To: All Staff

From: JG
Subject: SAM Learning GO!
Date: 11.10.09

The award winning elearning tool SAM Learning has undergone

(long awaited) changes to its interface and functionality, due
largely to a recent change in management. Essentially it has
merged its traditional learning environment 'SAM Learning'
with 'SAM Learning PLUS'. This means that as from September
of this year, all schools subscribing to SAM Learning now get all
the benefits that SAM PLUS schools gained, and more...

SAM Learning GO! is the start of a new era. Growing and

developing over the coming months, the service remains
focused on encouraging the energy and enthusiasm of students, enabling them to learn
online throughout the year, not just in the weeks before exams.

'Teachers will be encouraged to become engaged as contributors to SAM

Learning Go! By helping to form a worldwide community of exemplary
classroom practice, we hope to become the biggest and best worldwide provider
of online student-driven learning. Over the next two years we are committing
£3,000,000.00 to a new product development and service improvements; we
have already redeveloped our software platform.'

NEW Content: (Sep 09)

When it comes to subject content, SAM Learning GO! offers students and teachers an
unrivalled range of coverage for Key Stage 3 and GCSE. Authored by experienced
subject specialists and classroom practitioners, all activities and test practices are of the
highest standard.

Committed to further improving accessibility to these resources, SAM Learning Go!

features enhanced menu structures with exam board options, widening the range of
question types beyond our tried-and-tested drag-and-drop question style.
Moving from Java to Flash, our activities will offer greater opportunity for more
interactivity, visual contexts and the use of sound and other media. Content is kept up
to date in a continuous programme of maintenance and improvement.

The SAM Learning GO! Feedback Service provides teachers with the opportunity to put
forward their ideas and suggestions to the development process.
SAM Learning GO! currently offers:
• Over 50,000 topic questions, across over 30 KS3 and GCSE subjects.
• Over 20,000 exam-style questions.
• All revise activities converted from Java to Flash.

The September release includes over 126 hours of new content for the GCSE 2009
specification, including:

GCSE
• Business Studies: 20 hours
• Child Development:19 hours
• English Literature: 9 hours
 • French Improve: 11 hours
• Geography: 4 hours
• German: 4 hours
• Health and Social Care: 9 hours
• History: 9 hours
• History Schools Project: 8 hours
• PE: 9 hours
• RE: 4 hours
KS3
• Geography: 8 hours
• RE: 12 hours
 Teachers can validate their professional
judgement with our APP reporting.
Included as part of the SAM Learning
GO!subscription it really adds value
because it enables teachers to track
individual students and produce
detailed assessment reports at learner
and class level. Teachers are able to provide reliable evidence
of students’ levels and progress as and when it is required.

• Dedicated KS3 activities designed specifically for APP provide a detailed evidence
trail of each student’s achievement level across the assessment focuses.
• Intuitive reporting functions.
• With full editing capabilities, the APP evidence provides an invaluable
contribution towards each student portfolio.

Programme Schedule For KS3 Maths and Science

• November 2009: Five introductory activities for each subject

• January 2010: Approximately 20 activities for each subject
• March 2010: Full coverage of Maths and Science
• June 2010: Additional versions of all activities delivered
©
Maths Skills Grid
©
November 2009 – Our Maths Skills Grid underpins the DCSF Assessment Guidelines
and provides the structure for our KS3 Maths reporting. This means that skill level
reporting is available for each student identifying which skills within a criterion have
been achieved.
More Motivating, More Exciting!
Students should be switched on. All they require is a little direction and
encouragement. SAM Learning GO! gives them just that, with their own unique
avatar, a stylish virtual environment in which to progress and compete with their
classmates.

Students know that they have to study and we can help them achieve exam success by
giving them direction and purpose. The virtual world puts learners on track by offering
best practice in student engagement, keeping students interested and excited about
learning and progression.

Used in over 50% of the UK’s state secondary schools, SAM Learning is the market
leader in online revision and exam practice for KS3 and GCSE. Independently proven to
be highly effective, it has helped in raising attainment for over 3.4 million students over
the last seven years. Our award-winning approach to online personalised learning,
increases confidence and consolidates learning. Accessible to students out of school
hours, the service leads the way in student-driven learning.

Our new service, SAM Learning GO!, is the start of a new era in online learning.
Growing and developing over the coming months, the service remains focused on
encouraging the energy and enthusiasm of students, enabling them to learn online
throughout the year, not just in the weeks before exams.

Teachers will be able to validate their professional judgement on assessment with APP
Reporting. This new service for KS3, coming soon, is included in the subscription and
will offer real-time benchmarking of student performance.

We are also looking forward to teachers becoming engaged as contributors to SAM

Learning GO! By helping to form a worldwide community of exemplary classroom
practice, we hope to become the biggest and best worldwide provider of online student-
driven learning. Over the next two years we are committing £3 million to new product
development and service improvements; we have already redeveloped our software
platform, as you can see.
You will see many changes in the coming months as we release new content, and an
engaging world for students; this is SAM Learning GO!

September Release
• New service platform
• New homepage
• New login pages for all users
• New interface design and menu structure
• Full conversion of all revise activities from Java to Flash
• Improved and Secure student data upload
• Individual teacher logins offering improved security for every school
• A fully encrypted and secure service
• New GCSE content for 2009 exam specifications
• New Flash-based Improve activities
• Improvements to reporting
• New ‘Set Tasks’ replacing ‘Homework and Tests’
• New ‘User Defined Groups’

October Release
• 20 hours of GCSE Business Studies
• 11 hours of GCSE Child Development
• 11 hours of GCSE French
• 8 hours of GCSE History
• 3 hours of History Schools History Project
• 7 hours of GCSE Physical Education
• 9 hours of GCSE English Literature
• 9 hours of KS3 Geography
• 13 hours of KS3 Religious Education
• 9 hours of GCSE French Improve.

November Release
• The Virtual World – offering enhanced levels of student engagement. Students
challenge and compare progress with other classmates, choose their own avatar
and progress through a stimulating virtual world.
• APP reporting – assessment activities for KS3 Science and Maths with reporting
to show attainment against the relevant subject AF. The first activities released
for teachers to road test.
• Exam board-specific coverage – an enhanced menu structure with content
mapped to exam board specifications. This new feature will help students and
teachers find activities more quickly.
• A new school support programme – replacing the consultancy service that
has been in place over the last few years, schools will be provided with more
flexible support to help them make the most of their subscription to SAM
Learning GO!
Curriculum Coverage:

Level Subject Task Hours

• GCSE Applied ICT 24
• GCSE Applied Leisure and Tourism 10
• GCSE Applied Science 41
• GCSE Business Studies 11
• GCSE Citizenship 23
• GCSE Design and Technology 17
• GCSE DiDA 19
• GCSE Drama 4
• GCSE English 39
• GCSE English Literature 96
• GCSE French 21
• GCSE Geography 19
• GCSE German 13
• GCSE Health and Social Care 6
• GCSE History 80
• GCSE ICT 32
• GCSE Italian 5
• GCSE Maths 112
• GCSE Media Studies 5
• GCSE Music 4
• GCSE Physical Education 23
• GCSE Religious Education 13
• GCSE Science 173
• GCSE Spanish 11
• GCSE Statistics 49
• GCSE Twenty First Century Science 75
• GCSE Welsh 1
• KS3 Art 2
• KS3 Citizenship 4
• KS3 Design and Technology 2
• KS3 Drama 2
• KS3 English 28
• KS3 French 11
• KS3 Geography 8
• KS3 German 5
• KS3 History 9
• KS3 ICT 9
• KS3 Maths 42
• KS3 Music 4
• KS3 PE 14
• KS3 Religious Education 11
• KS3 Science 57
• KS3 Spanish 15
Usage reports for Sep 09 - Oct 09:
• Should you require more details about usage, for example 'by Students', this can
be arranged. Please see me for more details. (JG)

Year Groups:

Subjects:
 SUMMARY:

• SAM Learning Go! Replaced SAM Learning and SAM Learning

Plus in September 09.
• All users (teachers and students) now have the option of
having personal accounts/ log-in. To activate your new teacher
account, log in using the usual (generic) account:

• User data now has more options for analysis.

• Content no longer requires JAVA, instead or content uses FLASH (more stable).
• Virtual World - Students can assign a personal Avatar (logo/ icon) and
participate within a global community of learners.
• Exam Board specific content available from November.
• Estimit - A tool which is supposed to provide a prediction of students final
GCSE/ exam grade based on completing a few hours of activity.
• APP (assessing pupils progress) - Science and Maths will become the first
subjects that will be supported, more subject areas to follow.
• Data Mining - Data can be filtered (mined) via a range of criteria, such a white
girls, students on FSM etc.