Olex in Action

Xavier Catholic Education Trust

Writing that Children Care About

The Goal

St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School, part of Xavier Catholic Education Trust, set out to transform how Year 3 pupils experienced writing feedback. Rory Wise, class teacher and lead on the school’s 1:1 device pilot, had a clear ambition: move away from a model where only around eight children per half term received detailed written feedback, and give every child that same quality of response on every piece of work.

For Rory, keeping teacher judgement central was non-negotiable. Alongside this, he was conscious of protecting and improving handwriting – ensuring that technology supported the writing process without displacing pen and paper at the heart of it.

400 pieces marked

Individual feedback generated

WTE Reduced

from 15 to 5 children

The Impact with Olex

Every child receives individual feedback on every piece of work
Strong engagement from children, especially boys, driven by the Imaginator
Improved handwriting – because children care about the finished product, the quality and effort going into their handwriting has improved significantly
Improved outcomes – class has gone from 14/15 WTE down to just 4/5 WTE
Feedback is easy to edit and personalise, keeping teacher voice
Parents overwhelmingly positive – what they saw was high-quality handwriting and beautifully published work
Whole class feedback turned around in around 20 minutes, so children can re-edit next lesson

“The enthusiasm from children, especially boys, has been amazing. They want to see their Imaginator picture - that's the carrot along the way. But what strikes me is what they're doing as a result: staying in at break to finish their writing, disappointed at the end of the day when we don't get to edit and publish. No child has ever said that before.”

Rory Wise, Year 3 Teacher, St Augustine's Catholic Primary School

How They Did It

Pupils write in their exercise books
Scan handwritten work using their 1:1 iPads
Teacher reviews Olex feedback, and adds own comments
Feedback printed, so children can tick off targets, and edit the following day
Olex’s ‘Early Learner-style feedback’ used for lower-attaining pupils
Imaginator images printed and published alongside handwritten work
Total daily screen time kept to around 20-25 minutes
Work shared with parents at parents’ evenings

“When parents came in, what they saw was beautifully written handwriting - because the children really cared about it. They'd worked hard, got feedback quickly, so it was still fresh in their minds when they came to redraft. A lot of parents were saying it was the best they'd ever seen them write.”

Rory Wise, Year 3 Teacher, St Augustine's Catholic Primary School

What's Next?

Year 3 pupils take their iPads into Year 4, continuing the Olex writing process
1:1 devices to extend across all of Key Stage 2 over the next three to four years
Classes without 1:1 devices can begin using Olex via class scanning
Piloting OlexScript to layer handwriting-specific feedback into the same process

Schedule a Demo

We’d love to show you how Olex.AI works for schools and trusts in a 30-minute demo of the platform.