Manchester Grammar School

"Unifrog helps generate those useful conversations about why a student hasn’t finished their Personal Statement, or how their university shortlisting is going."

Patrick Thom, Head of Sixth Form

 

The need

“Before using Unifrog we had a few frustrations with how we managed the UK university application process, for example we managed Personal statements and References using different systems, which wasn’t very efficient.

In addition students would use various sources for their research into which university courses they would apply to - both online and in books, and sometimes of dubious quality - and so with some students, we would see their final 5 courses for the first time when students came to filling out their UCAS form.

When I first saw Unifrog I was immediately impressed by how the platform could streamline the UK university application process, and bring each constituent part of it into one place.

As a manager, Unifrog gives me a bird’s eye view of where all my students have got to in the process, as well as detail for each student. This allows me to intervene and have good quality guidance conversations with students who need it, before it’s too late."

 

Student launch

"The launch for students was very good, although it was unfortunate that we waited until November to invest in Unifrog because it pushed the launch to the start of the new term in January. Our Unifrog Area Manager, Matthew, met all of Year 12 over two days, and his demonstrations went really well. They engaged with it straight away and found Unifrog intuitive.

Now that me and my colleagues have a decent grasp of the platform we could run the launch to our new cohort of students ourselves. I am very keen to get the new year group started much earlier in the year."

 

Competencies

"The late launch meant that our focus was very much on looking at university courses, and many didn’t use the Competencies tool. In the new school year we want to start using Unifrog from September, and for the first term focus initially on the Competencies tool.

I love how the Competencies tool is split into different sections covering skills like independence, leadership, and so on, because it really makes the students reflect on their activities and what they’ve gained from them. I think the tool will be really useful when it comes to students writing their Personal Statements."

 

Staff engagement

"Our Sixth Form tutors use Unifrog to monitor what their students are doing, as well as what they aren’t, which is where the traffic light system on the Teacher manage page is particularly helpful.

They have found it very useful to be able to log on from anywhere and see instantly where their students have got to in the application process. Unifrog helps generate those useful conversations about why a student hasn’t finished their Personal Statement, or how their university shortlisting is going.

The other staff members who get the most use from Unifrog are the subject teachers who need to write references. Subject References used to be entered into a cumbersome and inflexible school system. Now all in one place subject reference writers can see what other teachers are saying about a particular student, and take a look at what the student in question’s plans are. There are also other neat features like being able to add comments on other people’s referenes. This makes for a more efficient process, happier colleagues, and better Subject References!