 Hello everybody, Ross here at Teacher Talker. Thank you for joining me. I am very excited to share with you a platform that will give you as a teacher or a school or potentially a parent access to over 900 reading books. I'm delighted to be joined by a couple of teachers who are already using the platform and Chanel Fusco from Pickettale who's gonna talk to us about the platform also. Just before I bring them in and ask them to introduce themselves, just for people watching, if you're watching on Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, if you are logged in, you can leave a comment, you can post some questions to our guests and I can put these on the screen for you and you can interact with our guests. Otherwise, feel free just to tune in and listen to what we have to say and find out how you can access lots and lots of reading books. Now I know Pickettale very well. It's a free reading tool but I'm gonna let you hear from some teachers who've just started to use this platform. So I'm gonna bring in everyone. Here we go. Let's see how this works. We're using the fancy piece of software. Here we all go. And can I get you to introduce yourself to begin with, please? So I'm Chanel Fusco. I'm the UK Center Director at Pickettale and essentially, you know, my role is to ensure that kids across the country get access to as many books as possible in the school setting. There you go. Thank you, Chanel. And Katie, over to you. Yeah, my name's Katie Eden. I'm a primary assistant head based in York and I'm also the reading and phonics leader at my school. So that's why I've been heavily involved with Launching Pickettale in my school and also supporting schools across our Academy Trust too. You mentioned before we came online, Katie, you had 23 schools, did you say? Yeah, there's 24 schools in our Academy Trust. Okay, lovely. And to Karen. Karen, could you introduce yourself to everyone and tell everyone what you did? Hi, everyone. My name's Karen Manda. I work at Pioneer Special Needs School in Basildon. I'm the assistant vice principal there and I'm the lead for reading. Thank you, Karen. And can I come back to you, Karen? How is COVID at the moment? Staff absence as pupils but give people the general synopsis from your perspective? So COVID, so I just think we're handling it really well at our school. We don't have many cases at all due to Alps being a special school. We didn't shut down during the pandemic or anything like that. We remained open. And yes, we're managing it really well with very few cases in our school. Thank you. And Katie, how's the mood? Yes, there's been lots of challenges with COVID as I'm sure everybody who works in the schools know. We're still dealing with staff shortages and things like that, which does have an impact on how many adults we have in the school to be able to read with children and support children with who have maybe perhaps fallen behind in their reading and phonics. But as Karen said, we've just got to, we're just pulling together as a team and trying to do the best we can in the difficult circumstances. And just a follow up question, Katie, in terms of the kind of disadvantage challenge that your school in particular has rather than the cross the trust. Are those messages, the messages we hear across the nation about COVID catch up and things like that, is that a similar story for you two? Yes, I would say so. Definitely for us as a school with the area of social deprivation that we serve, the challenges of COVID we had with disengagement with remote learning and a lack of devices at home, that was a real struggle for us. We were able to provide devices for children at home but it did take time to get those things set up. And often we found our parents are not as confident to use Chromebooks and things like that. So that's definitely been a challenge. We did find with our disadvantaged children that those who attended school made really good progress in those small groups. But those disadvantaged children who were at home during lockdown, they didn't make so much progress. So it's been really interesting to watch as we try and make those steps forward. And I guess, Piccatelle has obviously been one of many different solutions that you can use. Rather than me give the answers or Chanel, Karen, can I come to you? Can you tell the world what is Piccatelle from at least your understanding today and just tell us how you discovered it, how long you've been using it? So we've only just kind of just been introduced to it really before Christmas. It's something that I think for our children, especially as they love the iPads, technology, everything like that, that I think, and reading is a real emphasis as well at the moment in our school. So we're just at the moment, we're just sort of getting to know it, getting to use it. And it's just a digital way of the children learning through books with the questions as well. The question is throughout means we can work on their understanding of what they've read, which really helps us as well with our children because comprehension's a big thing that we focus on. And then access to parents, we're hoping to start that as well where the parents will be able to make it accessible. They'll be using that after our February half term. So a relatively new user. Now, my life as a teacher, there's always, software never goes according to plan at the beginning. There's always a training issue and all those types of things. Was it a straightforward thing to use? Yes, definitely it's not been. We had a few problems at first. We've actually getting it onto the iPads, but that's nothing to do with Pick-A-Tail. I think that was just our end. Yeah, so that was a bit of a hold up, but yeah, definitely. And you know, Shana's always at the end of the line to get in touch with if we've got any problems. Fantastic. Katie, tell us a little bit about your Pick-A-Tail journey. Yes. So it was really useful to meet with Shana and Ramsey from Pick-A-Tail as well, who talked us through how to use the platform in a really easy way. So that was fantastic. Before I then rolled it out to our staff and children here. We've also had great feedback from other schools in the academy where Ramsey from Pick-A-Tail has also delivered training to their staff in school virtually. So that's been really helpful to get set up as well. As Karen said, it was, we did have to get the Pick-A-Tail downloaded onto our devices before we could use them. But since we've had them on the devices, it's been really easy to use. It's been a great range of books that complements the reading resources that we already have in our schools. We found the phonics linked quizzes and additional support really fantastic for the children. They're engaged with the platform and it's really helped them to be engaged with their reading. Fantastic. I'm gonna come back to you both in terms of what do you see as a teacher on your side in terms of data or admin dashboard type stuff. But I'm gonna bring Chanel in here. Chanel, can you give us a little background story as to what Pick-A-Tail is, how it came to be, number of users, that type of stuff? Yeah, so Pick-A-Tail born out of Norway originally and been going there for six, seven years. We're in Denmark as well and we're in the UK. So we've been in the UK for just under a year now. We've got 6,000 users, over 6,000 teachers have registered for the platform. A number of multi-academy trusters while they're using us, as Karen said as well. Yeah, and essentially what we're here to do is to make reading fun and engaging for kids. We want to be able to support the off-dead reading for pleasure framework and that's what Pick-A-Tail enables us to do. It's got the audio generation feature, which is great for disadvantaged children or children that need to capture or children that English isn't their first language either. And we support independent reading from Key State 1 and 2. So we're not gonna do, we're just on the talking heads here today. We're not doing any kind of demos or showing people on the screen, but that audio style is a bit of a kind of karaoke text on the screen and it follows the word. You can speed it or slow it down. Yeah, it's really good as well. So, you know, you can turn that feature off if the child really wants to independently read that book, but they can turn it on as well. It's in the human voice as well, which is great. And also on the actual platform, the child, when they're independently reading can click on pictures and on text and that will be sounded out for the child as well. Fantastic. Now I'm gonna bring Katie and Karen back in. I wanna unpick, you know, life as a teacher, you're busy as it is anyway, a bit of technology helps and engages kids, but what do you see as a teacher logging in, you know, dashboard, how do you know if Ross is reading the right books, et cetera, et cetera? So let me start with Katie and then I'll bring Karen in. Yeah, so what I find really useful is that you can group the children on the platform so that then you can allocate the books that are best suited to each child or each group of children and being able to put them in groups means that you can do that really easily. I can then see who's engaging with the platform at home and who's managing to get through the books. And then with the quizzes, you can see if that's at the right level for that child. I also, one of the reasons why we really like picketels that we also have an enhanced resource provision for SEND children and the audio book style feature of picketail is really great for them. So that's another thing that we found really useful. And is that literally for you as a teacher, a click of a button to allocate specific books to students? Yeah, so I can narrow down the search to the right level. I can then look for books that fit in with our teaching. Perhaps we're doing a particular topic and I can find books that would link to that or link to the children's particular interests. And then I can easily just click the drop down and select group and assign that book to that group of children. I can set a week or a few weeks for them to read it or less time if you want to. And still playing naive here. Can the students select their own books as part of the software or are you literally tailoring the books to your students as a teacher, Katie? Oh, sorry, I thought Chanel was going to answer that one. And then I thought, well, what about Chanel? Chanel's the expert. Chanel? Yeah, so when the kids in the platform it enables them after the teachers set the assignment they're already in there. So then the child can go off and start reading the pleasure. They have the same feature as the teacher view would have. So they can go by levels, categories as well. So let's say, you know, it's sports really interesting. And that's when we start to really see this reading for pleasure journey. Okay, thank you for clarifying that. Harry, can I bring you in here? Can we go under kind of your school's unique setting and tell us, you know, how do you deploy those reading resources? How have you been using it with your students, et cetera? And I guess from that dashboard side as Katie's already alluded to you'll be using it the same way. But how does it differ to work in a special school? So for us, I think the big part with the selling point for Picotown for us was about the reading for pleasure. It's actually not about this setting. And, you know, even though that's a part of it we really want to promote that this is something you can do because you enjoy it. And for a passion for books and that storybook language, promoting all that communication is so important for our children. So it's nice that we're able to give them the iPads with the stories so that they can look at the pictures initially on their own. And then when we're working with them or pick on the text click on certain words for them to hear those words hearing them over and over and over again. And then they can work with that adult after having the, I'm going to look through this because with books sometimes they can be a bit fiddly. And, you know, so that's why it really helps with us. And, you know, going back to that issue about the devices how much of it was a fiddle to, you know, download the app or the software? Was it a bit of a lavory? No, well, we're very lucky because we're in an Academy Trust, you know like the IT guys do it for us. And at the beginning it was but I think that's nothing to do with Picotown that was just us trying to download onto our app. Is it something you're using on a daily basis at the moment? Well, as I said, we've just introduced it into our school. So we are going forward like using it more and some of our groups as well we're going to start doing more guided reading sessions. So that will be really good where children around are using the set looking at the same book with their teacher focusing on certain pages, things like that. So that'll be really good going for you. Once you get into it, you've got a wide range of potential uses across the school, haven't you? Katie, could you give us any kind of your trust insights on how Picotown's been used across your organization? Yeah, so it's been used in lots of different ways really. One school has initially rolled it out in year six and they're finding that that's really great for as Karen said, reading for pleasure. A lot of the focus at the moment is on children being able to retain information and things. So the quizzes at the end of the books that's a really good way for children to be able to remember things. So we found that that's been really helpful. Yes, another school has said it's a fantastic resource that has captivated the children. Great feedback from children and staff and they've said that it's a really modern way to read for pleasure. And another school has really liked the phonics linked quizzes as well to support children who require further support. And then they've just suggested that perhaps it would be great if it could link to like an MIS system rather than adding each child manually. But actually for us, Picotown set up all our children before us, so it was really easy. We found that to be really straightforward. So I'm gonna push you a bit further. We know technology can be a lifesaver in some respects, but sometimes it can be a bit of a workload issue. Are there any workload issues associated, Katie, using it? Not that I've found. There was just one occasion where I had, the platform was down basically, which was a bit tricky, but again, that happens, doesn't it? It's not onerous at all to do it. The only thing as well, because we're all starting new phonics schemes because you have to have full fidelity to the scheme we're just being really wary about the phonics books being matched to the children's ability and having full fidelity to our scheme. So we're just making sure that we're really specific about whether the children are using them as a sharing book or whether they can access it independently with their phonics knowledge. And Karen, any, obviously they're sorting out the apps is obviously a workload thing, but day-to-day in the classroom, is it a seamless process? Yeah, it's fine. I mean, the other thing as well, shout out to the team at Picotown, because they understood with our children, it's very hard for them to come up with their own usernames and passwords and things to remember. You know, they added an extra part where we could make up our children's usernames and their passwords, so they did that for us as well. So it was really simple. What's the potential Karen for, you know, a school maybe engaging their parents with this? What kind of things are you kind of, I know you're a new user, but what kind of things are you thinking about potentially doing? So we use something as well called Tapestry, which is an online journal. So our parents are able to see what their children are doing at home. So we'll use Tapestry to promote how we use it in school and that they can do that at home as well. And my understanding is there's a much wider range of books that, right, Chanel for parents to choose at home. Yeah, so we've got the consumer side as well that parents can access, and that gives you audio books, bedtime stories, bookings, it's endless. There's 1,700 titles on there, and then the parent gets their own dashboard as well. Thank you, Chanel. And Katie, you mentioned earlier about all the different, kind of, you know, the phonics delivery and all the different things that you might use the software for, but in terms of engaging parents more, perhaps in different ways, what kind of ideas of the schools across your cross kind of starting to talk about? Well, reading at home is definitely something for my academy that is a real challenge. And things like this, where the children can come home and be excited to show their parents something, if they have the devices, is really, really helpful. So any kind of online platform that can engage the children, which would then help them to motivate their parents to read with them, is really helpful for us. Where, across the academy, sending out logins for all the children at home, so that they can access at home. And where needs be, we can send home Chromebooks and things if children don't have the devices at home. And Chanel, I'm going to ask a silly question. Can I access it on my phone, as well as an iPad? Yeah, you can. And an Android as well. And an iPad. Yeah. Yeah. So give us an idea of some of the kind of things that you, you know, things that you're working on or where you see Pick-A-Tail potential going in the future. Yeah, so we've totally addressed the onboarding side of things. So in the next two weeks, we're going to be making it so much easier so then schools can just literally drag and drop all their pupil data into there. We are looking into, you know, some sort of single sign-on, MIS, to make that easier as well. Commissioning some new content. We are listening to teachers, you know, like yourselves as well, saying, you know, we need additional phonics or we need more fiction. So we're definitely looking into that as well. Okay, so lots of excitement plans. Now, Katie and Karen, I'm going to actually tell me a little story about something that has been quite a nice little magical moment at school that you've seen a child engage with. Before I do, just for people watching live, if you want to leave a comment, please log into wherever you're watching from and you can leave a question and pose it to our guests. We're not going to be here for long and we're not showing you any slides or any demos. I've already put the link in the chat box here. I'll also circulate that later today to people that have signed up to watch. So Karen, can I come back to you please? Have you got a nice memorable moment over the last few weeks since you've been using Piccadale where you've seen a student have maybe a little wow moment about a book that they've been engaging with? So I just love that our children will suddenly start using, we've had one young man who's just started to use some of the language, storybook language, you know, just in context of, they'll say their name, but they'll put it in that third person. Was angry or, you know, and it's just lovely hearing that, that they're picking up on that language. But let's not forget books are also, you know, a huge thing in that book. So it's having all those different options that I think is really good. Sure, and Katie, how about you? What's touched you recently? Well, I think it was really nice this week when we've shared with the children about the Winter Olympics and things, and then a child asked me if they could read a particular book on Piccadale that linked to that. It was really nice to see them actually saying, can I use my free time to go on Piccadale and learn more about this through those books? That's a great way, isn't it? Yeah, and then with the children wanting to know the words that they can't work out, being able to click on it, that independence of thinking, I don't have to ask a teacher, I can do this. And that self-belief, which is something that we really want to use. You know, I'm just throwing lots of different questions that you have. How do you work out if you've selected the right book? How do you know if Piccadale have got the level of the book right, that when you allocate it to Ross, who's got a reading age of 8.4, that it's the right benchmark? Can you trust that data? Should it all give us an official answer in a moment? But, Katie, how have you worked that out already? As far as I've seen so far, me using my teacher judgment to allocate the books appropriately, it's worked really well. And if there's been some challenging vocabulary in there, then we've had some really interesting discussions as well. So as far as I've seen so far, it's definitely working well. Thank you. Karen, how about you in a special context? So for us, as I said before, it is about that reading for pleasure. So it's been them hearing that story. So it's not really about them being able to read. Not all our children would be able to do that. So it's just a pleasure part for us. But we are going to be, I believe, working with Chanel and the team more for special needs and what we can do to promote that. So I need something going forward of how we can do that. For example, maybe with some of the voices of how they read the stories, more expressive, would be amazing for us. That's what the sorts of things our children need. So I know we're working with them going ahead. And Chanel, the technical answer might be? Yes, so we use a LXL levelling system. But then we've got a benchmarking against the Oxford. And it's within the dashboard as well. We give a clear benchmark of that. But we do, like Kate said, we do ask teachers to use their own judgment. They know their own pupils. But also what Karen said is really, really interesting because once a child is immersing themselves in that reading journey, they can pick a level six, seven book if they're a level two and just go for it because we've got the innovation feature that just helps support them along the way. Now I've got a question here for you, Chanel, that's coming from Jadida. Let me put it on the screen for you there. Can families use it without going through a skill? Yes, Jadida. We have got a consumer app. It's the Pink Parrot. And if you just go through that section, families can pay £5.99 a month on a subscription and get the full premium content. We've got Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, content on there that really, really engages... I will just put that link on the screen for you here. Jadida, here it comes up. So if you click on... Well, you can't click on that, apologies. But if you type that in on your browser, you should be able to find it. And we're talking to a lot of schools about the premium content of Disney and Marvel, trying to see if that will engage kids in school. And a lot of schools have said, yes, so we're just working on how we introduce that into the school platform. I think it's important to clarify, we're talking about the free app at the moment, the software, and there's about 900 books available at the moment, isn't there? Yeah, yeah. Can that app push you a bit further? How many words are we talking about there? Sorry? How many words in all those books are we not got that data? That data off the top of my head. But if I look at like a level four book, up to 350 words in that book. Okay, so a large body of resources available for everyone to use. So, sorry, how do you go? Yeah, the interesting thing, I don't know if you have both families, Katie and Karen, is that actually at home, families, so especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds or kids English, they're a different language, it's really supporting the wider family. I don't know if you guys have heard that coming through from your schools. Nope? Katie? Yeah, well it's nice that siblings can read together because we have a lot of older siblings that like to read with younger ones and they feel a real sense of achievement when they've supported their younger siblings. So definitely from our point of view, that's the case. Now we're talking about reading, I would be a fool not to ask you both what you're reading for pleasure. So Karen, can I start with you? What's on your reading table at the moment? How bad is it? Do you know what I've been reading for three weeks and I can't remember the name. That's terrible, isn't it? That is terrible, yeah, it's terrible. But I do try and read, it's difficult. It should be probably an educational book, but it's not. I'm currently reading The Wizards of Once. There's three books, I'm reading it with year four because they asked me for some new books. So I'd like to keep up with them so that we can chat about it. And Chanel, how about yourself? I'm reading a Tony Robbins book called Life Force. Life Force? Not yet, but on Audible. Okay, yeah, I've always asked the question and there's an Audible book reading it is. I'm reading Inventing Ourself by Professor Sarah Jane Blakemore, the one of the world's leading experts on the teenage brain, which is interesting. So I'm gonna start to wrap things up for everyone here. If there's anybody still watching who wants to pose a question, I know it's after school hours and I'm very conscious that Karen and Kate have had a full working day with lots of kids around their toes and I've grabbed them from our precious opportunity just to unpick their brains about how they use Pickertale. So last chance for people posing any questions. Chanel, any concluding thoughts on Pickertale and why, you know, why schools that aren't aware of Pickertale should use this free resource? I think Karen and Kate have given us some great comments. I mean, it's just super simple as a platform. We've tried to make it as easy as possible to save teachers time, to give kids so much content readily available for free on demand to access anywhere at any time. And, you know, back to this reading for Pleasure Piece, it's really important because there's a business that we feed into this and we're able to give schools the opportunity to... And I guess it's worth, you know, mentioning, you know, although it's lovely to pick up a physical book, you know, we can't ignore the digital era and, you know, the use of iPads and things on our phone. And, you know, I didn't have my first mobile phone until I was 25 years old. So our children are being born with mobile phones today. So it's something that we have to consider, yes, the mobile phone issue in schools, but at least access to technology and all these different resources is a great idea. So, Katie, Karen, could you give us three or four words or a sentence? Why do you think a school watching should use Pickertale? What do you think, Katie? Well, I think that the fact that it's free is a real positive for schools, definitely, but also it's fun and engaging. And like you say, it's a modern way for reading for pleasure. There you go. And to Karen, please. And for me, it's because it's accessible for all. You know, we can all use it. Yeah. And particularly from your context, I look forward to seeing how Pickertale evolves to support all our children. Can I thank you both for your precious time? We've kept things very short and succinct. I think that's all we need to do. I know you're both very busy people. And from me, I just thank you both for working on the front line and keeping our kids happy and safe, et cetera. So thank you, Katie. Thank you, Karen. Just for people watching, so please check out pickertale.co.uk. You've got your family's option. You've got your school's option. And to thank you also to Chanel for her expertise and for this fabulous tool that all our families can benefit from. My name's Ross. Thank you for watching. And I shall hope to see you soon. Keep safe. Bye for now. Bye, everyone. Thank you very much.