Connecting Steps

Working with Full Clarity — who led UX and interface design on B Squared's EdTech modernisation (see their case study) — Aduro engineered Connecting Steps and the Analytics platform for B Squared, the UK EdTech company whose assessment tools are used by thousands of schools. Together they replace fragmented trackers with one system that shows small steps of progress for every learner — and the reporting layer that makes that data actionable for teachers and leaders.

One assessment system for every learner

Connecting Steps supports pupils from birth to 25 across multiple inclusive frameworks — Early Steps, Engagement Steps, Primary Steps, Progression Steps and age-related curriculums — so schools no longer maintain separate systems for SEND and mainstream cohorts. Teachers record achievements and the steps learners take towards them, track engagement before mastery, and view progress through graphs that reflect non-linear SEND journeys as well as linear attainment.

The selection panel keeps context visible: group, pupil, framework, subject and date range stay in view while staff drill into strands, assessment points and sub-points — collapsing and expanding deep curriculum trees without losing their place. Bulk actions such as adding an achievement for a whole group cut classroom admin time.

Designed for the classroom

Full Clarity's research showed teachers updating assessments on tablets mid-lesson — so the interface was rebuilt for touch, with a collapsible selection menu that gives more room to the assessment grid, responsive layouts and a consistent colour language that keeps familiar RAG ratings meaningful across the product.

Historical comparison — seeing how a pupil performed then versus now — was redesigned as a clear two-stage date journey rather than two confusing pickers on one screen. Schools report completing the same key tasks in a third of the time compared with the legacy platform.

From individual pupil to school-wide insight

Pupil Summary brings a learner's progress into one view: subject-by-subject attainment, percentage movement over a chosen period, and colour-coded indicators that highlight where growth is strongest and where support is needed. Pie charts and level-status breakdowns show mastered skills alongside encounter, engagement and participation — the stages that matter for pupils not yet working at age-related expectations.

Analytics that understands SEND progress

The Analytics platform reads Connecting Steps data to build configurable reports without spreadsheet gymnastics. Over twenty base report types — line graphs, donut charts, column views, radar reports and more — can be filtered, sorted, pinned and saved as favourites so termly reporting takes minutes rather than hours.

Unlike generic school dashboards, Analytics is built for how pupils with SEND actually learn: progress across multiple levels at once, flexible grouping to compare cohorts and intersectionality, standardised scoring that fairly compares different framework structures, and attainment and progress bands that summarise data for governors and senior leaders.

AI grounded in real progress data

Teachers can generate lesson plans, next-steps summaries and key-achievement reports from live assessment context — choosing pupils, groups, frameworks and dates so recommendations reflect where learners are today, not generic templates. The assistant draws on the same progress data recorded in Connecting Steps, helping staff turn assessment into planning without leaving the product.

Platform the schools rely on

Aduro owns production engineering across B Squared's product suite — secure authentication, resilient hosting and the operational backbone that keeps assessment and analytics available when term-time demand peaks. Pupil data stays protected by role-aware access and the safeguarding expectations of UK schools.

Connecting Steps and Analytics give B Squared a modern assessment stack: fast to use in class, honest about SEND progress, and ready for the leaders who need to act on the data — with AI that starts from evidence, not guesswork.