How Cerys Walker engages students in her lessons at Turner Schools
Thomas Courtley
Education Specialist
Cerys Walker works for Turner Schools—a multi-academy trust in Folkestone that includes eight schools. As the Cross Trust Digital Provision Leader, she trains teachers to use technology in their classrooms to simplify their work and improve the quality of education. Cerys is also a regular science teacher with 14 years of experience. While interviewing her I was struck by her enthusiasm and passion for teaching!
A Passion for Teaching
"I decided to become a teacher because there’s nothing better than witnessing someone learn something new. Coming from a disadvantaged background myself, I particularly love working with kids from similar backgrounds, which is often the case at our schools. While they may not have the socio-economic advantages other kids have, we ensure they have an education.
In my dual roles, I support teachers to improve their workload and help students become more independent and successful learners. I’m glad to still be in the classroom, making a direct impact on students’ lives."
We Improved Student Engagement with LessonUp
"My development focus has been managing changes in our schools to support engagement and formative assessment.
At Folkestone Academy, we have a significant group of students who lack confidence. They often have an 'If I don’t try, I don’t fail' attitude. We use LessonUp to encourage them to challenge themselves without feeling too much pressure. LessonUp promotes a no-opt-out environment where you can see how many learners have or haven’t answered a question. It supports a culture of ‘we all engage and we all participate’.
I've noticed that learners are less intimidated to answer questions digitally. They are more willing to engage because it feels less permanent than answering on paper or in a book."
TIP! Best Practice to Improve Learning Outcomes
"I can honestly say that my year seven class was the first where I fully embraced LessonUp. We used it for every lesson during that particular unit, and students' scores dramatically increased! This was largely due to the ease of identifying mistakes and misconceptions from previous lessons.
When preparing slides for the next lesson, I began by copying the slides they struggled with the most. This approach proved to be an effective way to reinforce learning and review concepts, simplifying assessment for learning. Answering quiz questions takes only 10 to 15 seconds. It's a straightforward solution to ensure quick repetitions at the start of each lesson.
It has become a regular, student-centred activity that almost certainly contributed to the improved learning outcomes."
The best feature of LessonUp is the fact that all students participate
However, here are some of our favourite and most used interactive features at Turner Schools:
Favourite interactive feature
For me, the drag-and-drop question is the true game changer! It is very versatile, and the perfect feature for category-related questions: "Could you label this diagram?"
Very useful interactive feature
In science, we love a mind map to gather ideas and answers! With this feature we are able to sort them in categories together, working on the interactive whiteboard.
Most used interactive feature
The most used feature in our schools is the quiz question. I will often use AI assistant Maia to instantly create practice questions. It has become second nature.
Join Cerys and the 80.000+ teachers who engage their students with LessonUp!
