Why did you start looking for a tool like This is School?

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I was a language teacher within this department and my PT - who's like the head of department - was using This is School at the start but she had said to me you know I think we should invest in this. I was heading up the Spanish side of the department at that point and she was mostly dealing with French, so we both had a lot of senior phase classes and we both thought there's a lack of authentic listening material out there for our pupils; the materials that do exist aren’t very user-friendly at times and they can be very much in an exam style, and we wanted to get away from that.

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Now that I've been head of department for the last year and a half it's a tool that we've kept and it's something that I'm looking to try and expand throughout our senior phase in particular.

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What This is School has which really differentiates it is truly authentic language. For example, it's not just from France and it's not just from Spain; you've got speakers of those languages from all the different francophone countries from all the Latin American countries. It's great for the kids to see that and listen to that so that they understand the differences between ‘standard Spanish’ and then what would be classed as Colombian or Mexican - especially for the kids who are going further on with their languages.

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On top of this, it’s the fact that students can get instant feedback on their activities and for them to know “Right, we're getting our feedback straight away and don't have to wait for the teacher to mark it.”. For us as teachers we can see at a glance how many attempts it's taken them to go ahead and do it, plus what the percentages have been. It's a godsend in terms of having that time saving.

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Could you share some ways you use This is School in your classes?

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We tend to keep This is School for our senior phase learners because they have the necessary level of language. 

We also have a lot of split level classes so we might have kids in the class doing a national five and then others who are doing higher, and it’s great because on This is School we can create level-appropriate assignments and send it to different groups of kids who can then log in themselves to do activities like listening. That allows you as a teacher to spend time with the national fives or vice versa, so it's a great way of being able to differentiate.

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It's something that they can access at their own level. Again it's the same thing for homework - you can say to them right okay we've done a few examples in class to make sure you're feeling comfortable with it, now it's your chance to go home and to complete this assignment for next week.

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What impact or results have you seen since using This is School?

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I know for a fact that in terms of our listening skills last year, that we were the highest in terms of the South Ayrshire Council Authority - that is, our listening marks were the best out of every school in the authority and I don’t think that's a coincidence. I think this is because we're really embedding This is School and the students are getting a lot of exposure to the languages at a level that's right for them.

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Listening tends to be one of the hardest skills that people find really tricky and it's about making sure that they've got access to things that aren't just exam style questions all the time because that can be quite off-putting for kids, whereas this isn't anything like that. It's very much the topics that we're covering in class - they go, they listen to it, they can do a wide range of activities with it as well. So as well as building up their listening skills, they’re also working on their vocab and working on their spelling, which is in turn helping their writing.

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That’s definitely something I’ve seen from my own observations too, that there’s been a big difference in their abilities in writing because they're doing the video vocab and they're putting in the correct spellings and words.

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You mentioned time saving briefly earlier - would you say This is School has made any other significant impacts on your time as a teacher?

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For me personally it definitely has been a huge time saver; like I say, I've been in charge of the Spanish department for the last few years and before when we had to do the particular skill of listening, it was very very difficult to try and set all that up. 

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Now with This is School it doesn't take long at all to go through it and find the correct levels because it’s really well signposted in terms of the difficulty levels. It basically takes me two seconds to assign listening, whereas previously it was a lot more time consuming to have to go and find something for them to listen to and upload it. 

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As head of department, it’s crucial because it allows me to see what my colleagues are doing in the department and because I can obviously access to see how their classes are getting on and how they've been using the platform. It allows me to provide evidence of progression easily, and that was previously very hard to do; when I’m asked to produce reports for management, for example, I can just look at This is School and say, this is what we've been setting in terms of the levels; this is where the kids are at with it; here are the kids that are engaging really well; here are kids that are not engaging, which also allows us to make interventions with learners quite early on rather than waiting for it at a later stage.

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And do you have a favourite element of This is School?

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The videos, and everything that goes along with them in terms of the activities that you can choose. Most of the time I will just say do them all because they’ve all got a lot of merit; however if I’m conscious of time, I'll focus mainly on the vocabulary and comprehension so that they can really get to grips with increasing their vocab and their knowledge of the topic but also so they're getting practice listening and answering questions, which is ultimately what they're going to be doing in the exam. 

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I also really like the spread of nationalities and things like that, which makes it more interesting for students. It's people who are about roughly their age, and it's not old-fashioned recordings talking about things that are not relevant to their lives; it is really relevant. 

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And how about your students, do they have a favourite part of This is School?

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A few of them have discovered Nutty Tilez, and they like that as they like the idea of having that element of competition. They gravitate towards it really because if I haven't set them something they'll say right can we go on Nutty Tilez? 

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Finally, would you recommend This is School to other teachers?

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Yes, definitely.

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The main thing is, it’s very engaging and that's really crucial because you want to make sure that when students are revising or when they're doing assignments that you set them - whether that's in class or whether it's at home - that they are actually enjoying it.

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It’s great that with This is School you also know that the assignments are going to be at their level. Rather than setting something that's far too easy or far too difficult, it's really easy for teachers to go in and see: where are my students at and what level would be best for them? 

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That differentiation is huge for us because we do have such varying levels of ability within the one class, and this is a tool that's designed to help us be able to meet the needs of basically all the learners that are in front of us.

It’s very much a time-saving tool for teachers for heads of department, and the kids really benefit from that regular exposure to real language authentic language.

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We’ve got a limited supply of resources and especially in a state school where budgets are tight, but I would say if there's money there to invest it's worthwhile thinking about This is School because of the benefits that it will bring to your pupils and your departments.

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It's worthwhile investing and you need to put something into a platform like This is School so that the kids are seeing that it's digital as well - it's not just old textbooks, and instead it brings them into the 21st century.

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If you want your subject to have a future, then you need to put that little bit into it as well, and This is School is the platform to do just that.

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