Summary

Nick Hutchings, headteacher at Hamilton Primary School, is someone who knows his pupil data. Not only has he been a headteacher for over 10 years, carefully overseeing the progress of his pupils, but he has also helped develop the early versions of Target Tracker, now the most widely used assessment tracker on the market.

As a result, he understands exactly which insights school staff need to support pupils and identify any early signs that children or groups are falling behind.

But when he reviewed the market, he could not find anything that could do this effectively without eating up valuable teacher time.

So, he did what any data-savvy head would do. He created a very detailed spreadsheet to get the job done.

And this is how the school operated. Right up until they trialled Sonar Tracker.

Preparing the trial

Nick’s key priorities were minimising staff workload, while ensuring easy access to data to improve decision making.

Staff need it to be fast and they need it to be reliable. It’s also essential that they know how to put information in quickly.

The team selected to assess the tool was made up of teachers from different key stages and levels of leadership.

I was strategic with who I had in the testing team. I had an early years practitioner, two senior leaders, our deputy head, a recently qualified teacher, and a highly data-literate year six maths lead.

The team would have to unanimously agree Sonar Tracker worked for them, for the school to take it on.

Instant benefits

The review team were soon convinced of Sonar Tracker’s merits.

It’s an intuitive program. Common tasks are straightforward and then more detail is available if needed. It’s a light touch for teachers in terms of time.

Getting specific data on focal groups suddenly became seamless. SEND, looked-after children and pupil premium students could now be viewed across a year group.

The previous in-house system worked at class level only. The team pointed out that this saved a substantial amount of teacher time.

The team also found that Sonar Tracker supported keeping data up to date with an ever-changing cohort, with minimal staff effort.

Our mobility is high. So, it was a pain to remove and add children on our original spreadsheet. Now once a pupil is added, they appear in all their relevant groups.

Both data-loving leads and newer staff took to the Sonar Tracker system.

My newest teacher was happy to use it and worked her way around it without much help beyond the initial instruction. Younger teachers are more familiar with app technology and Sonar Tracker replicates that look and feel to a large degree.

Looking to the future

The decision was unanimous – Hamilton Primary School was blown away by the effectiveness of Sonar Tracker. It passed the “no compromise on staff workloads” test too.

Teachers can use the system as they walk round the classroom, which means they have instant and accurate information on every child’s abilities and needs. Sonar Tracker brings together all the data so we can make more informed decisions about how to help our pupils learn and thrive.

Find out more about how Sonar Tracker can be used by your school to model future progress.

How Sonar Tracker helps Hamilton Primary School

• Easy access to in-depth data without increasing staff workload
• Insight on every child to discover patterns to drive meaningful interventions
• Simple way to record and track pupil outcomes from any device
• Ability to quickly gather specific data on focal groups