Discover how Finton House School are using Frog to create a virtual school environment for their staff, students and parents with a specific focus on ePortfolios.

Captured by Katie Cousins, the video below shows the school's ePortfolio system that allows for teacher feedback, student responses, demonstrates the breadth of work and also progression over time!

Watch video on Youtube.

Discover how North Lakes School are using Frog to engage and interact with students during the current Coronavirus lock-down!

Captured by Martyn Soulsby, this is the first video - in a two-part series - showing us how the school are helping their children to learn from home. 

If you’re a Frog school, it would be great to get similar videos from you to share with other schools.

Some are leading the way during these challenging times, but in truth, most are catching up. Let’s aim to get everyone on the front foot as quickly as we can.

As ever, if there’s anything you need from us at Frog to help you get the best during these times, you know where we are.

Capturing your clips
If you haven't done this before, one bit of software we've found useful is Flashback Recorder. You can send your clips to us in any way you choose - WeTransfer, GoogleDrive or simply upload to your Frog platform.

How the school have been using Frog to:

Interact with students

Watch a video created by Martyn Soulsby...

Watch video on Youtube.

Engage with students

Watch a video created by Martyn Soulsby...

Watch video on Youtube.

Keen to create structure for their pupils adapting to learning from home, Finton House School created personalised day plans to support the teaching and learning experience...

Personalised plans

Each day pupils login to a remote learning dashboard where they will find their plan for the day. The schedule includes links to registration, zoom lessons, tutor groups and Frog subject pages with pre-recorded videos and activities for the afternoon sessions.

Whole school content, for example assemblies, clubs & enrichment and Wellbeing sessions are embedded in timetables so they appear in each class's schedule.

Personalised links for 1:1 sessions, messages and resources from the teachers help pupils feel better connected. The day's plan also includes a shared folder with any resources requiring printing and a list of equipment the pupils need to have ready for the day.  

Connecting teachers with their class

To set up the personalised daily planners, teachers start with a standard template and edit to add their own content.

Pupil ePortfolios

The school is also rolling out ePortfolios for each year group as a way for pupils to manage and display their work. 

The clever Set Keyword Widget notifies teachers when there's something new to see and they have visibility of their whole class too. Feedback is given to the children in the comments, with children also able to respond to marking.

A pupil's ePortfolio is shared with their parents, so they can monitor their child's work and teacher feedback. For exemplary work, teachers have the ability to send an ePortfolio direct to the Headteacher for commendation at the touch of a button.

Discover how The Winston Churchill School are using Frog to teach multiple subjects during the current Coronavirus lock-down!

This is a series of nine videos that teachers have taken of themselves showing us how they are helping their children to learn from home. 

If you’re a Frog school, it would be great to get similar videos from you to share with other schools.

Some are leading the way during these challenging times, but in truth, most are catching up. Let’s aim to get everyone on the front foot as quickly as we can.

As ever, if there’s anything you need from us at Frog to help you get the best during these times, you know where we are.

Capturing your clips
If you haven't done this before, one bit of software we've found useful is Flashback Recorder. You can send your clips to us in any way you choose - WeTransfer, GoogleDrive or simply upload to your Frog platform.

How the different departments at the school have been using Frog:

Science

Watch a video showing how M North is using Frog to teach students Science.

Watch video on Youtube.

Music

Watch a video showing how C Drake is using Frog to teach students Music.

Watch video on Youtube.

Maths

Watch a video showing how J Ray is using Frog to teach students Maths.

Watch video on Youtube.

Physical Education

Watch a video showing how A Daniels is using Frog to teach students Physical Education.

Watch video on Youtube.

English

Watch a video showing how G Collins is using Frog to teach students English.

Watch video on Youtube.

Computer Science

Watch a video showing how D Falleiro is using Frog to teach students Computer Science.

Watch Computer Science video on Youtube.

Geography

Watch a video showing how S Harris is using Frog to teach students Geography.

Watch Geography video on Youtube.

Film Studies

Watch a video showing how N Parsons is using Frog to teach students Film Studies.

Watch Film Studies video on Youtube.

Design Technology

Watch a video showing how A Lighton is using Frog to teach students Design Technology.

Watch Design Technology video on Youtube.

Bedford High School had been using Frog for over 6 years, with mixed success in terms of getting the whole school community to engage with the Virtual Learning Environment. When the closures were announced, they realised the one infrastructure that would remain stable during the challenging times ahead was technology. With a focus on providing  home learning support for their students, Bedford High worked with Frog on a design update of their Parent and Student portals to make them more appealing and user-friendly. 

Preparation and training

The school took fast action ahead of enforced school closures, creating a clear and coherent contingency plan for how their home learning process would work. They placed Frog at the centre of this, with all assigned work to be put through their platform.

All students received refresher training to ensure they knew how to use Frog and guidance was provided for the new virtual home learning process.

The process included the use of FrogSnap as a feedback tool for teachers, enabling them to provide whole-class feedback rather than every student individually.

To ensure parents were well-informed and engaged in the process, Frog Messaging was used to keep them updated.

The impact

"The analytics were showing we had captured the school community's attention as we were seeing a six-fold increase in users."

"We have found that our users have become more accustomed and accomplished with their use of Frog and we are dealing with significantly less technical issues."

Gabriel Calwell Assistant Headteacher

The school is also using Frog to help subject leaders (SL's) to build their refined curricula. A Bedford High School Curriculum site has been devised to ensure SL's upload key resources to support their subject curriculum. This ensures all subject resources are in one place.

Summary of approach

• Agreed process and roll-out
• Guidance and support provided
• Central place for all subject resources
• Use of communication tool - Frog Messaging - to keep parents informed
• Curriculum site on Frog for subject leaders to upload key resources

After schools had closed and home learning activities commenced, North Lakes were looking at a way to encourage engagement in addition to the existing school reward system.

The solution needed to be inspiring and visible to all children on their Frog timelines. An idea was surfaced to create an 'Oscars' themed awards which would become known as "The Froggies".

Creating a buzz

In the lead up to Easter, the Frog timelines were adorned with 'coming soon' messages so children and parents became intrigued.

The concept

Everyone can be awarded Froggies with 5 different types to collect:

Frog of the Day

Teachers are to recommend a child they believe deserves 'Frog of the Day' through their online learning activity. These are sent to the Online Lead via the messaging system.

Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Froggies

Children can earn these certificates by completing their online activity on Frog. Each week the Online Lead looks at everyone's login information and awards the certificates accordingly.

The Froggies are posted to the child's personal timeline, so it appears as a notification that they can look out for. Their achievement is also posted to the class timeline and the children are encouraged to make a comment on their award.

A dedicated site called The Froggies is a place to view all of the awards that have been issued, like a 'hall of fame'. Children and staff can also share comments here and interact with one another.

Awards are also celebrated on the school's social media channels which is helping to create a real sense of excitement about who can earn a Froggie next. 

In the second week post launch, the school had received 8,000 logins which shows really positive engagement as the idea starts to take off.

River Tees MAT is a group of alternative provision schools. All children that attend are classed as vulnerable and therefore still attending each school each day. As many of the teachers are working from home, the learning situation is slightly more unusual compared with other schools...

Guidance and resources

E-Learning lead, Matt Holley has created online guidance and resources to support everyone. A Covid19 site has been shared to all stakeholders via a Frog dashboard - which Matt keeps updated, it includes:

• School documents
• Amended timetables
• Links to external support websites
• Home learning guidance
• Past papers for older students
• CPD for teachers to achieve during lock-down

Centralised 

The schools struggled to keep printed staff handbooks updated with the ever-changing Government advice. so this content was also moved onto Frog, meaning it could be updated dynamically and sit with all other resources.

Benefits of approach

• Staff can access everything from a single login 
• Information is easily updated to keep up with demand
• Approved links to external content included
• Supports remote teaching and well-being

Frog Assignments has the full complement of self-marking quizzes, file drop and text activities for work that's created on the computer, but Mayflower High School were looking for a solution to submit assignments that have been produced on paper...

The solution for them was to use FrogSnap.  Staff continued to set Assignments with the addition of a File Drop plus some basic instructions. Pupils can now prepare their written work on paper as usual, take a photograph of it using the free FrogSnap app on their phone and upload directly to the Assignment that was set for them. 

Example from Mayflower High School

Submissions can then by annotated by the teacher using the Assignments Feedback feature or all work can be downloaded onto a local computer.

Download FrogSnap from your app store...

Penistone Grammar were looking into developing a remote learning strategy before Covid-19 closures were announced, so Strategic IT Lead, Michael O'Brien had already been investigating their options...

Guidance

They prepared guidance on 'what good looks like' for their remote learning. The Headteacher outlined that for years 10-13, every hour of lesson time, teachers should use Frog to set assignments and include:

• Instructions
• The activity or task
• Assessment

Method

With activities and assessments already being used within their Frog Platform, Michael had been looking at ways in which teachers could talk through prepared material. Having rejected live video conferencing because of technical and organisational challenges, he settled on a little known feature of PowerPoint.

Recording

MS PowerPoint includes a feature which allows voice recording with a presentation. Once saved, it creates a small video file which can then be uploaded as a resource attached to a Frog Assignment.

Microsoft PowerPoint Recording a Slide Show

After creating your PowerPoint assignment - use the 'Record Slide Show' functionality.

Record your voice-over in PowerPoint.

Export your PowerPoint as a video.

With everyone working remotely, schools have asked us how they can find out who is logging into Frog. Here's how...

Watch our Analytics Application guide for FrogLearn to find out how to track user activity. There's lot of graphical data you can access to monitor trends.

• To find who is logging in by individual, year groups and username take a look at the VISITOR LOG FrogCode widget. You can add this to any site and find out who is logging in!
  
  
• The Analytics Application provides you with overall trends and you can combine this with student data to see more. An Excel template has been provided with instructions for how this can be achieved.