Dannevirke South School

    Dannevirke South School (Primary) focuses on inspiring growth, passion and success in their tamariki.

    Dannevirke is situated in the Tararua region of the North Island.

    Their ethnicities consist of: NZ European/Pakeha, Māori, Chinese, African, Indian, Cook Islands, Cambodian, British, Sri Lankan, Vietnamese, Japanese, Samoan.

    288 students

    Decile 4

    Aged 5-13

    44 student logins

    Why StepsWeb?

    StepsWeb was first introduced to Dannevirke by an RTLB (Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour) after identifying a small group of students who were achieving below the expected literacy level. After reviewing the programme, the staff felt StepsWeb offered a way for students to develop their literacy skills effectively while also having fun.

    Initially the RTLB funded the computer-based program and the teacher aide (TA) hours to implement it. Seeing the gains the students were making, the school decided to purchase licences on the web-based program and supporting workbooks and games.

    Objectives:

    • Build confidence and restore student self-belief that they can learn.
    • Improve literacy skills for students identified as needing further support.
    • Offer differentiated instruction to students with the help of teaching support staff.

    Key Insights

     

    We ensure students have dedicated time each day to spend on StepsWeb.

     

    Students' certificates are displayed so they can be reminded of their success.

     

    A dedicated space for students to do StepsWeb.

     

     

    When passion is promoted from the teachers the students are more engaged.

     

    "We have been using StepsWeb for over 3 years now and we have seen amazing progress across all year levels."

    Caroline Gyde - Deputy Principal

    activities & certificate

    What worked well

    • Celebrating student success regularly made a huge impact on how students engaged with the program seeing their success daily displayed on the wall so they can visually see their progress.

    • Student’s certificates are given out to students during weekly assemblies as well as printed and put on the wall of success. Medals are also displayed for students to see how many medals they have received to motivate and remind them they are capable of success.

    • Having full access to 8 new computers in a separate computer room encourages students to concentrate and not get easily distracted by their peers.

    • Having dedicated StepsWeb staff, who work alongside the teachers to implement and monitor student progress, is a must. Having staff oversee the students’ progress ensures any errors are quickly picked up and addressed through assigning work from the programme to allow further support in specific areas.

    • Game Day - once a week, if the students have successfully earned 4 gold medals, they are allowed to play the games. Students are competitive when it comes to playing the Blocks game. The teacher aides get involved too!

    Features we like

    • Students enjoy the gamified aspects of the programme, in particular being able to earn medals and certificates for doing well, the animations, and having a personal account with their own login.

    • Ability to check student progression instantly, either as individuals or as a group.

    • Flexibility in purchasing student licences. Licences are not tied to a child for the length of the licences.

    • Seeing students real time errors in their logs and being able to assign work that will help with those specific errors.

    • Ease of adding new/deactivating students, adding students to groups.

    • Educator Portal - very easy to navigate and can instantly see where students are at, medal achievement and progression in the course.

    “StepsWeb helps me to spell my words. It is fun because it’s like I am playing games but I know that I am not really. I love seeing my gold medals and when I pass my level I get a certificate to take home and another one goes up on the wall in the StepsWeb room.”

    Student - year 3

    Success stories

    • Seeing every child on StepsWeb succeed.

    • Students who were previously disengaged in learning reignited their confidence and reengaged due to seeing themselves succeed.

    • Seeing students’ smiles, laughter and being proud of themselves.

    • Dannevirke South School uses StepsWeb Spelling Test as one of the measures for success and have seen consistent gains.

    • Working in small groups – progress is seen in months as the course differentiates content based on the student’s level.

    • The medals are the big draw card and being in a quiet room away from distractions is beneficial to many students.

    Download the full PDF version of the Dannevirke South School so you can see their students' results in detail.

    Student voices

    student - yr6

    Year 6 student

    “Helps me to spell and it’s fun when we have game day.”

    Student - yr 3-1

    Year 3 student

    “I like doing the challenges and the word search is fun. StepsWeb helps me to get my ‘b’ and ‘d’ around the right way.”

     

    Student - yr4

    Year 4 student

    “StepsWeb helps me to learn to spell words and it makes my reading better because I know the words. I like getting the gold medals and putting them on the wall, My golds can go all the way up the wall sometimes.”

    Student - yr 3-2

    Year 3 student

    “StepsWeb is challenging. Game day and playing blocks are fun. I have learnt how to use a keyboard. It also helps with my spelling and concentration.”

    Conclusion

    Conclusion

    The school identified students achieving below the expected literacy level and needed to investigate intervention programs to support these learners to ensure they were not left behind.

    Differentiated instruction to allow students needing extra support in literacy was paramount for students to succeed at their own level and build their confidence to see that they too can achieve. StepsWeb has been the program to achieve this and Dannevirke South School will continue to use StepsWeb with small groups moving forward.

     

    Caroline Gyde - Deputy Principal

    “We have been using StepsWeb for over 3 years now and we have seen amazing progress across all year levels.  We have two very committed teacher aides who run the programme and track student progress and achievement closely.  They have an excellent relationship with the children and this certainly has helped.  The students are excited to be able to track their progress and always like to receive the certificates when they finish a level.  We have seen accelerated progress for the majority of students who are selected for the programme. 

    It is lovely to see the learners’ self-esteem grow and their drive to achieve. It is important to use the whole programme including the workbooks and games, especially for the neurodiverse children.  

    StepsWeb has an amazing support network and are very easy to work with. As a result of the children’s enthusiasm and the progress we are seeing, we will continue to use StepsWeb.”

     

    Happy Parents

    Happy Teachers

     

    Happy Learners

     

    “The main thing that I just love about StepsWeb is that the students think that they are playing ‘games’ but they are actually learning!!

    Also it doesn’t matter what level the students are on, the program looks the same. So for the students, there is no discrimination between the levels.”

    Phillipa Parfitt - Lead Teacher Aide

    Advice

    Advice from StepsWeb

    Structured Course - A logical literacy progression for every learner in your class. No more reinventing the wheel – or setting and marking spelling tests! Easily teach and monitor learners working at their own individual levels – one of the most important ways to stop struggling learners from falling through the gaps.


    Use existing wordlists or customise your own - Reinforce any phonic pattern, rule or a specific topic you are covering in class - in any alphabetic language! StepsWeb will create a range of online and printable reinforcement - even for lists you create yourself!


    Core literacy skills - Already built into the Course and supporting activities for younger or struggling learners: phonological awareness, phonic knowledge and skills, reading fluency, days and months, and memory skills. Ideal for dyslexic learners.


    Extension learners - As well as the higher Course levels, your more advanced learners can work through word study materials. Homophones, prefixes and suffixes, word roots, vocabulary – and much more!

    Supporting Teachers

    StepsWeb makes it easy to manage your budget - Cost-effective and flexible. As well as giving you extensive diagnostic information about your learners, your educator login enables you to add student licences at any point (charged pro-rata for remaining time on your licence). You can also deactivate or delete students and re-allocate their licence to a different student.

    Support and training - Online PD, webinars and Support Site articles will help you get familiar with StepsWeb, but Zoom training can easily be arranged. Full technical support is available, of course, but you can also consult our leading education experts for specific advice if necessary.

    Subscribe to our newsletters - Keep in the loop on new information and updates. We think you’ll be amazed at some of the developments still to come!
     


    StepsWeb is suitable for:

    Chromebooks

    Windows & Mac

    Tablets - Andriod & IOS