How Delany College meets every student where they are

Delany College is a Catholic co-educational school in Granville, Western Sydney, serving students from Year 7 through to Year 12. With small cohorts of around 60 students per year and a wide range of abilities, Grace Hey and her science team need resources that can genuinely work for every learner in the room, from students working toward life-skills outcomes all the way through to those aiming for Band 6.

For Grace, Head of Science at Delany, finding something that delivered the content clearly without being overwhelming was the central question.

I think we just really wanted something to help us deliver content to the variety of students we've got. So it wasn't just talk and chalk, here's a worksheet, here's a textbook.

A platform that works across the room

The challenge for Grace's department isn't reaching the top students. It's reaching all of them without losing depth for the high achievers or leaving the students who are already stretched behind.

Atomi has become the resource that does both.

My kids who I can push and extend find it good as an entry point. And then they want to get a little bit deeper, which is great, because they've got the concept, and now they can apply it.

For students who find the content more difficult, the appeal is different. Grace collected direct feedback from students and what came back was consistent: the videos get to the point, and the multiple choice questions target the main ideas in a focused way that keeps them on track.

The videos summarise the main ideas really easily. And they really like the fact that the multiple choice targets the main ideas, so they're getting exposure to exam-style questions without it feeling like a separate practice task.

How the science department uses it

Usage across Delany's science department isn't uniform, and Grace is clear that it shouldn't be. Different subjects and different topics call for different approaches.

In physics, the teacher runs a full flipped learning model. Students watch the lesson and complete the quiz before class, then arrive ready to work through problems. The lesson time is for application.

For Grace's own classes in Year 11 and 12 biology and chemistry, Atomi sits alongside her teaching rather than replacing any part of it. She sets it for homework and revision. And when she's away, it keeps students progressing through the content without relying on a casual teacher to keep them on track.

If I'm not in class, I set it. I can see you're doing it. I can see you understand the concept. So I don't have to go back to the beginning and re-teach it when I'm back.

The engagement tracking is part of what makes this work. Grace uses the data in her lessons not just to monitor, but to motivate. She can see who's done the work and who hasn't, praise the students who've stayed on top of it, and follow up on the gaps before they compound.

Immediate feedback that saves everyone time

One of the more recent changes to land well at Delany is auto-marking, Atomi's ability to give students detailed feedback on their written responses without waiting for a teacher to mark them.

For Grace, the shift has been meaningful. Before, students submitted work and waited. Now, the feedback is there immediately.

It gave them immediate feedback, you did this really well, you didn't do this. So instead of waiting a week for me to respond, they're so much more confident in their answers now.

For Grace as a teacher, it's also changed how she plans her next lesson. She can see the feedback her students received, track where they scored and where they didn't, and use that to identify where to focus next.

That saves me a lot of time, to be honest. I can see they got two out of three, I can see the feedback that was given, so now I know exactly where the point of need is.

Grace's advice

When asked what she'd tell a teacher at another school considering Atomi, Grace didn't hesitate.

Do it. Just try it. It's very low effort to get started, easy to set a task, easy to look at your content. And it's really good for getting the main ideas across without much effort on your end.

We're thrilled to be working alongside Delany College and look forward to seeing Atomi continue to help Grace and her team meet every learner where they are.

Keen to learn more about how Atomi can support your school? Reach out to the team at [email protected] or start a free trial today.