Extol Trust: How now>press>play works across a Multi-Academy Trust

The Extol Multi-Academy Trust uses now>press>play across three of its schools, helping to fulfil its mission of providing high-quality education to pupils across the North-East of England regardless of their background. 

Teaching and Learning Lead Debbie King explains how students at Springwell School, Eldon Grove Academy, and New Silksworth Academy benefit from using now>press>play.

Contents:

How now>press>play makes learning active across our trust

Our pupils needed experiences and that’s what they get with now>press>play. “Real” visits to Pompeii, “real” life as a servant in a castle, “real” travels through a rainforest, “real” panic as an Ancient Greek Parthenon is attacked, “real” intrigue as they manage to grow a talking plant in their garden. Moreover, the best bit is there is no TV screen involved! Across the trust, our children were passive in their learning on occasion. When we unpicked this, we found it was because they needed more: greater stimuli to understand, and a deeper understanding of the places and events we were learning about. However, on-screen learning allowed them not to think hard enough about their learning. It wasn’t immersive enough. We booked a demonstration with now>press>play and we saw first-hand what a difference it could make. We still think we have a long way to go to use it as effectively as we could, but it certainly enhances our curriculum offer.
Young girl stands in a classroom with her friends using Now Press Play. She's punching out in front of her, while wearing pink headphones.

With every year we have now>press>play, we get better.

Debbie King, Trust Teaching and Learning Lead Practitioner at Extol Multi Academy Trust
Young girl stands in a classroom with her friends using Now Press Play. She's punching out in front of her, while wearing pink headphones.

With every year we have now>press>play, we get better.

Debbie King, Trust Teaching and Learning Lead Practitioner at Extol Multi Academy Trust

Uplevelling our writing skills with now>press>play

Writing is one of the key areas we use our pink headphones for across the curriculum. It’s a complex beast becoming a writer, and we use a range of quality texts that are ever-changing. Books support imagination and vocabulary development, allowing our pupils to concentrate on the skills of writing. Our writing across the curriculum is enhanced by utilising now>press>play Experiences. Our Reception pupils had listened to, acted out, read, and written a narrative of Jack and the Beanstalk. We decided to pull on the pink headphones and become immersed in the story. The children really enjoyed becoming the characters that we knew all about. now>press>play allowed them to let all their inhibitions go and fully transform into the character. Our language was enhanced because of our prior knowledge of the text, and we knew just what to do when we met the characters throughout the story.
A beanstalk growing out of the ground, from Now Press Play's Jack and the Beanstalk Experience. Caption: Now there's water falling on you. You're getting wet! What are you? You're the biggest beanstalk there ever was!
Our EYFS Jack and the Beanstalk Experience puts children into the story, embodying the characters.

Using now>press>play as an exciting topic hook

We have used several of now>press>play’s Science, RE, History, and Geography Experiences. Our pupils come to life and so does the subject we are learning about.

now>press>play puts our pupils on an equal footing; it allows complete inclusivity with a quality shared experience.

As a hook for a new theme of the Ancient Maya, we used the now>press>play Maya Experience with some of our Year 6 pupils. This grabbed their attention immediately by immersing them in the culture, beliefs, and stories of the Mayan civilisation in an active and engaging manner.

We used this as a tool to generate discussion and questions as a class before formally beginning the unit. This helped to introduce key concepts which we then addressed within our later lessons.

A jaguar looks at you, from Now Press Play's Maya Experience. Caption: Something wet is licking your arm. Turn round. It's Soft Paws, your pet jaguar. Stroke his brown spotted fur.
now>press>play's Maya Experience lets students explore the ancient civilisation in depth.

Within our Great Fire of London topic in Year 2, now>press>play’s pink headphones brought some technical knowledge and enhanced vocabulary, reinforced with a fictional twist. This enhanced understanding and experience enabled our pupils to write a more emotional written recount of the fire, bursting with facts.

In Year 2, our students were time travellers, donning their pink headsets and hearing the chaos, the confusion, and the crackling flames. What other way would we be able to transport our pupils back to 1666 and hear the Great Fire of London?

Pupils who normally don’t like to write were seen believing they could write, they had ideas, they knew what they wanted to say, they had confidence.

Year 2 teacher, Extol Trust
School children use Now Press Play in their classroom. They're lying on the floor pretending to sleep. On the interactive whiteboard is a picture of the Great Fire of London.
School children use Now Press Play in their classroom. They're lying on the floor pretending to sleep. On the interactive whiteboard is a picture of the Great Fire of London.

Pupils who normally don’t like to write were seen believing they could write, they had ideas, they knew what they wanted to say, they had confidence.

Year 2 teacher, Extol Trust

Year 1 used now>press>play in a similar way to enhance their learning about historical heroes. Previously, we’d have dressed up as Florence Nightingale, hot seated her, and researched her, but she would have remained a character from the past.

With now>press>play, we witnessed Nightingale hard at work, heard her worries, and watched her achievements. She came alive! The discussion and following History lessons were full of knowledge that the children can still remember now.

Every one of us was fully immersed in the now>press>play Experiences and able to excitedly contribute to oral learning and vocabulary gathering afterwards. This enables our pupils to be on an equal footing with their peers.

Year 1 teacher, Extol Trust
Three school students listen to Now Press Play in a classroom. On the interactive whiteboard behind them is a picture of Florence Nightingale.
Three school students listen to Now Press Play in a classroom. On the interactive whiteboard behind them is a picture of Florence Nightingale.

Every one of us was fully immersed in the now>press>play Experiences and able to excitedly contribute to oral learning and vocabulary gathering afterwards. This enables our pupils to be on an equal footing with their peers.

Year 1 teacher, Extol Trust

How now>press>play aids our students’ wellbeing

Some of our pupils have used now>press>play to enhance their wellbeing and do yoga sessions, share music for evaluation together, and move to music or dance together.

Why is this better through the pink headset, I hear you ask?

It is a specific instruction or sound which brings the learning directly and personally to each and every pupil. This immersion makes the difference to a whole class instruction or a shared screen experience.

now>press>play allows our pupils to “lose” themselves in their learning and focus intimately on the here and now.

Helping our Year 6 in their SATs — and beyond

This year has seen us use now>press>play as a revision tool for some of our Year 6 pupils in the run-up to the end of Key Stage 2 assessments.

We chose to use the SATs Reading Experience and comprehension follow-on resources as a different way to engage and encourage pupils whilst still utilising time effectively to help them revise for tests. This allowed them to concentrate on different question styles, focusing on retrieval and inference in a way that mimicked the papers they would be sitting.

A crow looks menacingly at the camera, from Now Press Play's SATs Reading Experience. Caption: You're on a school trip to visit the Tower of London when the Crown Jewels are stolen. It's up to you to work out who took them.
now>press>play's SATs Experiences include Reading...
The London Eye against a blue sky, from Now Press Play's SPAG Experience. Caption: Can you see the London Eye? That's where you're heading!
... SPAG...
Water ripples in a swimming pool, from Now Press Play's SATs Maths Experience. Caption: Quietly leave the sports hall and go back to the swimming pool. You need to find the room shaped like a pentagon.
... and Maths.
A crow looks menacingly at the camera, from Now Press Play's SATs Reading Experience. Caption: You're on a school trip to visit the Tower of London when the Crown Jewels are stolen. It's up to you to work out who took them.
The London Eye against a blue sky, from Now Press Play's SPAG Experience. Caption: Can you see the London Eye? That's where you're heading!
The now>press>play SATs Experiences include Reading, SPAG, and Maths revision.
Water ripples in a swimming pool, from Now Press Play's SATs Maths Experience. Caption: Quietly leave the sports hall and go back to the swimming pool. You need to find the room shaped like a pentagon.

Being able to revise for SATs in a more interactive manner was a winner. Interest and commitment from our pupils increased, at a time when some were potentially feeling fatigued and anxious surrounding the upcoming papers.

In addition, we have utilised now>press>play as a valuable tool to support Year 6 pupils across the trust with their transition to secondary school. The Transition Experience allowed pupils to consider potential scenarios they may face at secondary school in a real but non-threatening and entertaining manner.

We used this to support PSHE sessions and discussions about children’s anxieties surrounding their move to a new school. The supporting resources included by now>press>play helped us consolidate the lesson once children had completed it.

The future: embedding now>press>play across our whole Multi-Academy Trust

The forethought that goes into writing the Experiences (which are updated regularly in line with the British primary curriculum) is why schools within our trust are now purchasing now>press>play as a resource that makes a difference across the curriculum.

It just needs to be planned for. And this is where we need to get better.

Our staff and pupils love the learning that happens as a result of the immersion. Pupils say their brains work harder than if they just “watched” the information in a film on TV. They talk about feeling like they have met people from the past, they suggest they can smell the places they have heard described, and they feel exhausted from the battles they have shared and terrified by the sounds of the disasters they have witnessed.

We use now>press>play to great effect, and it enhances our learning for all pupils within the Multi-Academy Trust.

Our staff now need to spend a little more time familiarising themselves with the Experiences and keeping up to date with new ones that are shared. In doing this, we can plan more effectively for Experiences to hook our pupils, enhance our learners’ understanding, make connections across learning, and summarise learning undertaken.

Our vision is that now>press>play is embedded within our curriculum offer in every classroom, in every school across our trust. Watch this space.

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