Class Charts review

Class Charts is behaviour and classroom management software for UK schools, used mostly in secondary. Teachers build seating plans, award positive and negative points with a couple of clicks, set homework and issue detentions, and parents see their child’s day in a mobile app. It is now sold as Tes Class Charts. Its original maker, Edukey, became part of Tes in March 2016, and the old classcharts.com address now redirects to the Tes website.

Who it’s for

Class Charts is a whole-school system. It suits secondary schools and academies that want every teacher to log behaviour in the same place, so heads of year and pastoral leads can see patterns across subjects. A head of Year 9 can open a student’s record and see that the trouble happens in period 5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, not in every lesson. A single teacher cannot buy it for their own classroom, and primary schools with one teacher per class may find a lighter tool such as ClassDojo easier to run.

What it does well

The seating plans are the reason many schools pick it. You drag students into a plan of your room, and the plan shows behaviour data and student information next to each name. Tes says you can arrange students by ability in a couple of clicks and print data-rich seating plans for lesson observations and inspections. For a cover teacher walking into an unfamiliar Year 10 class, a printed plan with names and behaviour notes saves a lot of guesswork.

Logging behaviour is fast. You click a student on the seating plan and pick a positive or negative reason, which takes a few seconds and doesn’t stop the lesson. Detentions link to the behaviour record, so the system tracks who has a detention, when, and whether they turned up.

Homework sits in the same system. Teachers set it, students and parents see it in their apps, and staff can track who handed it in. Attendance and a wellbeing module add more data to the same student record.

The MIS links matter for UK schools. Tes lists SIMS, Bromcom, Arbor, iSAMS, Juniper, Engage and Integris among the systems Class Charts works with, using writeback or integration through Wonde. That means timetables and class lists come from your MIS instead of being typed in by hand. Class Charts also connects to Provision Map and MyConcern for SEND and safeguarding.

Where it falls short

Points systems have critics in secondary schools too. Some students start to see positive points as a currency to collect, and a running tally of negative points can label a student long after the behaviour has changed. The parent app shows parents both the positives and the negatives of their child’s day, so a negative point given at 11am can become an angry phone call or text to the child before lunch. Agree as a school when parents see points, and what counts as a reason worth logging.

Seating by ability is optional. The software makes it easy, but many teachers prefer mixed seating, and a plan coloured by attainment on the projector can embarrass students. Keep that view on the teacher’s screen.

Class Charts only pays off when staff use it consistently. If half the department logs behaviour and half doesn’t, the reports mislead pastoral staff. Budget time for training, and expect a term before the data is reliable.

It is built for UK schools and the MIS products they use. Schools outside the UK will find better fits elsewhere.

Pricing

Class Charts is a paid product. Tes does not publish prices and asks schools to speak to its sales team or book a demo for a quote. Ask what the quote covers, because modules such as attendance, wellbeing and integrations with other Tes products may affect the price.

Privacy and data

Tes’s data processing agreement applies to all Tes products. It says the customer, in this case the school, acts as data controller and Tes acts as processor, and that Tes will not transfer personal data to a different territory without the customer’s written consent. Tes says it announces changes to its sub-processors by updating its privacy notice. The documents we read do not name any security certification for Class Charts, so ask Tes for its current certificates and the full DPA during procurement. Behaviour, SEND and safeguarding data is sensitive, so your data protection officer should review access levels before rollout.

Verdict

Class Charts is a strong choice for UK secondary schools that want seating plans, behaviour, detentions and homework in one place, linked to their MIS. Its value depends on every member of staff using it the same way. Schools that mainly want homework and parent messaging should compare Satchel One, and primary schools will usually be better served by a simpler app in our classroom management rankings.

See the best Class Charts alternatives