Balance is the teaching and learning tool that helps teachers get back to what they do best: teaching.
Made for teachers, by teachers.
We know that keeping up-to-date with the endless admin and assessment work can be overwhelming. We're here to help keep things, well... simple.
Balance reduces teacher workload and cuts out the fluff, so you can focus on what goes on in the classroom — because a child's education isn't just a number on a screen.
Stay one step ahead.
Once you've designed your curriculum, you'll be able to use Balance's planning tool to get ahead, using its simple drag and drop method to organise how and when you're going to teach each module.
Map out the sequencing of your whole curriculum - dropping your modules, submodules, and objectives into long-term and short-term plans that everyone can see at the click of a button, without drowning in unnecessary word documents full of tracked changes and versions.
Separates your whole curriculum into long-term and short-term plans.
Automatically exports your plans into easy to read PDFs.
Easily editable, in case something changes along the way.
Customise statements to match the language used in your school.
Make point in time assessments at the click of a button.
See a live summary bar that automatically updates as teachers submit their judgements.
Use automatic filters to easily analyse data for contextual groups e.g. SEN, PP.
Choose a time frame to monitor your trends over time.
Use your judgement.
Professional Judgements allows teachers to give a simple "point in time" assessment for the children in their class, meaning you can see how children are progressing through the curriculum at a glance - saving you a whole lot of time, and a whole lot of admin. They're also a great place for you to start your conversations during Pupil Progress meetings.
School leaders get a view of the data they're looking for, whilst teachers can quickly see where resources and learning needs to be targeted, based on the reality of the classroom. It's a win-win.
See gaps in knowledge.
Plan your lessons and focus your resources based on where your class is at right now, not where data thinks they should be. Easily spot where the gaps in knowledge and understanding are, both for individuals and whole classes - so you can focus their learning around making each child as secure as they can be.
Analyse the depth of learning in specific areas of the curriculum for all key groups.
See trends over time for all key groups to help close the gap.
Reflect on the learning in Class Analysis to drive school improvement forward.
Your curriculum, your way.
Balance comes pre-populated with curriculums for the following subjects:
Developed by subject specialists, these are all available for you to use as they are, or for you to personalise for your school.
*Given the varied nature of these curriculums across the country, we've put a minimal framework in place for you to add your own content.
Balance's simple drag and drop method is particularly handy for foundation curriculums, which are key stage based. You can move content from year to year based on your school's curriculum intentions.
Working Deeper elements help you provide depth to the curriculum.
Expertly-curated curriculums provided for you to adopt, adapt and compare against.
Add, edit, delete modules and objectives to suit your school.
Change your sequencing, based on their learning.
It makes it easier than ever for teachers and school leaders to see the exact content they expect pupils to know by certain checkpoints. You can quickly chop and change everything, from modules to objectives to sequencing and back again.
Working on editing your own curriculum, or save even more time by editing the expert-curated curriculums provided, using our KPI functionality to focus on less, in more depth, by honing in on the key areas you will assess against.
Focus on what's important.
Balance helps you to stay on track by helping to define and plan the key content your children need to know (some schools refer to these as KPIs).
Once you've worked out what it is you want to teach and what you want to assess against, Balance automatically shifts to focus on your key objectives, making assessments more manageable. This reduces workloads without diluting the curriculum... meaning teachers have more time to... well, teach.
Working Deeper elements help you provide depth to the curriculum.
Clearly see the progression across each curriculum area.
Focus on what’s important and keep assessment manageable.
Teach less, but in more depth.
Individual Pupil Analysis allows you to see individual learning journeys for any Objective.
Balance automatically analyses your classroom data and generates trends over time.
Saves time by allowing you to record judgements in groups for each individual pupil.
Show those small steps of progress using a scale of 1-9 and quickly secure objectives when they’re mastered.
One click assessments.
Formative assessments in Balance are based on each child and what they've achieved in the curriculum - not numbers.
No bands, steps, or made-up progress measures needed.
As mentioned, you're always in control of what you assess against - not only saving you time, but giving you more scope to ensure your children are secure with key parts of your curriculum.
Reduce teacher workload.
Balance does all your analysis for you - meaning no more late nights making charts and graphs to satisfy Ofsted or other stakeholders.
You can manage and export classroom data, curriculums and day-to-day school life at the click of a button... with no need for assessment weeks, filling trackers, or even time wasted prepping for Parent's Evening.
Balance even integrates with your MIS, keeping all your pupil data safely stored.
Less time entering unnecessary data into trackers.
Clear learning analysis ready to be presented at progress meetings.
Export analysis, graphs and charts on everything from learning to pupil premium cohort.
No wasted time trying to find the right data or finding the right excel spreadsheets.
Provide effective feedback and improve classroom practice.
Here's what everyone had to say
"All of our children ought to be able to tell us what they are learning about and why it is important. If they can't, we haven't taught them properly."
"It’s a tool which gives a clear understanding of what children can do and therefore inform future planning."
- Rachael Chadwick: St Benedict's Catholic Primary School
"A big positive at the moment is the Professional Judgements page. Allows very simple and easy data collection and an incredibly valuable display makes it easy to analyse."
- Jordan Whiffing: St Jerome’s Catholic Primary School
"Balance has supported teaching and learning by giving us more direct planning tools. It's made it a lot easier to work through planning and produce more target focused work based on the children's gaps."
- Jonathon Baylis: Northway Primary and Nursery School