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Case
Study
Times
Tables - Shaftesbury Primary
|Summary||Press Release |
Summary:
Case Study Hypothesis: The Jelly James software assists with rapid skills building and fluency.School: Shaftesbury Primary School, Dorset.
General Profile: School in a small rural market town. Number on Roll: 380.
Ofstead Profile based on PANDA: Below National Average attainment in SATS tests.
Software used: Jelly James e-skill Times Tables.
Results:
Measurements: Speed (responsiveness) and Accuracy (score).
- The whole class of mixed ability showed improvement in accuracy by 10% & speed by 35%.
- Special needs (SEN) children improved their average accuracy by 20%.
- Children classified as BA showed improvement in speed by average 42%.
- Children classified as A showed improvement in speed by average 36%.
- Children classified as AA showed improvement in speed by average 35%.
Date: Autumn Term 2005.
Period: Four week period during September 2005.
Group: Year 6, Autumn Term, Two mixed ability groups (14+14 =28 children).
Criteria: No paper based practice during this period.
No. of Groups Tested: Two groups were tested independently.
The study was carried out by the school (Bob Duffin-Assessment Coordinator), to test the validity of the results towards personalised learning.
Curricular Expectation: Children should be competent with Times Tables 1-12.
Procedure:
Period of Case Study: 4 weeks.
Carried out baseline score. Allowed groups to practice 10 minutes a day. Measured score at the end of each week.
Future Plan: To broaden implementation to other Year groups.February 1, 2006 JellyJames brings "amazing" results in times tables
"It was just phenomenal - the improvement was amazing." This is how Bob Duffin, a year 6 teacher at Shaftesbury primary school in Dorset, describes a four-week trial using JellyJames's e-skills Times Tables software.
For the trial, Bob divided his class of 28 year 6 pupils into two groups of 14. For two weeks, the first group spent 10 minutes a day using the Times Table software, while the second group acted as a control. For the second two weeks, the second group also spent 10 minutes a day using the software, while the first group acted as a control. At the end of each fortnight, Bob measured what the children had achieved.
After the first two weeks, Bob had noticed remarkable results. Before using the JellyJames software, the class had been underachieving - many children, says Bob, had difficulty with times tables, particularly the seven and eight times tables. Every single child showed an improvement. The improvement in accuracy was particularly marked for the special needs children, but the average ability children also had very good results. The highest ability children, most of whom were already good at their times tables, showed significant improvements in speed.
At the end of the second two weeks, Bob found similar results with the second group. Meanwhile, the first group had retained what they had learnt. On average, the class had showed an average improvement in accuracy of 10% (20% for the special needs children) and an improvement in speed of 35%.
Shaftesbury's headteacher, Evelyn Donnelly, has also been impressed. "Our biggest joy is that it's given confidence," she says. "The children are retaining the information and using it with clarity in other situations. Even the special needs children have retained it brilliantly."
The JellyJames e-skills drill software is aimed at primary school children from year 1 to year 6. Underpinned by Assessment for Learning (AfL) principles, it enables teachers to assess the competency of each child instantly. Children get immediate feedback from the software on their performance, while the teacher is able to see, from his or her own computer, how each child is doing. The teacher can then import all the results into an Excel spreadsheet to monitor improvement. "Because the results were immediate, you could address the difficulties the children were experiencing. It gives a great lever to the next stage of learning," says Evelyn.
Times Table is one of five tools in the e-skills drills software, all linked very precisely to the requirements of the National Curriculum: the others are Clock, Number Bonds, Fractions and Decimals. Each package reinforces what children learn in the classroom, but without paperwork, administration or marking. It enables the classroom teacher to have a personalised approach that tailors feedback to the need of each individual child. For Bob, the great appeal of the JellyJames software is its simplicity: "It's not fussy or whizzy - it just does the job."
Evelyn is now planning to adopt other elements of the e-skills drills software throughout the school. "One of the successes is knowing the stages of progress of children's learning," she points out. "It's a worthwhile investment because it's something you can use and reuse. It won't be a one-off thing."
To find out more about JellyJames software, or to talk to Evelyn Donnelly or Bob Duffin, please contact Karima Esmail on Tel: 020 3113 2066 or e-mail to jelly@jellyjames.co.uk.
If you wish to share your experiences of this software with other schools, please email JellyJames or contact us with your feedback on 0203-113-2066
