primary & Nursery School

It was such a pleasure speaking to our schools and will be using your feedback to guide us as we continue to develop our content.

What's next?

Did you miss out on attending sessions? Don't worry, we’re planning on hosting more Spotlight Sessions in the near future which will cover different content and we would love to see you there. If you would like to attend, please get in touch with your Account Manager.If you haven’t already got now>press>play in your school, you can book a free trial here to see its' impact on pupils first hand.