FutureSchool delivers a comprehensive feature-rich system for parents, students, and teachers.
The Smart Diagnostic Tool ™
Courses mapped to specific curriculum Study Plans
The Smart Diagnostic Tool ™
The SDT is the most advanced dynamic diagnostic tool available for analysing student assessments and creating individualised study plans, based specifically around each student’s current learning requirements.
In simple terms the SMART Diagnostic Tool™ is an individual study plan builder.
This feature is the most advanced student diagnostic tool available in the online world of education. Creating a study plan is as simple as answering questions; the questions are weighted, so they start with the easy questions and progressively get more difficult.
The questions cover all topics aligned to your child’s corresponding school year. Once the questions have been answered our SDT analyses what your child already knows and what your child still needs to learn.
The study plan will only consist of lessons where your child showed a weakness or lower understanding of the lesson materials. This is perfectly fine, many of the questions used in creating the study plan may not have even been taught to your child yet. Alternatively, no topics will be included in the study plan if your child has shown a sound understanding of the topic knowledge.
The completed study plan will list all the lessons that your child still needs to learn and none of the material they already know. Study plans are tailored to each child’s current learning, so no two study plans will be the same. We recommend your child creates their study plan as their first lesson.
This can greatly speed up the learning process for each child, only having to contend with topics they need to learn.
At the end of the year there is a yearly examination, very much like the questions used for creating the study plan. This is a great way to reassess what your child has learnt throughout their study plan as well as identify any areas or topics that may still require further study.
Either way, both you and your child will be more than impressed by how much they have learnt as well as how much they have retained during the course.
Study Plans
A personalised study plan is created when a student completes a course assessment. From the results, a tailored list of lessons is provided that has been identified as needing revision.
The student study plan is a specifically created course of interactive lessons that have been individually tailored to your child’s current knowledge of the enrolled course.
The study plan is designed to take the frustration out of learning by identifying what they need to study and removing what they don’t.
Each lesson within the study plan follows our learning methodology which consists of:
Step 1 – Practice Lesson, Step 2 – Video Tutorial and Step 3 – Lesson Examination.
On completion of each lesson examination, your child instantly sees their results and upon passing the exam, they are automatically moved onto the next lesson in sequence to their study plan course curriculum.
As a parent you’re able to view a detailed report on exactly what subjects your child is required to be studying. All results are continually updated after each lesson and presented in easy to read formats within the reports module.
My Lessons
Your child has access to over 2000 lessons, catering for students of all skill levels. This includes both revision and/or extension work. Each lesson is supported by ‘practice exercises’, ‘video tutorials’, and ‘examinations’.
Our learning methodology follows a step by step process: Step 1 Practice, Step 2 Tutorial, Step 3 Examination. This provides a fail-safe learning approach and ensures your child benefits fully from the automated learning system.
Step 1 – Practice
For every lesson there is a step known as Practice. This module or unit of questions is made available simply to expose your child to the new lesson and the type of questions they will be required to attempt. It is also a great way to assess how much your children know about a lesson they may not have been taught yet. During Practice, children get a second attempt at each question if they need to and have the ability to skip questions they may already know.
If a child excels during the practice stage and achieves a high percentage result, the system will advise you to attempt the Examination step without the need to view the Video Tutorial, this can speed up the learning process if the student so requires.
It works the other way too, if the result for the Practice is lower than the child’s set controlling percentage the system will advise the student to review the video tutorial to learn about the topic being attempted.
The video tutorial can be viewed during any question throughout the Practice if your child is having difficulty or does not understand the series of questions being asked. Once the tutorial has been viewed, the child is returned to the same question they were doing.
Step 2 – Video Tutorial
The Video Tutorial is the one on one teaching moment of the lesson. These supporting videos presented by qualified and experienced teachers allow your child to watch and learn about the current topic they are attempting. Your child has total control over the video tutorial, they can replay or skip to any section as many times as they deem necessary to understand the process for the current lesson.
The video tutorials explain in very easy terms what the topic is, how and where it is used, as well as how to use the required techniques and processes to answer the topic questions.
The video tutorial can be used to learn a completely new topic or simply to refresh knowledge your child already knows. Simple Play/Stop/Pause controls and skip forward/back controls allow your child to learn at their own pace. There is no time limit or restriction placed on your child and no peer pressure, they have control of the lesson and the teacher.
Step 3 – Examination
The Examination step is the final step in each lesson. During the exam your child only gets 1 attempt at the questions being asked, very much like an examination situation held at school.
The Examination step is the assessment step in the learning process, where your child gets to test themselves on what they have learnt during the lesson topic.
The results of each exam is recorded and presented for easy viewing within the Reports feature. Examinations can be retried as many times as the child wishes, this only re-enforces what they know and our system encourages each child to achieve the best score they can.
If they excel in their results, either a Gold, Silver or Bronze certificate is awarded to your child, they can print these attractive certificates or simply review them within their Reports. The system will give your child advice based on their results. If they passed the exam by bettering their set controlling percentage, they will be congratulated and then directed to move onto the next lesson.
If the score is less than the set controlling percentage the system will encourage your child to review the video tutorial or reattempt the exam. The controlling percentage, which you as the parent control, can be set to what you believe best suits your child.
We recommend you don’t set the percentage too high as this may frustrate and de-motivate your child, setting the percentage too low doesn’t give your child or you an accurate idea of how they are doing in the overall scheme of things and at what level suits them. The default percentage is set at 75%, let your child attempt a few lessons and then judge for yourself, based from their results, what level you would like to see your child achieve.
Remember to be realistic with the set percentage for each child; you can change the controlling percentage at any time. As your child excels in both results and confidence, you may wish to increase the controlling percentage.
Video Tutorials
Tutorials are written by qualified and experienced teachers using proven techniques that provide for all skill-levels and ensure a sound consolidation of lesson content.
The Video Tutorial is the one-on-one teaching moment of the lesson. These supporting videos presented by qualified and experienced teachers allow your child to watch and learn about the current topic they are attempting. Your child has total control over the video tutorial, they can replay or skip to any section as many times as they deem necessary to understand the process for the current lesson. The video tutorials explain in very easy terms what the topic is, how and where it is used as well as how to use the required techniques and processes to answer the topic questions.
The video tutorial can be used to learn a completely new topic or simply to refresh knowledge your child already knows. Simple play/stop/pause controls and skip forward/back controls allow your child to learn at their own pace. There is no time limit or restriction placed on your child and no peer pressure, they have control of the lesson and the teacher.
Mathematics Worksheets
All our Primary (Elementary) level 1 mathematics materials have printable worksheets, which allows students to further develop their maths skills by completing ‘paper and pen’ examples.
All early levels of mathematics contain printable worksheets which are an addition to the interactive computer lesson. Printable worksheets offers your child continuing development of their written skills as well as formulating answers for exercises related to the selected topic.
Parents have the option to print out or review the answers for the selected worksheets.
English Grammar Information Sheets
All English grammar lessons contain printable information sheets which provide detailed explanations and examples of the content of the lesson. Ideal for additional reference material.
All English grammar lessons are accompanied by information sheets. Information sheets provide further detailed information relating to the selected lesson.
The information sheets are very handy to have available as a revision resource as they contain explanations and examples of the grammatical point being taught.
They are perfect as additional reference material and extension to the lesson.
The information sheets can be printed out or simply reviewed online.
Student monitoring & reporting
Having the ability to monitor your children’s progress is important, because it ensures you have access to the most up-to-date statistical data, keeping you in touch with their current academic level.
No longer do you have to wait for parent/teacher night or school examination results to see if your child requires help, which is most often too late. With our system you are able to track the progress and monitor the outcomes of your child’s learning. Our system identifies all subject matter that requires revision and allows you to view all results from each lesson in detail with well laid out and easy to read reports.
Being available online means you can access this information from the home, office or any computer with internet access at any time.
Study Plan Reporting
The Personal Study plan report shows all the lessons that the SMART Diagnostic Tool™ has identified as needing revision within your child’s course year.
1. The Study Plan displays the amount of lessons understood, lessons to do and the date of the assessment.
2. Topic – name.
3. Title – the lesson name description.
4. Attempted Date – the date the lesson was accessed.
5. The Lesson Status shows if the lesson has been passed, browsed, is incomplete or not attempted.
o Not attempted – indicates the student has not accessed this lesson.
o Browsed – indicates the student has accessed the video tutorial or practice lesson.
o Incomplete – indicates the student has attempted the lesson examination and exited the exam prior to completion.
o Passed – indicates the student has completed the exam and achieved the mastery score associated to the student.
o Below mastery – indicates the student has completed the lesson exam and didn’t achieve the student mastery score.
Summary Reporting
The Summary report gives the statistical data and pie chart information on each student’s enrolled course.
1. Last lesson accessed – indicates the last lesson your child has accessed.
2. Last accessed date – indicates the last date a lesson was accessed.
3. Total number of lessons – this indicates number of lessons within the course.
4. Total number of lessons passed – this indicates the number of lessons passed within the course to date.
5. Total number of lessons attempted – this indicates the number of lessons attempted, including passed, incomplete and below mastery.
6. Total number of incomplete lessons – this indicates the number of lesson exams the student has exited prior to completion.
7. Total number of lessons with below mastery – this indicates the number of lesson exams that were below the set lesson pass mark for the student.
8. Average mark per lesson achieved – this indicates the average score against all passed and below mastery lesson exams.
9. Total certificates lessons achieved – with each lesson exam the student can gain a GOLD, SILVER or BRONZE award which works towards a certificate.
o Gold Certificate lesson = when a student achieves 100%.
o Silver Certificate lesson = when a student achieves between 85% – 99%.
o Bronze Certificate lesson = when a student achieves between 65% – 84%.
Progress Reporting
The Progress report goes into more detail on every lesson in your child’s course.
1. Title – the lesson name description.
2. Date – the date the lesson was accessed.
3. Number of Questions – the number of questions in the exam lesson.
4. Correct – the number of questions in the exam lesson answered correctly.
5. Mark – the end of exam lesson percentage.
6. Status – indicates if the lesson has been passed, browsed, incomplete or not attempted.
7. Certificate – indicates the lesson achievement.
Baseline Report
The Baseline report is created when a student completes their formative assessment that creates their study plan. The baseline report will measure the outcomes from the student’s initial assessment against the last assessment and final course examination.
1. Initial Assessment – this is the result from the first formative assessment that creates the student’s study plan.
2. Last Assessment – your child is able to redo their course assessment at any stage which will update their study plan. These results measure the differences between the Initial Assessment and the Last Assessment and clearly identify the student’s knowledge performance as a percentage.
3. Final exam – this result measures the performance between the Initial Assessment and the Final Exam and clearly identifies the student’s knowledge performance as a percentage.
Formative Assessment
The formative assessment is a final examination mapped to a specific course. It contains a series of questions that are generated to thoroughly assess a student’s retention and understanding of the course materials. A detailed report assists in identifying individual student weaknesses.
Every parent wants to know how their children will perform throughout the year and especially in the end of year school examinations. We have created a Formative Assessment for each course year, e.g. NSW year 6 Mathematics.
The Formative Assessment is an examination made up from a series of randomly generated questions covering every lesson in the course.
The student completes the assessment and from the results, our SMART Diagnostic Tool™ identifies exactly what the student does and does not know, then creates a personalised study plan tailored to each student’s specific learning needs.
Courses mapped to specific curriculum
All courses are mapped to individual state or region curricula. This ensures that each student is covering the materials being taught in the classroom without confusion or frustration.
All courses are mapped to individual state or regional curricula ensuring your child is receiving the correct content and order of lessons to follow.
This allows your child to excel ahead of their peers and in many instances, gain an introduction to subject matter prior to it being taught in the classroom, meaning your child will understand any new content that the teacher is presenting further strengthening their understanding.
Ask a Tutor
Future School’s Ask a tutor feature offers extra help and assurance in the home by providing qualified support and direction for studying families. Through the Ask a tutor messaging system simply ask our tutors any question related to the lessons on our program.
Parents and students have direct and unlimited access to our online tutors. Simply send a question through our ‘Ask a tutor’ email system and one of our qualified teachers will send you a reply.
Both parents and children are able to use the ‘Ask a tutor’ function.
Feel free to ask questions about the Future School lessons or school related issues.
Avatar Builder
The Avatar builder allows children to create their own online identities. With millions of combinations, it’s great fun for everyone!
Create your own online identity, make a character that resembles yourself or simply make an outrageous character.
With almost unlimited combinations, it’s great fun for everyone, change your character whenever you want, make your skin green and your hair pink, put a smile on your face or poke your tongue out, your options will continue to grow as we add more accessories, expressions and hairstyles.
Random Questions
Each lesson has a series of randomly generated questions to ensure that a student is presented with new material if they are required to repeat the same lesson.
Students are required to repeat lessons, whether it’s repetition to consolidate understanding, revision for upcoming exams or simply to refresh their memory.
This is why we have created a function that randomly generates a new set of questions to allow your child to repeat a lesson if and when required.
Each random question is weighted to the same difficulty level so not only does your child get a new question when repeating the lesson but they also get the same weighted question with different values.
Maths Dictionary
Our mathematics dictionary removes any confusion and provides students with an easy method to find the meanings of mathematical terms together with examples where appropriate.
Confusion with mathematical terminology is a constant problem for some students. Our mathematics dictionary covers mathematical terms and explains the definition in detail describing how and where it is used. There is a complete A to Z of mathematical terms and explanations.
These terms are required both by teachers and students and can also help parents understand what a question is actually asking. The dictionary terms and explanations can be printed out if required.
English Glossary
The English Glossary provides a fast reference for many English language terms and often with examples of how they can be used.
The English glossary provides a fast reference to many English terms and grammar definitions with examples of their usage. This is a great tool to remove any confusion about what is being taught.
It is perfect for both native English speakers interested in language and for those students of English as a Second Language (ESL, ESOL, EFL, and EAP).
Fun Activities
When students complete their studies it is important that we provide a release that offers enjoyment and reward. We have added some fun games and activities that motivate and test their knowledge whilst having fun.
We have added some great games and activities that motivate and test the knowledge of students whilst having fun. There are educational action games, word games, puzzles and lots more.