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How can teachers and schools reduce workload whilst increasing impact and student motivation?
In 2010, Ben Dunford was teaching ICT at a large secondary school in Devon and saw first-hand a lot of frustration in teachers, poor motivation of students and a lack of engagement of parents. He decided that a great way to tackle these issues was through a whole school rewards system, and so was born.
Ben asked me to come down to their office in Exeter to have a look at what they’ve been creating and I jumped at the opportunity to get involved in this innovative and exciting company. More specifically, to understand what impact their software was having on schools and on teachers and students.
Relationships
Epraise pride themselves on their relationships with schools and they are passionate about making a difference. Ben still teaches every week and assists in delivering a local PGCE course – which ensures epraise is as pragmatic as possible. One of the most important things to them is to ensure that schools feel supported, so they always try to ensure the phone is picked up right away and emails are answered in minutes, not days or hours. I witnessed this first hand inside the office!
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I cannot stress enough, what good value epraise is for schools! With several features accessed with one login providing multiple-functionality for schools. It’s a no-brainer really.” (Ross Morrison McGill)
Inside epraise
Since 2010, Ben and his small team have built a broad system of tools that tackles many of the common issues in schools affecting teachers, students and parents. This includes motivation, behaviour management, seating plans, homework, activities, parents’ evenings and more. Epraise is already used by hundreds of schools around the world and they have big plans for the future.
Functions / Costs
What struck me was two things: one, how fresh and easy to use the website was. Secondly and of more importance to schools, was how much epraise were offering schools as such a low-cost! For years I’ve used all sorts of (separate) online software to manage resources, parents’ evenings, seating plans, homework, sanctions and rewards. Often these tools are individual products that cost several thousand pounds to be able to do just one of these things.
The difficulty for schools and teachers is escalating costs for schools and multiple logins for teachers that make the classroom harder to manage. Not only is epraise simply to use, it offers the school, parents, teachers and the students, all of these tools under one umbrella at unbelievable value! Epraise pride themselves on their transparency; you can work out how much the software would cost for your school.
Impact
To date, epraise has nearly 300,000 users and its schools have 3.5 million points awarded every month! That’s a current average of 98 points, per student, so far this year. In their latest survey, 100% said epraise has “had a positive impact at their school” and 100% said “they would recommend epraise to other schools”.
On the day itself, I offered many school leadership suggestions which epraise took on board immediately. It was as if they ‘switched on’ new development ideas in response to live feedback. To date, they have completed over 350 suggestions for new features and improvements from teachers and students, and this year alone, epraise has added or updated 185 features! It’s certainly an edtech company that is keeping up to date with its users’ needs.
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I encourage you to book a demo– they don’t offer any discounts, unless you are a charity of federation of schools. After all, when your product is so good and excellent value for money, why would you sell yourself short?
Looking at some of their recent customer feedback, it’s clear that schools are delighted with the service they receive – it’s a tool that should definitely reduce teacher workload and increase student motivation. Get in touch if you want to take a closer look at saving money and increasing impact.
