Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed, fact-checked and edited by hand before publishing - see our AI transparency page for how we use AI across the app.
If your school keeps its class lists in a management information system such as SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom or Scholarpack, you will know how much of a teacher's start-of-term time goes on typing the same names into one more app. We have now built an integration with Wonde, the service that sits between a school's MIS and the apps it chooses to trust, so that Spelling.Live can bring a class across without anyone retyping it.
It is built and tested, but not yet used by a real school. We are looking for one willing school to pilot it with us. The rest of this post explains how it works and what we would ask of a pilot.
Why a school would want this
We want to be straight about what we can and cannot claim. We do not yet have our own study of pupil results, so we will not quote one. What we can do is point to what the research says about the kind of practice a spelling app is built around, and be specific about the teacher time it removes.
Time saved
- No typing the roster. Classes and pupils come across from the school's MIS instead of being entered by hand, and a teacher only sees their own classes.
- No marking the weekly list. Pupils practise on screen and the answers are marked as they go. Results land on the class dashboard, showing which words and which spelling patterns each pupil keeps missing, so there is nothing to collect in and mark afterwards.
- No marking the paper test. For a whole-class test on paper, a teacher prints QR-coded sheets, dictates as normal and scans the pile. The app reads the handwriting and marks it, and the teacher only checks the few answers it was not sure about. Our paper test walkthrough shows the steps, and it is still in beta.
- No chasing changes. When the class list changes, the teacher gets a short notice and applies it in one preview, rather than finding out when a pupil cannot log in.
We have not timed these against a stopwatch, so we are not putting a figure on the minutes. We would rather measure it with the pilot teacher than guess.
Better outcomes for pupils
- Spelling that is taught, not just tested. A 2014 meta-analysis of 53 studies (Graham and Santangelo) found that explicit spelling instruction improved spelling, and also reading and writing, compared with no or informal instruction. The Education Endowment Foundation's Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 guidance makes the same point: spelling should be actively taught, not simply tested. Spelling.Live gives help a step at a time when a pupil is stuck, and names the pattern behind a mistake.
- Short, regular practice. Missed words come back automatically, spaced out over the following days, so a pupil is not relying on the night before the Friday test.
- Word structure, not just letters. A meta-analysis of 30 studies (Goodwin and Ahn, 2013) found that teaching word structure had a moderate effect on spelling, and the EEF recommends combining it with phonics. Spelling.Live has a Word Parts activity built on that idea.
- Writing on paper still counts. Many tools stop at the screen. Spelling.Live also supports practice and tests written on paper, which is what a pupil is asked to do in the real test, and marks both in the same place.
Other spelling tools offer practice on screen too. What we add is the paper side, in the same class dashboard, and bringing a class across from the school's own list.
How it works for a teacher
- The school approves Spelling.Live in Wonde. This is the school's decision, made in Wonde's own portal. Until a school approves the app, nothing is readable.
- The teacher opens a class in Spelling.Live and chooses Import from school MIS on the Bulk add screen.
- They see only their own classes. Spelling.Live checks who the teacher is against the school's staff records, so a teacher is never shown another teacher's pupils.
- A preview shows each pupil as new, already in the class, or left the class. The teacher ticks who to bring across.
- Pupils are created the usual way, each with a simple username and password that can be printed as a login label. Run the import again later and nobody is duplicated, because Spelling.Live remembers each pupil's Wonde id and not just their name.
What we read, and what we do not
Spelling.Live reads each class and each pupil's name, and keeps the stable id Wonde gives them. That is all. We do not read dates of birth, contact details, grades, attendance or any pupil's records. Pupils do not need an email address.
Nothing changes without a person deciding
Class lists move during the year. We have deliberately not made the roster change on its own. Each night Spelling.Live can compare an imported class with the school's list and leave the teacher a short notice if pupils have joined or left. It creates, moves, pauses and removes nothing by itself.
The teacher decides from the same import preview. A pupil who has left can be paused, which stops them practising and drawing on the class's credits without losing any of what they have already done, and it can be undone at any time.
Signing in with MyLogin
Wonde also runs MyLogin, a single sign-on that many schools already use for their other apps. We have built support for it: pupils can sign in through MyLogin and arrive in their own Spelling.Live account, and teachers can sign in through it too. The printed QR labels keep working alongside it, which matters on shared tablets.
What a pilot would involve
We would like to work with one school, ideally one or two classes to begin with:
- It is free. Teacher accounts come with 500 AI credits a month, which covers regular practice for a class.
- We do the set-up with you, including walking through the Wonde approval so it is clear what the school is agreeing to.
- We stay in direct contact through the term, and fix what does not work.
- We ask for honest feedback in return, including what was confusing or slow.
We are being open that nobody has used this live yet. You would be the first, which is also why we will give it our full attention. Request a pilot here.
Interested?
If you are a headteacher, deputy, computing lead or class teacher at a primary school that uses Wonde, or is willing to start, request a pilot and tell us the school and the MIS it uses. The form takes a couple of minutes and we get back to you personally. You can read more about what a pilot includes on our Spelling.Live for Schools page.
If you would like to use it across a whole year group or school after a pilot, you can also ask for a quote. If your school does not use Wonde, you can still bring a class across from Google Classroom or paste a list.
For how classes, word lists and progress reports work once the pupils are in, see how schools are using Spelling.Live.