Want to reduce the time it takes to write reports?
Interested in finding an easier way to summarise & share progress with children & their parents?
We have developed our Advanced Features for Connecting Steps to do just this and more! Access our new Advanced Features TODAY to summarise key assessments that have been achieved, summarise key next steps and write lesson plans.
The summaries, based on criteria selected by the teacher, can be created about the student for parents to read. They can be specifically written for the student to help them understand the progress they are making. They can also be translated into other languages.
Try our new Advanced Features today for FREE
Find out how they make it easier to share progress and save teachers’ time
Our new Advanced Features launched on 25 May 2023 and are now available to all Connecting Steps users.
Are you starting to think about End of Year Reports? Try out these new Advanced Features and see how much time they will save you! Then share your feedback with us, so we can make even more improvements.
All existing Connecting Steps users will get FREE access until 31 July 2023.
From the new academic year, there will be a small fee of £1 per pupil, per year.
Once you’ve seen the time you can save and the ease with which you can summarise and share progress information with pupils and parents, we think you’ll agree this is great value for money.
These new features enable you to:
- Summarise key assessments that have been achieved, chosen by the teacher, into a nice short paragraph that can be written about the student or to the student.
- Summarise key next steps, chosen by the teacher, into a nice short paragraph that can be written about the student or to the student.
- Write lesson plans based on assessment points chosen by the teacher and topic and resources of your choice.
How to get started with Advanced Features
Our MD Dale Pickles ran a short webinar explaining how to access the new Advanced Features and got some great feedback.
“Looking forward to speeding up the report writing process.” Llinos Watkins
“Looks helpful for EHCP comments.” Nicki White
“Dale thank you, you guys at B Squared are always ahead of the game!” Sammy
Webinar: Connecting Steps Advanced Features
The webinar is an introduction to the new Advanced Features in Connecting Steps. It explains how to:
- Summarise key next steps or key achievements instantly.
- Translate reports into the pupil’s home language easily.
- Share progress reports or next steps, with students, written for the child, to help them understand.
- Generate lesson plans effortlessly by choosing targets, the topic and the resources you want to use.
Guide: Connecting Steps Advanced Features
Dale has also written a short guide on using Generative AI to reduce teacher workload. It explains how within Connecting Steps, we are using ChatGPT through Azure OpenAI services for privacy and security. It also gives step by step instructions on how to summarise key achievements, summarise next steps and create a lesson plan using our new Advanced Features.
DOWNLOAD THE GUIDEWhat do the progress summaries look like?
When you generate a progress summary it can be easily copied and pasted into where you need it, so it can be reviewed. Or you can save it as a PDF. This will help make report writing easier. The system can also output summaries into different languages, alongside English.
Here is an example we created for Edward – a student working on our Primary Curriculum framework.
About Edward – summarised for his parents
“Edward has made good progress in mastering writing numbers to 10, matching numerals to 20, and comparing two groups using counting. He is gaining skills and understanding in identifying and representing numbers using objects, pictorial representations, and the number line, as well as consistently comparing numbers to 20. However, he has not started describing the position of objects using ordinal numbers or matching ordinal numbers to cardinal numbers. He also needs to work on naming a digit as the ‘tens’ or ‘units’ in a number to 20, estimating where to place a number on a number line to 20, and making sensible estimates using non-standard measures.”
About Edward – summarised for Edward
“Good job, Edward! You’re getting really good at writing numbers up to 10, matching numbers up to 20, and counting to compare groups of things. You can now tell how many things there are by looking at pictures and you’re really good at comparing things that have numbers up to 20. We can keep working on using words like ‘first’ or ‘second’ to talk about where things are and matching those words with the right numbers. It would also be helpful to practice saying which number is in the ‘tens’ or ‘ones’ place in numbers up to 20, guessing where a number goes on a number line up to 20, and making good guesses using things like blocks or other objects. Keep up the good work, Edward!”
