Poverest Primary School in Kent serves a mixed catchment area, including a high level of Pupil Premium children from pockets of high deprivation around the school. Year 6 children take part in now>press>play Experiences to meet curriculum objectives across Maths, English, History and Geography, within the school’s active approach to learning.
Year 6 teacher Nicola Preston uses now>press>play across the curriculum to make learning more engaging for her children. For example, in SATs Maths she recently used a “Murder Mystery” activity which involved cracking codes to solve a SATs problem within a “Murder Mystery” context. Her class were so keen to solve the mystery that they forgot to worry about solving the SATs Maths problem.
They didn't really think too much about the Maths and actually just sat down and did it rather than panicking over it like they sometimes do with SATs-based question.
now>press>play Experiences have been used most often in the English curriculum to support the development of children’s writing. Experiences provide powerful stimuli for children’s writing as children are transported somewhere else – such as Ancient Greece or the countryside in WW2 – through the narration, the sound effects and their character role. The Experience also provides the knowledge children need to include in their writing along with plenty of ideas to write about.
Following the Experience, Miss Preston discusses what happened with the children and encourages them to remain in role. Then the children write diary entries or letters in their role which progress to more detailed pieces of narrative writing including description and character development. Miss Preston uses a free-flowing and editing writing process rather than writing templates although she’s aware that there are some very useful resources available on now>press>play to help to scaffold children’s writing.
Where has now>press>play made most impact?
Miss Preston describes how much her children enjoy now>press>play and how every child engages, including one or two who might not always engage in the classroom.
If I get the now>press>play headphones out, I have no issues with behaviour, I have no issues with engagement. Every child wants to put the headphones on, every child wants to be part of the experience.
The main impact of now>press>play has been on the quality of her children’s writing. For example, she has noticed how her children produce better descriptive writing as they apply the rich vocabulary acquired during the Experience. Being in role also helps her children with character development, especially the ability to convey a character’s emotion.
If we're using now>press>play for diary entries, children, because they've been part of the experience, are able to convey a character's emotion much more clearly through their written piece of work.
From a teacher’s perspective
now>press>play is easy to use, includes plenty of topics to match the school’s topics and helps with teacher workload as the first lesson of each topic is already planned to include the now>press>play Experience. Furthermore, now>press>play helps Miss Preston to ensure that her children’s writing is progressing to the required standard by the end of the year when they move on to secondary school.
To have an immersive experience that then produces great written outcomes from the children really does go a long way in helping us to make sure that the children are in a good place to get to the level they need to be at the end of the year, and ultimately, start secondary school where they need to be.
This case study was created for our 2022 Product Impact Report — check out the full report and its key findings here. Many thanks to Nicola Preston and Poverest Primary School for sharing how they use our resources to support their learning and meet curriculum objectives.
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