How Bolton School is using technology to help pupils flourish

Bolton School is an independent school educating more than 2,000 students across its Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions. In 2019, Bolton was named the Independent School of the Year and Senior School of the Year at the prestigious Tes Independent School Awards.

We spoke to Nic Ford, Deputy Headteacher at Bolton School, about how they are using CENTURY to challenge their students.

At Bolton School, technology is at the heart of our mission to help all pupils to flourish.

Our approach is not about removing anything human. It is just about using extra tools to do things better than before, while saving students and teachers time and energy to focus on actually learning. We issue every child with an iPad equipped with CENTURY – an intelligent online learning platform – because we believe technology is a valuable tool for learning.

CENTURY gives our pupils the ability to go back over work and receive feedback wherever they are, reducing the distance between teacher and student. They have learning resources available all the time, which of course helps, but a primary benefit is the use of well-evidenced pedagogical practices like recall and interleaving – principles that we know help learning. 

While we use CENTURY mainly for home learning, it is designed to reinforce what happens in the classroom. It encourages students to learn independently, which is crucial for their development.

Overall, I would say that CENTURY is incredibly helpful, saving teachers time and making learning better for students.

CENTURY’s AI engine encourages students to focus on the right areas for them, rather than just things they find easy. It challenges them to work on the things they need to learn and is highly effective at identifying their gaps in knowledge. It encourages what they learn to be embedded in their long-term memory. 

The evidence shows this is crucial for embedding knowledge. CENTURY does that really well by interleaving topics together and recognising where those gaps in knowledge are. 

Our staff have taken to using CENTURY really well. We do not mandate they use it, so staff feel empowered with an extra tool at their disposal should they need it.

I was particularly surprised when I looked at the average scores pupils received on modules. I thought they might be too easy and everyone would be getting 100% – but the average is around 60%, so pupils are clearly being challenged. I am confident that CENTURY is identifying gaps in knowledge.

Learn more here about how independent schools use CENTURY to challenge pupils and embed knowledge.

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