What the Experts Say

Sure, we’re going to say good things about earwig. we’re biased. so we thought you’d like to hear what the very un-biased national press, education experts and awarding bodies have been saying about us too…

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What the dfe says about earwig for send

Recent pronouncements and ‘guidance’ from the DfE have done nothing to reduce teacher workloads. In fact, the move away from ‘Levels’ towards individualised, EHCP-based target setting and the addition of the Engagement Model for children with profound and multiple difficulties have added a further layer of work on an already stretched system.

One of the reasons they have done this is that they are aware of the fact that modern software can make the whole process easier, faster, more accurate and better presented. They have made it clear in two recent publications that this is the way they expect schools to keep on top of their evidence and assessment load.

Government departments are very careful not to recommend any commercial educational suppliers in official documents. So we were very pleased when, in the 2018 report on the Engagement Pilot Study, they specifically mentioned Earwig as a suggested route to more efficient and effective assessment, tracking and reporting.
See the latest recommendations from the dfe about the use of technology
Beacon Hill School - Essex

Yes, we were outstanding again!

We used Earwig to show the pupil evidence to match the curriculum areas that they looked at as part of the deep dive.

They were impressed with the pupil work evidence, particularly where we had uploaded videos for some of our more complex children.

If we had been given a target, we would have asked to look at personalising our use of Earwig even further, but if you are Outstanding you don't get a target!


Sue Hewitt
Headteacher

What does Ofsted think of Earwig?

It’s ironic that, while the DfE is adding to the admin load for SEND teachers, Ofsted, with the new Inspection Framework, has added this extra question for school Headteachers – ‘What are you doing to reduce teacher workload and stress?’

Ofsted are specifically forbidden from commenting on school software but we do know directly from the Heads at recently inspected Earwig schools, that they are extremely impressed. If you want more detail on that, check out this blog article.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating and we are proud to boast that, in the seven years that Earwig has been used in special schools, only one school has ever been downgraded (and that was 'special circumstances'). Several have been elevated.

This is spite of the fact that most Earwig clients are rated Outstanding and, since Covid, only 16% of Outstanding schools inspected retained their top ranking.

What the education industry says

We were delighted to be shortlisted as one of six finalists for the Best SEN Resource Award at the 2016  BESA Education Resources Awards. SEN is an important area of education for Earwig. Earwig is in many SEN schools as it is far easier to track evidence of therapies and non-academic progress using images and video than written reports. One of our Co-Founders, Emilie-Kate has a son with SEN so it’s a need close to our hearts.
It feels good to win, doesn’t it! In Sept 2015 we were announced as the winner of the Best Resource Overall award at the Teach Secondary Technology & Innovation Awards. This award meant a lot as not only are they very high-profile but we are pleased to be recognised as a software just as well suited to all levels of school education, not just primary school.
One of our founders, Emilie-Kate Kidd was selected as one of five finalists for the Editor’s Choice award in the prestigious Women in IT awards the largest and most prominent women-in-technology event in the UK. Other finalists came from corporations such as Barclays, Vodafone, Unilever and Virgin.
One of course we’re pleased to be nominated for any award but this one was particularly sweet as this one was from the internationally recognised tech magazine The Inquirer who shortlisted Earwig as ICT company of the year for the The Inquirer Magazine’s Tech Hero awards 2015 just on the merits of its innovative and cutting edge technology alone.
BETT is a big deal as anyone in Education knows. So to be shortlisted for an ICT company of the year BETT award in our second year of trading was a wonderful surprise.
What do you say when the Department of Education calls you up to ask if they can use Earwig in a video as an example of how technology is improving education? Well you don’t say no!

If even the highest level of Education authority in the UK thinks we’re a good job – we’re on the right track!
We were delighted to be featured in The Daily Telegraph, twice!The first article called Earwig “The app that is lightening the load for hard-pressed teachers” and the second, a year later, “Earwig gets a good end-of-school report”.
In July 2015 The Sunday Times ran a huge feature on Earwig and called us “A business that is changing how schools operate”.

The article likened Earwig to innovative businesses such as Uber or Spotify which have changed the way life operates.It was well timed too as it gave us great publicity towards our crowdfunding with Crowdcube and enabled us to raise enough investment for the next round of software development.
We received a 5 star rave review by The Educational App Store in 2015 who said Earwig was: “An incredible system for schools to streamline and revolutionise reporting and parental engagement”.