How to... make the most out of Unifrog (UK schools+colleges)
Put these strategies in place to get the most out of Unifrog.
Here are the 4 things every school / college should do to make the most out of Unifrog.
Over the last 10 years we've learnt that if you do these 4 simple things, you will fly!
1. Identifying your goals
The first step: identify the goals you want to accomplish using Unifrog. We’ll then work with you throughout the year to help you achieve these goals.
Some popular goals across our network of 2,800+ schools and colleges include:
- Centralise your CEIAG programme
Using multiple platforms to do similar things can be a nightmare. Use Unifrog for all things related to careers and destinations across KS3, 4 and 5, to make life easier for both students and teachers.
- Achieve the Gatsby Benchmarks
Unifrog supports schools and colleges to achieve and evidence the Gatsby Benchmarks. Using our Interactions tool you’ll be able to set students tasks, give them feedback, and map your programme against the benchmarks - all in one neat space!
- Boost students’ aspirations
Students should be aware of all the different opportunities they could pursue Post 16 or Post 18. Unifrog helps to boost students’ aspirations by making it easy for them to explore their interests, compare every opportunity, then build successful applications.
Pro tip: For many popular Goals (including these 3 above) you can track your progress using relevant Charts, which you can access at the top of your teacher/counselor account homepage. More detail on this below…
2. Developing your plan
The second step: we’ll work alongside you to help you build your own ‘Year Plan’, an annual plan of important sessions to deliver to students, divided by year group.
We have designed a Year Plan that you can customise. Delivering the sessions featured in our Year Plan will help you make the most of the platform, and will help you provide a brilliant, Gatsby Benchmark aligned, careers programme for your students.
All the sessions are plug-and-play teaching resources, taken from the Resources library (where you can find hundreds of other teaching resources - keep going back for more!)
How do you get to our Year Plan? Go to the start page of the Resources library.
To successfully embed your Year Plan, we recommend:
- SLT feed in and communication with all staff
Make sure the relevant members of SLT are involved in building your plan so that it can be effectively implemented and embedded. Once your Year Plan is finished, share it with all relevant colleagues so they know how they will use Unifrog throughout the year and how they fit into the plan.
- A student journey
Create a plan that takes into account how different year groups will be using the platform and what their focuses should be. For example, Year 7s can use the Interests, Personality and Activities tools, and can continue to use the platform right up until they build their applications in Year 13.
- Focussed sessions
Don’t just build ‘general Unifrog time’ into your plan. Think about what you’re trying to achieve, and how our student tools and lesson plans can support you in achieving those goals.
- Deadlines
Set deadlines for students to complete specific tasks on the platform. Our Interactions tool allows you to set tasks, deadlines and reminders to make sure that students are keeping to these deadlines.
- Regular evaluation
You should regularly evaluate your CEIAG programme to ensure the provision is both meaningful and impactful. Via our interactions tool you can send surveys to gather student feedback on the provision you're providing.
3. Tracking your progress
After you’ve set your goals, and you have a plan to achieve them, the third step is to use our Charts to track and evidence impact.
You can use the Charts to help you:
- Identify strengths and weaknesses in your CEIAG programme
- Assess progress towards your goals and the Gatsby Benchmarks
- Evidence the programme you’re delivering to Ofsted, SLT, Governors, or anyone else.
Access Charts at the top of your homepage or by clicking here, and here’s a Charts how-to guide.
Here’s how Charts look when they are pinned on your homepage:
Pro tip: something we really recommend is to save students’ destinations on Unifrog, then use the destinations Charts to analyse where students have ended up, share successes and identify areas for development.
Here’s a short video on how to record students’ destinations, and here’s a How-to guide.
4. Join the community
The fourth step is to become a member of our awesome Unifrog community. There are several ways you can do this:
- Join the Unifrog network Facebook group to connect with our awesome global community of teachers, university admissions staff, and employers. If you’ve got a question, someone will be able to answer it.
- Keep learning how to make the most out of the platform using our teacher webinars; we run them all the time, and save the best ones so you can watch them whenever you like.
- Stay up to date by signing up to our lovingly-produced weekly Gazette (from your homepage, scroll down until you see ‘Newsletters & Social’), made up of news and free resources.
- Follow us on social media be the first to hear about upcoming events, platform updates and new teaching resources:
Unifrog Insights monthly email
Progression-related teaching materials, and insight from the Unifrog platform, emailed to you once a month.