Rebecca Higginson, Second in Department for Science at Newton Abbot College, talks to Tassomai about her experience of joining a school that has been using the platform for years and how it helps to inspire her students’ learning… 

Newton Abbot College is a non-selective school that caters to our local community, a true comprehensive, and we have been using Tassomai for nearly 7 years now. I joined Newton Abbot in September 2021, so this year has been my first experience of the platform, and I have to say I’m impressed. 

The school's ethos is really about doing our best for all of our students, no matter their attainment level, so using Tassomai has been brilliant for this as it is suitable and accessible for all of our students and adapts to their individual needs.

Getting familiar

We use Tassomai for science homework for our KS4 students and are about to expand our subscription to KS3 to give younger students a head start before their GCSE years. I think this will be really beneficial as it’s all about getting students familiar with the key information for each subject and reinforcing the language that is used so that when they come across it in lessons, it’s much easier for them to recognise and engage with. 

Science is a very immersive subject with a lot of content to cover so getting the core basics secured is essential for ensuring that students are able to grasp key knowledge points and expand on them in the classroom.

Mastering homework

Students are able to track their own progress in the app, which I think gives them a great sense of agency over their own learning and improves their independent study skills. For a lot of students homework can be quite a daunting task but with Tassomai students know that they just need to complete their Daily Goals regularly to stay on top of their work and find it much more manageable.

It’s a great motivator for students, as they can see their work racking up quickly on the app and know that they will make progress as long as they stick to the little-and-often approach. Students know where they stand with Tassomai and what to expect each week, which gives them a good structure. The same goes for teachers – we can set goals each week with the assurance that students are receiving high quality content but don’t need to worry about selecting or marking it individually. This saves a significant amount of teacher time and lets us get on with lesson planning.

Staying on track

I like that you can set Daily Goals and very easily monitor who has completed what, so I always feel on top of my GCSE students’ usage. We used to allow students to use Tassomai during tutor times but have changed this to just encouraging at-home learning on the app and use it solely as a homework tool. 

This method works well for our school and our students once they settle into the routine of Daily Goals. For the first few weeks of this year I had roughly 50% of my students regularly completing their allotted homework but at the end of the year it was firmly up to 90%. We use class charts at Newton Abbot, awarding points as an added incentive for good Tassomai usage and taking them away if students do no complete their homework. 

These positive points add up so that they can buy small items at the school shop but I think the biggest drive for using Tassomai is when the students have sudden light bulb moments: ‘Oh, I got that one right on Tassomai last week, so I know the answer!’ Securing their own success is what keeps them logging in each day.

Retrieval practice

A lot of our lower attaining students love using the app. I think the recall practice is really useful for these students in particular and is a great way of steadily drip-feeding them knowledge throughout the term. Students find this kind of homework much more motivating than I’ve experienced at other schools I’ve worked at.

The simple act of not having to sit down with a textbook really helps students to get started – they can use it on the go, complete their goals on the bus and fit it into their routine. The questions get progressively more difficult and adapt to each individual student, so the quizzes are never discouraging, but slowly building knowledge through retrieval practice. 

I look forward to using Tassomai with my KS3 students in the next academic year and seeing how they progress.