Sunny Bank Primary School

I’m Marianne Baird, the Assistant Headteacher and SENCo at Sunny Bank Primary School. I have used Clicker previously when I was teaching in the north of England, so I was aware of the positive impact it had on pupils with dyslexia. We had also heard some good reviews from other schools about the latest version of Clicker, so we decided to invest in it about two terms ago to enhance our provision for learners with special educational needs.

Because of the lockdown, there has been a dip in our pupils’ literacy skills, particularly our SEN learners. We’re using Clicker as part of our recovery curriculum to enhance their oral composition of sentences and building their confidence to become independent writers. Although they may be supported by an adult, Clicker is removing their barriers to writing. In that regard, we’ve had a lot of success with Clicker, and we’re also seeing that our pupils are writing at greater length.

As well as children with cognition and learning needs, Clicker has been really helpful for our pupils with social and emotional difficulties. These children might have a mental block or barrier to writing, but Clicker doesn’t cause them the same stress as writing on paper. Some of our boys have become very reluctant writers after lockdown. At home, they’ve spent a lot of time engrossed in PlayStation games, and much less time reading and writing. But because Clicker is technology-driven, it’s more familiar to them, and has helped them to re-engage with literary tasks in a way they are far more comfortable with.

Our pupils mainly use Clicker in their literacy lessons and tasks where there’s a written element. However, it varies across the school. In some classes, children use Clicker every day, all the time, because it reduces the stress for them. It’s not one size fits all; it’s very much based on each child’s needs.

The word banks are definitely one of our favourite features of Clicker. We like that we can provide children with access to higher level vocabulary that’s perhaps out of their normal skillset. We’re also trying to broaden the kind of activities children are exposed to with Clicker, so it’s not always the oral comprehension activities. For example, we use the different Clicker Sets for sentence openers and closing activities, and for the lower ability children we look at phonemes and graphemes to help them with the middle and end sounds in words.  

We’re also using Clicker for grammar, punctuation, and spelling lessons, in which the children identify and correct various spelling errors, missing full stops or capital letters. Clicker is a great visual check for them if they’re experiencing those issues in their own writing.

One of our year 6 pupils has really benefitted from Clicker. They have some social and emotional difficulties, particularly linked to lockdown, and we found that when this pupil returned to school, they were quite often leaving the classroom – and writing was a trigger for it. We discovered they had lost a lot of confidence because they hadn’t practised their handwriting and even their writing stamina had decreased, but once they started using Clicker, they started to see themselves as a writer again. This pupil went from refusing to write to reengaging with the curriculum, producing five or six sentences during their lessons and showing a great deal of pride in their work, because they had that alternative method to record their ideas with Clicker.

For me, the best thing about Clicker is that it boosts children’s confidence and allows them to see themselves as writers. It removes barriers to writing, and it takes away some of that cognitive demand and overload, so children can record their ideas and gain confidence. To anyone else who might be interested in Clicker, I’d say definitely look into getting it for your school. It’s a really helpful tool for supporting vulnerable children and developing your pupils’ confidence.