Walsall school's results rocket from 40% to 84% age-related expectation

Jon McNamee, Deputy Head at Brownhills West Primary, Walsall, describes the impact that LbQ had on pupil engagement, confidence and results.

What a difference a year makes. Or should that be what a difference 5 months can make? According to the staff and pupils at Brownhills West, Walsall, it can make all the difference in the world.

Like a number of schools, Brownhills West was significantly impacted by the pandemic. Pupil confidence had taken a massive hit, to the extent that some children would hide under their desks. On occasions, staff would be required to pick some children up from home and bring them into school.

The staff had a tremendous amount of work to do to ensure that pupils were in the right frame of mind to learn.

One measure they decided upon was to sign up to the SATs Springboard. Fast forward a few short months and the transformation was remarkable: fully engaged pupils, classrooms full of children attending school early and eager to undertake extra learning. Confidence grew incredibly quickly and their most recent SATs results are a testament to the amazing efforts made by everyone.

We spoke to Jon McNamee, Deputy head at Brownhills West, about their LbQ experience, and the transformation they’ve made in just a few short months.

On Brownhills West Primary School, Walsall

“We’re a small, one-form entry school situated in Brownhills (Walsall). The community we serve has high levels of deprivation and we’ve got high levels of pupil premium here.”

On life before LbQ

“The cohort had quite a tough time readjusting to coming back to school. They were quite impacted by the pandemic. We had children not wanting to learn, not wanting to be in the classroom, children even hiding under tables. On some days I’d have to physically go and pick children up from their houses. So we had to put in a lot of support for them to be in the right place to learn.”

On Brownhills West starting their LbQ journey

“It was like the planets aligned. I saw the SATs Springboard advertised on Twitter, a free trial using the Springboard with the children. I had a year six teacher who really embraces tech in his classroom. I had the resources, Chromebooks and laptops. We were very fortunate and we brought LbQ in.”

On the effect that LbQ had on pupils

“All of a sudden, something happened. We gave children the opportunity to come into school at 8am. I’d pop into the Year 6 classroom and see a full house. A full house of children voluntarily coming in, getting their chromebooks out, practising the questions that they wanted to practise and improve on.”

“They were motivated, not by rewards, they were intrinsically motivated because they could see the progress that they were making every single day by day. It’s fantastic to walk into the different classrooms and see the children engaging with Learning by Questions. I tend to ask the children what they like about using LbQ and their responses are perfect.”

“They tell me that they can use the feedback to help them learn, that they know exactly where they’re going wrong, or right, and they want to use LbQ across every lesson. Even when SATs had finished, a hand went up and a child asked ‘Can we still come in early and go on LbQ?’, and that tells its own story.”

On the transformational impact of the SATs Springboard

“Introducing LbQ through the SATs Springboard, the results really spoke for themselves, we trialled it with the Year 6 year group. In January, we had 40% of children on track to achieve age related expectations in maths. By March, that climbed to 64%, which was amazing. So we were thinking that, wow, the progress these children were making was incredible. But by May, we had 84% of children at age related, and 20% at greater depth. So those results spoke for themselves.”

On what that transformation is down to

“LbQ supports the children to become far more resilient, far more independent learners. It allowed them to find that love of learning and take control over their own learning.”

“Learning by Questions, for me, is like having 30 high-quality textbooks in your classroom, that come with 30 individual teachers for the pupils. What that brings to the classroom is maximum progress.”

On what LbQ means for his staff

“LbQ allows teachers to really maximise their potential as teachers. It really reduces their workload. Time for teachers is one of their most precious commodities. Using LbQ saves time with their planning and especially their preparation. The marking as well. Because the assessment is built into the system, the feedback is live. They can then analyse the feedback straight away without having to look through lots of different books. As teachers, we know that live, in-the-moment feedback is the most powerful tool to help move learning forward. That’s happening straight away in every lesson.”

Brownhills’ Year 6 teacher, Charley Birch, added: “Work/life balance has definitely improved because of Learning by Questions. It just does everything for you that you need, in terms of data, marking the work, looking through what questions the children got stuck on. It’s really useful.”

On the future for Brownhills West

“Our goal is to make sure that children are prepared and ready for the next phase of their education - Secondary School. I believe LbQ really allows us to help them get there. Moving forward, children as young as year 1, right through to year 6 are going to be using LbQ daily.”

Visit Brownhills West and watch the staff tell their incredible story in this short film.

If you'd like free access to the platform and resources that helped Brownhills West Primary achieve such extraordinary results, book a chat about SATs Springboard with us today.