When starting any new initiative, it’s important to set expectations high and ensure that students form good learning habits from the beginning. Educake can help by making it easy to build in retrieval practice routines you can maintain throughout the school year.
From speaking to teachers, we’ve found that these are the three most important things you can do that will set you up for success:
New to Educake, or need a refresher on how it works? Email support@educake.co.uk to book a call with your school’s dedicated account manager.
Chart your course
Decide how you want your subject(s) to use Educake upfront. Here are some questions to consider:
- How frequently will homework be set, and in what quantity?
Try to commit to a regular routine, e.g. 20 questions per class, per week. You could also require students to retake a quiz until they reach a minimum score. - Will one person set it centrally, or will this be handled by individual teachers?
Centralised homework is great for saving time and ensuring consistency. You can set quizzes as far in advance as you like. - How will students review prior learning?
Spaced repetition is key, so make revisiting previous quizzes part of your homework routine. Teachers can reset them, or students can retake them independently. - How will you celebrate student success?
Some schools have an Educake leaderboard, others hand out certificates or small prizes at assemblies. This is a huge factor in getting students to use Educake above and beyond their assigned homework.
Once you’ve decided how you want to use Educake this year, make this clear to staff and students from the beginning.
Here’s a Powerpoint template you can download, edit and use in your next department meeting.
"We set every Friday, and the homework’s due the following Friday, and we follow up in every case when it’s not done, so we’ve got that routine embedded with our pupils and our parents. There are no surprises; they know what to expect."
Jane Greenham-Smith, Cams Hill School
Here are some stories from real schools to help inspire you
Get students on board
Many schools report a strong correlation between the number of questions students answer and their exam results. To use Educake to its full potential, get your students logging in and answering questions independently so that they can learn even more without adding to your workload.
We’ve created these resources to help:
- A webpage just for students that explains how and why they should use Educake, with loads of helpful videos
- Templates for creating leaderboards and certificates to reward effort
- A Powerpoint template you can download and use in your next assembly or in lessons
- A letter to students, with a special version for year 11
“Every week we have a leaderboard in our corridor which I update with the top 3 students per year group. We’ve started having termly Educake celebration parties. We’ve found that these competitions are great for motivating students to set themselves questions above and beyond the mandatory homework.”
Jen Taylor, Woodchurch High School
Bring parents and carers along on the journey
Parents and carers are your ultimate allies for getting students to complete their Educake homework and revise independently.
Here are some tools to help get them involved:
- A webpage just for parents that explains how Educake supports their child’s learning, with videos to help. Link to this in your next email newsletter!
- An introductory letter for parents and a special version for those with children in year 11.
- A Powerpoint you can download and use at your next parents’ evening
“I write to parents about Educake and the potential for students to use it for independent study and revision. Educake has made videos just for parents about revision, so I forward those to them. I really think of parents as an ally to get the kids to use it as a revision resource.”
David Liebeschuetz, Davenant Foundation School
We’re making it even easier to motivate and reward students with our autumn revision competition…
During each week between 13 October and 9 November, every student who answers at least 10 questions they set themselves will receive one entry into our prize draw. If they do this every week; they’ll get 4 entries, maximising their chance of winning 1 of 3 exciting prize packs!
We’ll email teachers in October to share more information.