Ofsted
How NetSupport’s education solutions
support Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework
Ofsted inspectors consider four main measures of effectiveness in schools when they make their judgements:
- Quality of education
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Personal development
- Leadership and management
Here, we set out how NetSupport’s solutions (NetSupport School, classroom.cloud and NetSupport DNA) can support schools under these headings – helping you to see where each one can be of benefit in your context.
Quality of education – Implementation
“Teachers present subject matter clearly, promoting appropriate discussion about the subject matter they are teaching.”
With NetSupport School, teachers can show their screen so everyone can see what is being explained. They can also show a video or replay file to elaborate, use a virtual whiteboard to illustrate and use audio mode to support teaching of languages, music and more.
Teachers can also share their screen in classroom.cloud. This, accompanied by audio explanations and verbal support, makes remote learning easier for students as it offers them continuity by preserving their connection to their teacher.
“They check learners’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and provide clear, direct feedback. In doing so, they respond and adapt their teaching as necessary, without unnecessarily elaborate or differentiated approaches”
NetSupport School’s thumbnail view of students’ screens reveals who is ok and who is struggling with a task. Teachers can undertake surveys to gauge understanding across the class or use the AfL-based Q&A mode with five different question types to engage students and see where learning gaps are. For direct feedback, teachers can use the chat tool with a student (or help requests) – or share a student’s screen with the rest of the class to demonstrate good work.
classroom.cloud’s flexibility allows teachers and students to move smoothly between in-person and remote learning, makes it easy for teachers to adapt their teaching according to the environment and monitor students to maintain their focus – plus deliver feedback via the chat/help request tools.
“They check learners’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and provide clear, direct feedback. In doing so, they respond and adapt their teaching as necessary, without unnecessarily elaborate or differentiated approaches”
NetSupport School’s thumbnail view of students’ screens reveals who is ok and who is struggling with a task. Teachers can undertake surveys to gauge understanding across the class or use the AfL-based Q&A mode with five different question types to engage students and see where learning gaps are. For direct feedback, teachers can use the chat tool with a student (or help requests) – or share a student’s screen with the rest of the class to demonstrate good work.
classroom.cloud’s flexibility allows teachers and students to move smoothly between in-person and remote learning, makes it easy for teachers to adapt their teaching according to the environment and monitor students to maintain their focus – plus deliver feedback via the chat/help request tools.
Use NetSupport School’s thumbnail view
to monitor students’ screens
“They check learners’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and provide clear, direct feedback. In doing so, they respond and adapt their teaching as necessary, without unnecessarily elaborate or differentiated approaches”
NetSupport School’s thumbnail view of students’ screens reveals who is ok and who is struggling with a task. Teachers can undertake surveys to gauge understanding across the class or use the AfL-based Q&A mode with five different question types to engage students and see where learning gaps are. For direct feedback, teachers can use the chat tool with a student (or help requests) – or share a student’s screen with the rest of the class to demonstrate good work.
classroom.cloud’s flexibility allows teachers and students to move smoothly between in-person and remote learning, makes it easy for teachers to adapt their teaching according to the environment and monitor students to maintain their focus – plus deliver feedback via the chat/help request tools.
“Over the course of study, teaching is designed to help learners to remember in the long term the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts”
NetSupport School’s Student journal is a comprehensive summary of a lesson compiled from the teacher’s and student’s notes and is perfect for revision or those who have been absent.
To help students remember, teachers can leave a recording of the concept they have just demonstrated on students’ devices for their reference and send video exemplars to the class for them to reference later on.
Teachers using classroom.cloud can also interact with students using chat tools, undertake surveys and use a random select mode to gamify question sessions for retrieval practice, so they can gauge understanding.
Interact with students using
classroom.cloud’s chat tools
“Teachers and leaders use assessment well, for example to help learners embed and use knowledge fluently or to check understanding and inform teaching. Leaders understand the limitations of assessment and do not use it in a way that creates unnecessary burdens for staff or learners”
Using the Test Designer in NetSupport School, teachers can create and run customised tests (eight different question types) that are auto-marked – and can display individual results back to each student immediately. To help ease teachers’ workloads, NetSupport School stores any tests the teacher has created for future editing and reuse.
classroom.cloud’s tools for informal assessment include the ability to undertake class surveys for instant feedback on topic understanding. Teachers can also issue rewards to students, if appropriate.
“Teachers create an environment that allows the learner to focus on learning…”
NetSupport School’s thumbnail view allows teachers to keep students on task – while ‘approved’ and ‘restricted’ website and application lists minimise opportunities for students to go off topic. The ability to lock or blank students’ screens is an effective way to gain their attention while the teacher explains the next activity – and everyone’s time is saved when the teacher launches a web page directly on all students’ screens; a perfect way to reduce distractions.
With classroom.cloud, teachers can monitor students’ activity via screen thumbnails and restore their focus as necessary, while simultaneous launching of web pages ensures learning time is maximised.
Monitor students’ activity with
classroom.cloud’s thumbnail view
“The resources and materials that teachers select – in a way that does not create unnecessary workload for staff – reflect the provider’s ambitious intentions for the course of study…”
Designed with teachers, for teachers, NetSupport School provides easy-to-use instruction and classroom management tools, with the majority of features available in a single click. Work can be sent to and collected from students quickly and easily, and tests can be auto-marked, saving teachers’ time.
Providing only the essential tools needed for in-school or remote instruction, classroom.cloud was co-produced with teachers to ensure its simplicity, thereby ensuring it can be used as a teaching aid immediately, without extensive training.
Behaviour and attitudes
“Relationships among learners and staff reflect a positive and respectful culture. Leaders, teachers and learners create an environment where bullying, peer-on-peer abuse or discrimination are not tolerated…”
NetSupport School’s eSafety tools can help staff support a safe learning environment. Its ‘SafeSearch’ feature prevents inappropriate content being returned in search results, plus, its keyboard monitoring tool allows teachers to identify any inappropriate or bullying behaviour. In addition, teachers can survey students’ wellbeing via the Student Feedback mode.
NetSupport DNA’s safeguarding suite contains all the tools a school needs to be able to ensure a safe learning environment for everyone. A word cloud of trending terms being searched for, typed or copied by students gives teachers an insight into whether there are any current safeguarding issues that need attention. In addition, the unique contextual intelligence-based Risk Index indicates to safeguarding staff how risky a student’s online activity is in context. classroom.cloud’s word cloud and contextual intelligence-based Risk Index help to safeguard students in the same way.
Students who need help or support can reach out to trusted teachers via NetSupport DNA in school hours or outside of school hours via the school’s website – and teachers can use any trending issues as learning points, where appropriate.
Personal development
“At each stage of education, the provider prepares learners for future success in their next steps”
NetSupport School helps teachers deliver technology-enhanced learning using a wide variety of different tools, all of which help to equip students with the foundations of technology knowledge and experience they will need for the future.
All edtech tools provide students with valuable experience of technology as they progress through their school career. Using classroom.cloud as part of in-school, hybrid or remote learning ensures continuity for students, whatever the situation.
Leadership and management
“Leaders focus on improving staff’s subject, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge to enhance the teaching of the curriculum and the appropriate use of assessment. The practice and subject knowledge of staff are built up and improve over time”
A key part of this aim should also be to help staff improve their knowledge of and confidence with technology (TPCK). To support this, NetSupport School includes three graded user modes for teachers (Easy, Intermediate and Advanced) to work through as they build their own skills with classroom management and instruction technology.
Those with responsibility for governance ensure that the provider fulfils its statutory duties, for example under the Equality Act 2010, and other duties, for example in relation to the ‘Prevent’ strategy and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of learners.
Using a database of pre-supplied safeguarding keywords and phrases covering topics from self-harm, bullying and racism through to risks of radicalisation, NetSupport DNA monitors the school network and uses advanced neurolinguistics to capture triggered keywords used anywhere on the network, while ensuring accurate detection and avoiding false alarms. Trending safeguarding terms are also highlighted in the student-generated word cloud in classroom.cloud, so teachers are aware of what students are typing or discussing.
The provider has a culture of safeguarding that supports effective arrangements to
- identify learners who may need early help or who are at risk of neglect, abuse, grooming or exploitation.
NetSupport DNA’s triggered events provide teachers with an insight into students struggling with any type of safeguarding issue. Teachers can also mark any students they are particularly concerned about as ‘vulnerable’ on the system.
The Contextual Intelligence-based Risk Index technology in NetSupport DNA and classroom.cloud assesses the context and history of a child’s activities – from the devices used, time of day and websites visited (including previous alerts they may have triggered) – and, from this information, creates a numerical risk index. A high rating could result if a child has repeatedly researched a safeguarding topic (e.g. suicide) out of hours, in an unmonitored setting such as the library. A lower rating could result from a student searching a lower risk keyword in a local application during school hours that may have been used for curriculum topics.
DNA’s Contextual Intelligence-based Risk Index
assesses the context and history of a child’s activities
The provider has a culture of safeguarding that supports effective arrangements to:
- help learners reduce their risk of harm by securing the support they need or referring in a timely way to those who have the expertise to help.
Students can reach out to trusted teachers via NetSupport DNA’s Report a Concern tool and let them know if they are being bullied, are concerned for a friend or have any other safeguarding issue. To help the students who would prefer to secure independent help, an up-to-date built-in self-service list of external helplines and organisations is also provided within NetSupport DNA.
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