Attendance and challenging socio-economic factors affecting learning gaps.
How does Elastik’s gap analysis tool support teachers looking to deliver explicit, targeted teaching?
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In Term 3, the Customer Success Team at Elastik held their largest ever customer feedback forum. As part of that forum, we invited willing teachers and schools to talk to us about Elastik. As part of our commitment to improving the daily usage of Elastik for all members of our community, we also want to hear back from those that are finding success using our products.
Nulsen Primary School was the first of these schools that we spoke to. Nulsen primary school is located in Nulsen, a town on the South-coast of Western Australia and serves a unique and diverse community.
With approximately 215 students from pre-primary through to Year 6, the school has a high Indigenous population, accounting for about 50% of the student body.
The challenges facing the school and the local community.
Nulsen primary school faces several challenges including low and sporadic attendance rates, largely due to students being absent for extended periods. These challenges are compounded by socio-economic difficulties present throughout the region.
Many students attending the school are being supported for high levels of trauma, family issues, and the work the school and other institutions across the town are doing is vital to the local community. The school’s commitment to trauma-informed practices reflects its understanding of the community’s needs.
Admittedly, the challenges that the school and community face have contributed to substantial gaps in student learning. Teachers at the school have found it difficult to track student progress effectively due to irregular attendance and the wide range of abilities within the same classroom.
Katherine Loader, a Year 5-6 teacher at Nulsen Primary, noted that in her class alone, students’ abilities ranged from pre-primary to Year 7 levels. This variability made it extremely challenging to deliver targeted instruction that met all students’ needs at the same time.
Teacher spotlight
We spoke to Katherine Loader at Nulsen Primary school to understand more about Nulsen Primary school and how Elastik has been used to support her teaching, her colleagues and the school’s students.
Katherine has been at the school for over 3 years and has found the use of technology beneficial to her teaching and learning practices.
Why turn to technology?
Recognising the need for a more structured approach to track student data and address learning gaps, Nulsen primary school began using Elastik at the start of 2023. As usage in the platform gathered pace, the potential of Elastik became evident and it was integrated more fully into classroom practices across the school.
Katherine, one of the early adopters and a spearhead of widespread usage throughout the school, quickly saw the value in using Elastik to manage and analyse student data, “This year, it’s definitely becoming more of a staple in every classroom”.
Importantly, Elastik makes up one element of the school’s technology ecosystem, but the increased usage of its gap analysis tool has elevated teaching practices as part of that ecosystem.
What impact has Elastik had?
Katherine described how the tool has become instrumental in her teaching, especially in Maths. The ability to conduct detailed gap analyses has allowed her to identify students who may have been overlooked due to their quiet demeanour or reluctance to participate in class.
By using Elastik’s data-driven insights, Katherine could tailor her instruction to better meet the needs of these students, ensuring that no one ‘fell through the cracks’, as Katherine remarks, “I loved it, and I think I’ve only scratched the surface to be honest. As soon as I started using it, it was definitely something that I could see was going to be useful across every classroom”.
“I loved it and I think I’ve only scratched the surface to be honest! As soon as I started using it, it was definitely something that I could see was going to be useful across every classroom.”
What specific Elastik features have supported Nulsen primary school?
1. Focus Groups
Focus groups allow teachers in a variety of classroom contexts to keep track of students depending on their ability. For instance, in Katherine’s context, she has found success in using Focus Groups to determine where her highly able and less able students are performing in the same class on the same curriculum topics.
In other contexts, teachers can use Focus Groups for higher able students and dig deep into their specific skills gap to push and challenge them even further.
2. Gap Reviews and Lesson Guides
Katherine also utilises Elastik’s lesson guides to plan targeted interventions, which are delivered by an education assistant (EA) in smaller groups. This approach has proven highly effective, allowing students to receive the personalised support they need without being overwhelmed in a classroom setting which, in turn, promotes participation and confidence building.
“The quiet student that sits at the back, not answering many questions and lacks confidence [is very common]. However, there have been times I have used Elastik’s gap reviews and I’m surprised thinking, ‘you actually know this!’”.
3. Data interpretation and visualisation
Katherine highlighted how Elastik has facilitated more informed and constructive conversations with parents. The tool’s data visualisation provides clear evidence of student progress, making it easier to demonstrate the impact of interventions and to build trust with parents. This transparency has been crucial in setting realistic expectations and in helping parents understand where their children stand academically.
Advice for other schools
Reflecting on Nulsen primary school’s journey, Katherine emphasised the importance of accountability and the role of technology in ensuring that no student is left behind. She advised other schools facing similar challenges to embrace tools like Elastik to gain a clearer picture of their students’ abilities and to take proactive steps in addressing learning gaps. “We can’t keep expecting them to keep going up in years and never fall behind. That’s what’s happening”, she explained.
Platforms like Elastik exist because administrative tasks such as data interpretation are not the reasons teachers became teachers.
The data provided by Elastik can serves as a contextualisation tool, prompting teachers to take necessary actions and allowing them to see through the lines and lines of data and visualise the necessary next steps for each student.
Katherine sees technology as a vital tool for other schools and teachers looking to make a difference. Katherine, by her own admission, embraces technology and states, “I’ve got students who, at the beginning of the year couldn’t do anything and they’re catching up quickly! This is done through the use of technology”.
Convenient, Reliable, Functional.
For Nulsen Primary School, Elastik has become more than just a technological tool; it is a key component of their strategy to provide equitable education.
When asked to surmise Elastik in three words, Katherine replied, “convenient, reliable, and functional,” enabling the school to make informed decisions and to support every student’s learning journey effectively.
Through its targeted use of technology, Nulsen Primary is making significant strides in closing the educational gaps and ensuring that all students have the opportunity to succeed.
There is always more work to do but the school and faculty is in a much stronger position with technology like Elastik behind it.
“Using technology to fill those gaps really does work!”.
