School pilot guide
Evaluate implementation and demonstrated learning
A practical protocol, not a validated test or a promise of improved outcomes. Use fictional tasks and your school’s authorised evidence processes.
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Purpose and limits
Assess feasibility and demonstrated classroom skills, not personality or mental health. This is a school-designed pilot, not evidence that WordGuard causes improved wellbeing. Agree staff roles, consent, data handling and safeguarding before implementation.
Plan the pilot
Choose Years 3–4 or Years 5–6 and agree a realistic schedule for six lessons. Record attendance and opportunities to practise separately from rubric evidence. Use the same access supports at baseline and follow-up. Do not disadvantage students who observe, pass or use alternative communication.
Years 3–4 baseline
Fictional task: Two students want the same ball; one pushes ahead. Identify a possible trigger and feeling, show a pause, offer respectful words, consider another perspective and identify help. Ask: What would you change if it happened during group work?
Years 3–4 follow-up
Fictional task: Two students want the same paintbrush; one grabs it. Use the same five prompts as baseline. Transfer: A game chat pressures a player to share another person’s drawing. What changes about permission and help?
Years 5–6 baseline
Fictional task: A group rejects a student’s idea and pressures everyone to mock it in chat. Identify a trigger, demonstrate a strategy, consider perspectives, rehearse a respectful or protective response and explain appropriate help. Transfer to an offline team task.
Years 5–6 follow-up
Fictional task: A gaming group changes roles and pressures a player to forward a hurtful comment. Apply the same five prompts. Transfer to a classroom disagreement. Explain when to seek adult help rather than resolve it yourself.
Teacher observations
For each demonstrated skill, note task, response mode, support and rubric level. Leave unobserved skills unrated. Completion is not proof of learning. Compare matched opportunities rather than count all completed lessons as successes. Store identifiable student records only in the school’s authorised system.
Accessibility feedback
Could students read, hear or otherwise access the scenario? Were captions/text, pacing, visual cues, movement and non-speaking alternatives sufficient? Did students have a genuine option to pass? What adaptations and barriers were observed?
Implementation feedback
Record preparation time, lesson duration, resource usefulness, safety questions and technical issues. Use private Teacher Feedback in WordGuard with no student names or personal incidents. Review who could access stored observations and delete them when no longer needed.
Review and report
Summarise observed changes, missing evidence, access differences and limitations. Baseline and follow-up tasks differ; practice, teacher support and other learning can influence results. Do not infer causation, diagnose children or make population-level claims. Decide what to adapt before extending a pilot.