Other pages:
STRATEGIC IMPLEMENTATION – Strategic implementation to ensure success
GROUPS – Family Partnerships – Using Showbie ‘Groups’ to support Family Partnerships
GROUPS – Digital Floor Book – Using Showbie ‘Groups’ to support use of Floor books
CLASSES – Learning Journeys – Using Showbie ‘Classes’ as a digital learning journey
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS– step by step solutions
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Showbie
– Strategic Implementation
(Getting started with Showbie- Inspire Showbie Training, May 2022)
Best Practice
- Careful consideration must be made before deciding whether Showbie is right for your setting. Does it fit with the strategic direction of the setting, school and team in terms of the annual improvement plan?
- Showbie offers many different functions and it is important to establish which functions are going to be used by your setting and for what purpose.
- Showbie can be used as a learning tool with children as active contributors, documenting learning and evidencing next steps. Parents can be invited to engage in this or it can be set up as purely a setting/home communication tool for notices and alerts.
- It is important that all practitioners understand how to use the functions on Showbie and use it consistently across the team.
- When moving to a digital Learning Journals, consider the content and key features of your existing paper journals. High quality observations must be maintained so practitioners should establish a consistent method and key features to include when recording digital observations.
- When moving to a digital platform for learning journals, consider whether a paper scrapbook or folder will still be used for children to store their work and creations. What will be the purpose of the paper version? What is its value to learners?
- Leadership should quality assure and moderate content on Showbie for consistency and scaffold support for practitioners to use it confidently.
- The use of Showbie should be introduced to parents at the start of each session, with expectations and guidance for parents clearly defined and explained.
- It is good practice to populate the Groups or Classes/Assignments for several weeks/months before sharing with parents to ensure that there is something there for them to see when they initially sign in
- Settings should consider and make effective use of a trial period with a small group of parents.
- Setting should gather feedback from parents on the use of Showbie to find out about their experience of using it. What has been the benefits, challenges and impact on wellbeing and learning?
- Once feedback has been gathered, setting should collate information and plan how to act on its receipt. What is working well? What could be improved further?
Ways we can do this:
- Meet as a team to discuss the possible implementation of Showbie. Why are you considering Showbie? How will be benefit learners in your setting?
- Create a clear rationale about why Showbie should be implemented, involving practitioners and senior leaders.
- Met as a team to discuss whether the groups or classes function would best meet your settings needs. Groups is ideal to develop family partnerships and communicate to parents in real time about notices, newsletters or whole class experiences. The Classes function is more suitable for use as a digital learning space for recording individual learning achievements and to evidence experiences.
- Establish expectations and guidelines about how Showbie will be used and the content that is going to be included. How often will practitioners be expected to post to Showbie and what format will observations take. This could involve displaying an observations sheet template to put on the wall for practitioners to follow when they are posting.
- Consider the use of emoji’s and what benefits their use will be to practitioners, children and parents. Establish a list of emojis your setting plans to use and their definition. Have these displayed or shared digitally so all practitioners have access to them to ensure consistent approach.
- Consider designating one person to lead on Showbie developments and to support practitioners to develop knowledge and confidence in using it.
- Writing a Showbie strategy which sets out all of these agreements, can ensure consistency and provide a reference to new members joining a team.
- An information sheet or video might be useful so new parents joining at different points of the year can receive the same level of information.
- Feedback from parents could take place following a mini trial with a small numbers of parents or at the end of the first term. The use of an electronic forms link sent via Showbie might be an effective method providing information about engagement and parental view about the content on their child’s Showbie account.
Additional Points to Consider
Practitioners and parent confidence should be considered and support put in place to develop knowledge and experience appropriate for both groups to individuals. A designated person could be nominated to support practitioners and parent workshops might be offered if parents are having difficulty accessing or engaging with Showbie.
iPad Availability & connectivity does vary from setting to setting. Contact with the Early Years Inspire Team or CGI if you need support in this area. Where shared iPads are being used, it is possible to log into one account through the Showbie app, and into another account through the Showbie website, allowing two practitioners to use one device.
There will be varying family circumstances within a setting and consideration must be given to how to facilitate the inclusive use of Showbie by families. For example, how will you introduce Showbie to EAL (English as an Additional Language) families (see these videos on how to use iPad apps & features for translation purposes).
Parental consent for Showbie is now included in the enrolment forms under general consent, so settings do not require additional consent specifically for Showbie. However, some settings might have one or two parents who have been hesitant about agreeing to use Showbie because of security reasons. Settings might need to give parents details on the security of this to reassure them. Showbie is a platform for learning, as much as a floorbook and learning journey – it stores the photos in a much more secure location, it’s not part of the internet. If parents have any specific security concerns, or you need support or information on this, contact the Early Years Inspire Team.
Showbie should simply enhance the current practice, with regards to a setting’s family partnerships. Practitioners should continue with all the other great stuff that you do to support family partnerships, e.g. feedback at the door, with stay & play sessions, home-visits before the child starts, information evenings in-person, parents sharing skills in the setting, parent-helpers for excursions.
