How Talaxy is helping A-level/BTEC course providers to keep track of the DfE’s new additional hours allocation.

One issue we’re helping our clients to manage right now is the government’s new 16 to 19 funding programme.  As part of the government’s commitment to a long-term education recovery plan post-covid, they are currently investing £800m across the next 3 academic years to fund 40 additional learning hours for band 5 and T Level students in 16 to 19 education.  These additional 40 hours however, are not for curriculum-based courses, but for activities such as study periods, additional support in mathematics, and wellbeing sessions to support the students and build up their knowledge base after the disruption of the pandemic.

When we first read this news, we were keen to figure out ways that we could help our clients to manage this significant change. One of the stipulations of accepting this funding is that institutions will be expected to produce a short end of year report on the delivery of additional hours.

One of our clients have already been putting Talaxy through it’s paces with their reporting of the additional hours. We worked with them to design a process that allows them to create QR Codes that give their students the ability to sign into a lesson/session independently.

By creating an easy-to-use record of attendance, they are able to monitor their 6th form students taking part in these extra activities, giving them a clear and concise overview over how many students are attending each session, and how often.

What does this mean for your school?

By using Talaxy to monitor student attendance your school will be able to track these extra 40 hours which is a DfE requirement. That’s one box ticked.

It also means that your school can save on staffing costs and resource in the long run as your students will be able to complete their own attendance for each session with the touch of a button. Talaxy gives them the power and ability to be able to scan themselves in to complete a register for their chosen subjects. Another box ticked.

Using QR scanning for study period attendance is also beneficial when an overview on a student’s overall education and output is needed. If a student appears to not be reaching their potential, you can use Talaxy to see how often the student is attending study periods. If the attendance appears low, then the immediate suggestion for improvement would be to put actions in place to encourage the student to attend more study periods.

If you would like more information on how we can help your school to create streamlined, efficient processes for recording your data and creating reports, book in a free introductory call here.