How Purple Mash supported Hillside School in teaching

Purple Mash introduction
Staff were introduced to Purple Mash at Hillside School after being identified by Aberdeenshire Council as a school who would be enthusiastic and keen to welcome a pilot. This was led by Fiona Lindsay and started after the Spring break. Fiona had previously used Purple Mash when it had been available through Glow. Staff were positive about using the resources available to them.

Before Purple Mash was introduced to the students, usernames and passwords were set up for them. Their username was taken from their Glow email account.

Purple Mash in the classroom
Purple Mash was the “go to” resource for both students and teachers. Teachers used Purple Mash as a teaching tool. This saved time as all the resources were in the one place and the questions were age appropriate. When students had completed their class work, they chose to use Purple Mash and they could choose which tools they wanted to use. Students at Hillside school, like all primary schools, are discouraged from printing out, so the Shared File Option was well liked, and teachers used it to print out selected pieces of work.

Hillside School has a group of very competent and articulate Digital Leaders. These Digital Leaders are students ranging from Primary Four to Primary Seven. They received some brief training on how to use Purple Mash.

As part of their duties, the Digital Leaders used 2Create a Story with Primary One classes. Whilst working on their story, the Primary One student dictated their story to the Digital Leader who then typed it up for them.

Many of the students preferred using Purple Mash on a laptop as opposed to an iPad. They liked the Math's Tools, particularly the Fractions resource. They used the Mash Cam for reading book characters and there was a request to have an “Oor Wullie” character!

Students were encouraged to use Purple Mash at home to practice and explore.

Purple Mash is now being used for Internet Safety and the intention is to produce a brochure on the subject. It will also be used for topic work on Plants, Health and Food and Computing.

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