SAM Learning has been a core learning platform at our school for a number of years now.  The strength of the system is that it has the ability to support learners across Years 7 to 11, with an increasing amount of content in the Sixth Form.  Access to KS2 material is great for teachers and families in order to differentiate and revisit prior learning.  As the senior leader responsible for online learning, the ability to track and report on usage is golden.  This linked to the fact that SAM Learning is backed up by Fischer Family Trust to show how engagement leads to improvement is a great selling point to families.  From a class teacher perspective, the ability to set work which is self marked and reports results back to you is a real winner in terms of reducing unnecessary workload.  Our staff really appreciate how SAM Learning works hard for them so that they can focus more time on planning High quality lessons.

We had SAM Learning for a number of years and to be honest it was sat dormant with no real drive or consistency.  Four years ago I inherited this legacy and with a relaunch we achieve the 10 hours average per student across all year groups for independent learning at home.  Progress Leaders and Head of Department can track and trace work from students as well as seeing where / who is setting work and who is not.

During these times of lock down, usage of SAM Learning has obviously gone through the roof.  I would dread to think how we would have coped without SAM Learning.  It has been particularly good to support Years 7 and 8, who tend to do less online learning, and has supported the materials published by the Oak Academy and BBC BItesize.  The huge benefit during these times of distance learning has been the ability to track which students are accessing their work and who are not.  This has allowed us to tailor our pastoral and progress support to students who are struggling or not engaging.

SAM Learning for me is a great value for the amount of learning which takes place with materials that you can rely on.  It is even better value when you consider the time that it saves staff who can then focus more of their working time on producing high quality lessons.  Reducing the workload of staff and worker smarter are two of the biggest whole school benefits that SAM Learning has delivered.  For me it was one of the easiest decisions to make and one of the easiest discussions to convince others to agree to.

The setting up of intervention groups os a strength of the system and I lead Porgress Leaders and Heads of Department to do this as part of their remit as middle leaders.  Tracking and monitoring groups who have been identified as needing greater support is a great tool to have and, again, is a much smarter way of working for middle leaders to show the impact they are having.

From a support point of view, I am always really impressed with every contact that I make with SAM Learning.  We keep on using the service because the support is forthcoming and as a customer I feel looked after and valued.

I would recommend SAM Learning to any school as a great online learning platform which has the ability for you to forensically monitor usage and demonstrate how you are making impact with your learners.  It is easy for students to engage with and for middle leaders to use as an analytical tool.  Who knows what schooling will look like over the next 24 months, but I am definitely happy to have SAM Learning as part of our offer to families.