What drew you to This is School?

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I was a bit worried about my students’ progress and wanted them to have more independent listening tasks to help improve their practice.  I’d used This is School before, so I didn’t even look at other competitors.

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How do you use This is School?

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‍The Swan School provides Chromebooks to our students and we have supervised study sessions, so we use This is School within those study sessions as well as in the classroom and for setting homework.  I watch the videos first, to check they are a good fit for my students.  For younger classes I do hands up with the Jigsaw games.  

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What’s your experience from using This is School?  Have you seen a change in your students?

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Our students’ favourite activity is using Nutty Tilez.  And of course Grammar Guy is a superstar - we’re hoping he’ll visit our School!  Our students find it very accessible and easy to use and love paying to customise their avatars with the peanuts they earn and they regularly organise each other to play against one another at the same time.  Students want to compare the amount of peanuts they’ve earned with their friends.  We’re quite competitive and in class we’ll download the tasks and then see who has completed everything. It’s positively encouraging to see how much progress they’ve made.

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They sometimes find it challenging when people in the videos speak too quickly, so they use the snail button to slow things down.  I think that’s what I like most about the listening videos, because it’s not rehearsed and it’s very fluent French, so my students should find their exams easier to manage.

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One of my students wasn’t keen on French at the start, but thanks to This is School he’s happy to come to class now.  This is School helped break the ice.  Even when students are in reflection they still want to use This is School.

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Can you imagine life without This is School?

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Listening would be harder and reading, and I don’t know what we’d do in our supervised study, I guess we’d just do homework.  I’d give them more written work.  We don’t use textbooks for French at The Swan School, we use PowerPoints and custom booklets.  If we ever do a session without using This is School the students are unhappy.  Not using This is School is a punishment in a way!  

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Would you recommend This is School to others?  Why?

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Yes!  We use This is School for all of our Year 10 and 11 students.  It’s quick and easy to use, with varied activities for different levels, from simple to complex.  Our teachers have fortnightly meetings and we’ll swap notes with each other for ideas on how to use This is School and our students can also use This is School for their revision and in their own time.  I think it’s really helpful for practising and listening and I can’t wait to see how my Year 11s do year-on-year.