1. Espresso Review: Is it a free or subscription site?
What type of platform/website is it?
Espresso is an educational website that provides teachers with interactive activities to engage pupils particularly in learning English, maths, science, early years and SEN education.
It contains lots of curriculum and cross-curricular resources for pupils and teachers to use.
Teachers can set homework tasks for children to complete online, and learning can be extended beyond the classroom. Parents can reinforce learning at home with curriculum related activities, songs, worksheets and videos.
Is it a free or subscription site?
Ease of use: can a child use Espresso with with no adult input? Is there a management system for keeping children’s progress recorded?
Espresso education is a subscription site, however there are some free resources for teachers to us including ‘coding camp’, ‘literacy resources’, ‘virtual field trips’ and ‘webinars’.
Teachers/schools can request a free trial pack before subscribing to espresso.
Children can use Espresso to complete activities with no adult input, as long as the resources has been set up beforehand. Teachers can tailor activities to ensure that they build on children’s understanding and challenge them according to what they’ve already learnt.
I spent some time searching the website, and could not find any information on management systems for recording progress. However, I did find some information on how each activity links to the National Curriculum, and how teachers can set extension activities using printable resources. This would be useful for differentiation in lessons.
How could this program be used to support any part of the curriculum?
On the Espresso homepage, there is a link to ‘Resources for Curriculum 2014’, which contains resources related to each subject and age range.
Teachers could use this section of the website to ensure that they are selecting resources related to the topic they want to teach. Furthermore, it enables teachers to search for interactive activities for topics that they may not be struggling to teach in an engaging way.
For example, when teaching art and design for KS1, a teacher could introduce the practical activity of working with clay by showing a video about it’s properties and how to work with it.
Basic Functionality: is it a site that children use tools to create or are there activities for the children to progress through?
This website provides subject and age related activities, worksheets, games and videos for children to progress through.
These activities help children to build and consolidate an understanding of different subjects, and could be used as both starter and plenary activities in lessons with the IWB.
What do I like about the website and why?
I like the simple layout of the homepage, which has been separated into subjects and different Key Stages. This makes the website easily navigable for teachers looking to quickly find resources that relate to their short/medium/long term plans.
I also like to the ‘Espresso News Bites’ section of the website as it keeps children up to date with what is going on in the wider world, broadening their understanding and appreciation of other cultures and countries. By following the video with a quiz, children’s understanding will be consolidated.
What could work better and why?
I believe that the information provided for teachers and parents could be made more easily accessible, as parents should be able to find information on extending their child’s learning almost immediately after logging on. Furthermore, some of the videos could do with updating as they may not be entirely relevant to what children are experiencing now.
What age range can it be used for?
This website can be used for children in the foundation stage, KS1 and KS2. There is a link to these age specific resources on the home page, with each subject listed next to each Key Stage.