On March 12th it was announced that Irish schools would close for 2 weeks. It came as a shock to all of us, but our team here in BuildUp jumped into action and we gave you free access to BuildUp so you and your students could have a resource to practice and learn Junior Cert maths.
We had tens of thousands of students signing up and by the following Friday our servers were struggling to cope with the volume of students online. It soon became clear that 2 weeks would turn into a lot longer and so we extended all licences for the rest of the school year.
Over the summer we have been talking with teachers, students and parents so we could plan how best to support teachers in the new school year. The main issue we identified:
- Getting back on track after 6 months of learning loss and a wider-than-ever gap between students in your class
- Preparation for future short notice disruptions to school schedule and in-class teaching
- Ability for students to work at their own pace to catch up or push ahead with their maths knowledge and skills.
We have worked over the summer to prepare two solutions depending on the needs of Teachers and Students across Ireland.
1. BuildUp Essentials
BuildUp Essentials has 2 parts. Firstly a back-to-school test to gauge student’s abilities on the core concepts and skills necessary for the year of study they are about to embark on. This test will give a report to teachers on the strengths and weaknesses of their class and the individual students in the class.
Then there is a set of progress tests to be given by the teacher through the year to ensure and measure the progress of every student in the class over the year.
BuildUp Essentials can be purchased on a per-class basis by schools in Ireland.
- Back-to-school tests
- Automarked progress tests aligned to each chapter/topic
- Individual and class reports for teachers.
2. BuildUp Complete
BuildUp Complete includes all the great features and benefits of BuildUp Essentials but also provides a complete exercising solution with much larger amount of content that adapts to each student, providing personalised feedback and suggestions.
BuildUp Complete can be purchased on an individual basis via our website. For school purchases, please contact me directly by email or phone.
- BuildUp Essentials included
- Additional questions covering every single learning objective on the curriculum
- Personalised adaptive practice adjusts to each student’s pace and needs
- Detailed teacher reports on individual and class progress