BUSYTHINGS LIMITED

Educational Games and Remote eLearning Platform for Primary School Children

Busy Things is an online learning platform hosting award-winning educational resources for Primary schools. Our learning resources cover learning objectives from the whole of the Early Years and Primary Curricula. In addition to 1200+ educational games, Busy Things supports lesson planning and remote learning, all in a secure online environment.

Features

• E-learning content from Reception to Y6 of the national curriculum
• Subject mapping to English and Scottish Curricula
• Configurable content that can be assigned at different difficulty levels
• Import pupil data and class allocation tool
• Track student progress via individual and class timelines
• Send written or audio feedback to pupils
• Full control over which content pupils can access
• Teachers can make their own phonics, mathematics and cross-curricular printables.
• Pupils have their own folder for their saved files
• E-safety features to remove the browser bar and back button

Benefits

• Learning development support with curriculum aligned and educational games
• Straightforward lesson planning with 24/7 platform access
• Differentiated content suitable for all learning types and abilities
• Class management tools for quick and easy setup
• Free remote support and weekly live video tutorials
• Online chat facility to talk directly with the BusyThings team
• Remote parental supervision and monitoring
• Adaptable to individuals, small groups or full class capacity
• Perfect provision for pupils that are remote-learning
• E-Safety features ensure a safe online environment

£220 a licence a year

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at Rachel@busythings.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

357072184932711

Contact

Rachel Hall
01332364963
Rachel@busythings.co.uk

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: Busy Things requires an internet connection and a modern web browser. Busy Things s endeavours to make the service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except for planned maintenance in respect of which Busy Things shall endeavour to give no less than 5 Business Days notice, unscheduled maintenance in respect of which Busy Things shall endeavour to give no less than 6 hours notice.; ; All scheduled maintenance is done outside of UK school hours where possible.; Telephone, webchat and zoom support are available Monday to Friday, during office hours. (8.30am to 4.30pm).
• System requirements:
  • Internet connection
  • Screen size greater than 8
  • Microsoft Edge (Recommended), Google Chrome (Recommended), Mozilla, Firefox, Apple, Safari

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: We aim to respond within 4 hours during working hours Monday to Friday. (8.30am-4.30pm)
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: Web chat
• Web chat support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 A
• Web chat accessibility testing: We have not done any accessibility testing at Busy Things, our web-chat facility is provided through a 3rd party (Tawk) and all usability testing is performed by them. Features tested by Tawk include keyboard-friendly navigation, use of colour and contrast and resizable text.
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: Telephone, web chat, email and live zoom support are all included within the subscription cost. Technical account managers or cloud support engineers are not needed and so not provided.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: We provide free zoom training for customers, to get them started and help them setup their school.; We can setup and entire schools classes, teachers and pupils if requested.; An online user guide is included within the service, as well as downloadable How-to guides.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Users can download the data from built in timelines, assignments, and saved files folders before the service closes. ; Saved files are kept for 6 months and then deleted.; We will normally hold personal data for 3 years after a subscription has expired. Personal data to be removed before this period on request.
• End-of-contract process: We send the customer a reminder at least 1 month before the end of the service to let them know it will end and how to renew. ; ; There are no additional costs to decommission the service.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: If Busy Things is accessed via a phone only a small selection of content is available, which is specifically selected to work well on smaller screens. Mobile tablets, laptops and desktop computers will display all content and there are no differences. Content is optimised for touch screens on mobile devices. This can also be enabled on desktops to allow use if interactive whiteboards and touchscreen monitors.
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: None or don’t know
• API: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Busy Things can be customised by all teachers in teacher mode.; They can customise the difficulty level of individual games,; and control what content is visible to their pupils.; They can also create custom phonics, mathematics and cross-curricular printable resources.; Teachers can choose a phonics programme and select prefered individual letter styles.; As well as setting assignments, they can group activities into folders, or add them to a favourites area.; It is possible to create shortcuts to activities that can be used outside of the platform.; Teachers can create, edit and delete written and/or audio feedback.; ; To get the most out of Busy Things teachers can create a password protected area (class) just for themselves and their pupils, by setting up individual logins. Once set up, pupils can be managed into smaller groups for differentiated learning.; Teachers can customise look-and-feel to personalise their class at any time.; ; Teachers with admin status can:; Add and remove pupils and staff.; Manage ownership of classes.; Archive data.; Manage end of year processes to migrate children into new classes. ; Access all teacher/pupil feedback on the account.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Regular monitoring of usage internally. If the service is below threshold, we are able to scale up quickly.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Access logins and number of activities played within each age band. Data is arranged by month.
• Reporting types: Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: None

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: Less than once a year
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: Data centre managed by 3rd party (AWS). All data collected and processed by Busy Things is stored in a secure data centre in the UK meeting industry standards for security (ISO270001). All data is backed up on a regular basis and stored securely off-site.
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Users can download the data from built in timelines, assignments, and saved files areas. All data can be downloaded for individual pupils or for whole classes.
• Data export formats: Other
• Other data export formats: PDF
• Data import formats: CSV

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Busy Things services are available to subscribers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except for planned maintenance in respect of which Busy Things shall endeavour to give no less than 5 Business Days notice, and; unscheduled maintenance in respect of which Busy Things shall endeavour to give no less than 6 hours notice.; In the rare case of extended periods of unavailability, we will extend users subscription periods in lieu.
• Approach to resilience: We are hosted in AWS cloud, which has tested DR BCP procedures in place. Data is backed up at all times. We have real-time monitoring of all services with developers able to respond to and fix any issues immediately. Additional information can be made available on request.
• Outage reporting: Internal monitoring and alerting only

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Individual logins for staff members, with role-specific permissions.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication: Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: Between 6 months and 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: Between 6 months and 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: Less than 1 month

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: No
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: Data security:; All data collected and processed by Busy Things is stored in a secure data centre (AWS) in the UK meeting industry standards for security (ISO27001). All data is transmitted to and from this location using SSL encryption technologies. All data is backed up on a regular basis and stored securely off-site.; ; Our ICO Registration number: ZA033853.
• Information security policies and processes: All staff members are vetted prior to joining. Comprehensive training is given to staff members who will be accessing customer data. All staff members have individual logins to our internal systems and usage is monitored. Access to back-end systems is restricted to a limited number of staff.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: All changes go through an internal testing and review process. In-house coding standards are enforced through regular code reviews, with security considerations being forefront. All changes are tested in a staging environment before being pushed out to customers. Real-time monitoring and logging enables us to quickly respond to any new issues that may arise.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: All 3rd party code is patched regularly, through standard channels. This can be done near instantly in the case of critical vulnerabilities. ; ; We have real-time monitoring and alerting on all systems to identify threats to our own systems. We have no fixed patching schedule as it is dependant on our current development priorities. Security patches can usually be deployed same-day for critical issues.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: All logins to both back-end and customer-facing endpoints are recorded, including IP address, time, and account used. All internal API accesses are logged and rate-limited. We have monitoring and real-time alerting for both logins and API accesses. Developers can respond immediately to alerts, with responses ranging from continued monitoring, through locking down the site, and if necessary, disabling customer access to the site. Security patches can be deployed as soon as available.; ; As per GDR requirements, customers will be notified with 72 hours of any breach.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: All issues are immediately assigned to senior developers and prioritised according to severity. Critical issues are responded to immediately. We have an internal knowledge-base with responses for common issues. These are updated regularly.; ; Busy Things includes a 'talk to us' feature on every page, allowing users to raise issues as they find them, including reporting severity and providing us with additional debugging information. Customers can also contact us through the usual support channels (email, phone, web chat etc).; ; In the case of critical incidents, affected customers will be contacted by email within 72 hours.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  Busy Things has been developing educational content with the Woodland Trust for the last four years. These can be found at http://www.treetoolsforschools.org.uk. We continue to develop and maintain the site.; Within the Busy Things platform we have an extensive range of educational resources covering the topics of the environment and climate change. This area was developed in conjunction with the Climate Coalition in support of Great Big Green Week. Activities include making posters, writing to your MP, comparing renewable and non-renewable energy sources. We also maintain and update a simulation game called Tree World. Children must maintain Co2 levels in Tree World in order to keep the weather conditions stable for the flora and fauna to live happily.

  Covid-19 recovery

  During the pandemic we added many features to the platform in order to help teachers teach remotely. Home access for pupils was made free to schools with a subscription. Many of the features added are now being used in school for catch-up both in the classroom and at home. Maths and literacy assignments can be sent to different pupils and different levels. Pupils have their own personal areas in which to complete work and teachers can send feedback and reassign work. This means pupils can be working at different levels without being aware of their peers. Parents at home can also see what their children are doing and access any homework sent by their teacher. Parents can read teacher feedback through their child's messages area. All these features were developed with lockdown in mind, but continue to be used out of lockdown for recovery of the covid-19 learning loss.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Tackling economic inequality; Busy Things is excellent value for money. We are a small company with small overheads and this is reflected in our pricing structure.

  Wellbeing

  Staff at Busy Things: Busy Things is committed to supporting good mental health amongst staff. We allow flexible working hours and staff can choose whether to work from home or the office. The company handbook illustrates our intention to treat all staff fairly and consistently and to follow good and reasonable staff management practices, whilst following the requirements of employment law practices. A copy of the handbook is available to staff in the office and includes a Diversity and Equality Policy, a Dignity at Work Policy and a Health and Safety Policy.; It is our policy to communicate regularly with staff on matters that are important to them, such as quality of service, and information about their job and your terms and conditions of employment. Staff are encouraged to give us views based on their own experience of the Company’s operation.; Children using Busy Things:; Many of the activities on Busy Things are open-ended with no right or wrong answer. In the early years area this means children can quickly build confidence in their own decision making and ability. Confidence building is a key foundation not only for good mental health but also for moving on to the more formal areas of learning within the platform. Busy Things is highly customisable and the simple interface means that it is usable by all children whatever their age, ability or needs. No child should feel they are not ‘good’ at Busy Things. Home access ensure continuity between home and school and helps build parent -teacher relationships.

Pricing

• Price: £220 a licence a year
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Schools can register for 28 days free access to the complete service via our company website.
• Link to free trial: https://www.busythings.co.uk/play/?try=school

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at Rachel@busythings.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.