The software development focus at Earwig last year was, once again, about improving the value of the package for special schools, where the complexities of pupil assessment, teaching evidence and reporting are greatest and the value of Earwig is most keenly felt.

The result has been a proliferation of additional ‘mini-modules’ which have been produced to fit the needs of one or two specific schools but which we feel will have application in special schools all around the country.  To see a list of these and to understand the complete Earwig pricing structure, check THE NEW EARWIG PRICE LIST.

Over the coming year we will send out more information about each of these modules, so that you can decide whether or not they might improve one aspect of your school’s operations, or another. But, for now, let’s just look at what’s new in the three core facilities provided by the Earwig package – teaching evidence, pupil assessment and pupil and school-wide reporting and analytics.

We’ll do one blog post for each. Here’s the first one.

NEW IN THE TEACHING EVIDENCE MODULE

The teaching evidence module of Earwig has been well established for more than six years and teachers are now using it to create about one million records a year.

COLOURED TAGS

The most obvious and enthusiastically taken up feature this year was the additional coloured tags.  These are applied by teachers when creating a record, to

• indicate the level of support provided for any achieved result, or
• record the levels of engagement shown by the pupil when performing the task
• mark a record as a Key record or an Exemplar of a particular standard
• award ‘stars’ or medals to pupils for specific achievements
• Almost anything else – they are all totally editable.

The Engagement Tags have been particularly enthusiastically taken up because they provide schools with a quick, easy and effective way to report on pupil engagement to parents – which is now a requirement for pupils working at pre-formal levels.

MORE SELECTIVE TIMELINES

To make sure that you can now filter your timelines even more forensically, to show exactly what you want to, and nothing else, we have given you a third layer of filtering, right there on the timeline result screen.  Check it out.

If that isn’t enough, you can still ‘kiss away’ any additional records that you don’t need in your timeline.

Then click the ‘GENERATE REPORT’ button to turn it into a de facto report, with a couple of clicks.