Getting the most from a multi-award winning homework solution

You’re ready to use Doodle as a homework solution. Naturally, you want to see great outcomes for your students. But what exactly should you be doing to ensure rapid and sustained progression?

Here are our tips on how to use Doodle to its full potential. It’s based on research studies and listening to our schools, and, if followed, we’re confident it will deliver the outcomes you need!


Like a reading scheme (but for maths and English!)

Doodle can be likened to your existing reading scheme, and should be approached in a similar way. Schools using DoodleMaths and DoodleEnglish expect children to do 10 minutes daily just as they do with the reading book they take home.

And just as every child should ideally have a guided reading session in school once per week, they should also have a guided Doodle session. This can be done in small groups with a teaching assistant and is a great opportunity to check usage and the difficulty of the program. The parallels stretch to results, too:

“Young people who read outside the class daily were 13 times more likely to read above the expected level for their age” – National Literacy Trust, 2012

“Children using DoodleMaths for just 20 minutes weekly during July and August were 4 times less likely to suffer from summer learning loss’” – University of Bath Study, 2016

Of course, to do this most effectively one needs to engage the parents. This is why parents have their own DoodleConnect app which you should encourage them to sign up to and use.

Make Doodle a daily habit

It’s all well-and-good suggesting children use Doodle at home every day, but how do we help this become a regular habit? The answer is to regularly promote at school, but also ensure the app is set up correctly too. At school:

  1. Keep Doodle front of mind by incorporating a leaderboard into your display (either one of our posters, or by projecting the Teacher Dashboard).
  2. Have a class trophy that is passed around once a week and awarded in assembly
  3. Set a weekly challenge – such as “achieve a 7-day streak” or “earn 100 stars” – if it’s the former, make sure you back it up with another in case they miss day one – maybe, “get to level 20 on Monkey Mania” or “complete your added extra”

Interested in DoodleMaths for your school? Find out more


In terms of getting the system set up

  1. Follow up all parents who have not signed up to the parent app. Then, message all parents the weekly challenge to maximise engagement
  2. At home, when installing Doodle, families should choose to accept push notifications. This will mean the device will remind them daily to do their 7-a-day, and they’ll also be notified if their friends give them ‘kudos’
  3. Try out messaging – perhaps initially as a reward for good usage. Make sure your students are fully aware of the security provisions we have put in place (children can’t delete messages; rude words are filtered out and reported to teachers; teachers can download message histories; children can report messages that make them feel sad; it’s a closed system so they’ll only ever receive messages from their classmates, teacher or family). It’s a great tool for introducing and teaching e-safety and e-etiquette in a controlled environment – and since messages cost stars, it encourages more maths and English practise, too!

Think of it like piano practice

A child could be taught the piano by Elton John on the best piano in the world, but they wouldn’t improve unless they practised daily. And Doodle is no different – if it sits in your resource bank gathering dust then it’s no use to anyone! But there’s overwhelming evidence that Doodle boosts confidence and fluency, and raises standards.

And why would it not, when you consider that children using Doodle for 10 minutes daily, 5 days a week, 50 weeks per year will typically answer 5000* questions in those 12 months – all of them tailored to their exact level, strengths and weaknesses?   *On average, a question takes 17 seconds to answer.

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