St Paul’s School for Girls

"Unifrog allowed us to evidence that we give students independent and impartial information on their full range of options."

Lauren Craddock, Head of Sixth Form

 

Personal Statements

“In the past, girls would write a Personal Statement draft and then hand it to their form tutor. The drafts would be relayed back and forth between student and from tutors, but often the feedback wasn’t followed up by our students, and with everything on paper it was difficult as a manager to keep tabs on progress.

The way Unifrog’s Personal Statement tool allows the students and their teacher or teachers to work on one document collaboratively, with all parties always knowing what the latest version is, and being able to see the complete record of version histories, edits and comments, as well as giving me as a manager a colour coded view of where each student has got to - has completely revolutionised this process for us.

I particularly like that the students can start with the Competencies tool, and then progress into writing their Personal Statements. It encourages students to actually reflect on the skills they’ve developed so far. As a result we end up with stronger Personal Statements.”

 

References

“As a manager the References tool has made my job easier because at any point I can see which students have complete references, and which teachers I need to chase up.

Similarliy the tutors have found that the References tool has sped up the process of writing an Overall Reference, because it makes it much easier to pull together the different Subject References into a coherent whole.

It’s also a great tool for the subject teachers, who can see the whole of the student’s application when writing their individual reference. If you’re a History teacher but your student is applying to study English, you can make sure you focus on the essay writing and analytical skills the student has displayed in your class.”

 

Staff engagement

“Staff are often the most difficult to persuade with a new initiative, but that hasn’t been the case at all with Unifrog, and they took to it very quickly – it’s a very easy system to engage with.

Tutors love being able to see each aspect of the student’s progress tracked in one place, and they like being able to see the comments that have been made by other teachers on different things students have done on the platform, and how their students have responded to these comments.”

 

Student destinations

“Since using Unifrog, I’ve seen the girls choose a much greater variety of degree courses. I suspect they wouldn’t have found these courses if they didn’t have Unifrog’s university search tool. It’s helped them broaden their horizons and really see what’s out there.

For our Oxbridge applicants, the Oxbridge tool really gives them all the information they need. They can filter and sort to see which colleges have more students from independent schools, or a higher proportion of female students. The tool enables them to make a more informed decision about where they want to apply.”

 

Ofsted

“Ofsted were really impressed with Unifrog. The inspectors were particularly interested in the way we use the platform with Year 11 and below, given that some schools don’t begin their future guidance in earnest that low down the school. In particular they said that often students don’t receive impartial Post 16 advice, because schools want their own students to return to the school’s Sixth Form. Unifrog allowed us to evidence that we give students independent and impartial information on their full range of options.”

 

Key Stage 3 and 4

“Lower down the school one of our main focuses is getting students to keep on top of their Competencies so that when they get to Sixth Form they have a great record of what they’ve achieved. In Year 9 we get them to look at MOOCs – it’s really great to see them using their own time to explore topics they’re interested in - and Unifrog really helps.

This year we’ve extended Unifrog to Year 7 as well. For the girls who already have a broad idea of what they want to do, they can start looking at their university courses and apprenticeship vacancies early on which helps motivate them. Even the students who don’t yet know what they want to do can benefit from seeing all of the options laid out in front of them.”