Core features

Events & boss battles

Events are time-limited challenges that run alongside ordinary practice. A boss battle raises the difficulty and doubles the XP. A class-collective event turns the card target into a single class total that the whole group chips away at together. The two are independent options on the same form, and you can tick both. Teacher-hosted live sessions are not included in event XP bonuses.

What events are

An event is a named, time-limited challenge with a card target and a medal. A boss battle also layers an XP bonus on top of every practice session for as long as it runs. A class teacher creates events for their own class; a Head of Department can create a school-wide event, or a class event for any class in their subject; Educator admins create the platform-wide ones. There are three scopes you can create today: class, school, and individual (every individual subscriber). A fourth scope, global (every school user across the platform), survives in the data model for legacy events, but nothing creates it any more; for a platform-wide push to school users, use school-wide events instead. There is no year-group scope, so to run something across a year you either set it school-wide or create one event per class.

An event only appears for students who study one of its subjects: a school-wide Food event shows to the school's Food students, not to a student who only takes RS. The subjects come from the cards in the event's topics (or the cards you picked). An event with no topics or cards (the whole bank) shows to everyone in scope. A student sees class events for every class they are in, not just the one they last opened.

While an event is active, a themed banner appears on the student dashboard. It shows the event name and description, a chip saying where it came from (Class event, School event or Educator event), a progress bar filling toward the card target, the days remaining, and the medal on offer. Boss battles get a red banner and a Boss · 2× XP chip. The banner is on the dashboard only; the practice screen shows no event chrome.

What counts toward an event? Sessions started from the banner, and only those. The button on it reads Let's go!, then Continue, then Finish (N to go) as the student closes on the target, and it launches a session of up to 15 cards drawn from the event's topics. On a per-student target the session shrinks as the student nears it, so “Finish (3 to go)” deals a 3-card session rather than overshooting; a class-collective event always deals full 15-card sessions. Ordinary practice started from the practice screen is not part of the event and earns the usual rate. There is nothing to sign up for, but there is a button to press, so it is worth telling students where it is.

Any number of events can be scheduled in advance, and multiple events can run simultaneously if a school chooses to stack them, though this is unusual. When more than one event is active, banners for each are shown on the dashboard in chronological order of end time (soonest expiry first).

Boss battles & class-collective events

These are two separate checkboxes on the event form, and they are often confused. Tick both if you want the full effect.

Boss battle: Changes the cards and the XP. The card pool is restricted to higher-tier content, so a foundation student who takes part is explicitly stretching above their usual level, and every correct card pays 20 XP instead of 10. The banner turns red and the medal gets the gold shield frame. Available on every scope.
Class-collective: Changes who the target belongs to. The card target becomes one class total rather than a figure each student has to reach alone, and it counts correct answers only. Available on class events only: a school-wide event always has a per-student target.

One thing neither option changes is when the event finishes. Events end on their end date, not when the target is reached. Hitting the target awards the medal and fills the progress bar; the event itself keeps running until the date you set, or until you end it early yourself. See Managing a running event below.

Why class-collective events work

The shared-target mechanic creates a form of collective accountability that purely individual challenges cannot. When students can watch one class bar fill, a quiet student completing their session after dinner adds exactly as much as a top-ranked student doing it in form time. Nobody can inflate the class total with wrong answers, because only correct ones count toward it. Once the target is reached, the medal goes to the whole class, including students who did not personally contribute (see Cosmetic rewards below).

Teachers who have run these before mocks report that the bar becomes a focal point of classroom conversation without prompting: students update each other on the progress, ask how many cards are left, and sometimes organise informal revision sessions to finish it off before the deadline.

Card target calibration

You set the card target when creating the event, and what it means depends on the class-collective checkbox. The limits are enforced, so pick a number inside them:

Class-collective events: 5 to 2,500 cards, counted as a class total of correct answers.
Every other event: 5 to 100 cards per student, counted as cards seen. This applies to school-wide events too: there is no shared school-wide target, so a school event set to 100 asks each student individually for 100 cards.

A well-calibrated class-collective target should require most of the class to do at least two or three sessions: achievable by a committed class in a week, but not beatable by one student in a single sitting. As a rough guide:

Class of 25, 3 days: Aim for 700–900 correct cards (roughly 28–36 per student across the window, or 2–3 sessions each at 75% accuracy on a 15-card session).
Class of 25, 7 days: Aim for 1,500–2,000 correct cards: enough that daily sessions matter but the target is still reachable by a well-engaged class.
School-wide, exam week: A per-student figure, so it does not scale with the size of the school. 40–60 cards over a week is a realistic ask; the maximum is 100.

Tip: set the target slightly below what a fully engaged class would achieve. A target reached with two days to spare generates far more energy than one the class only half-finishes by the deadline.

XP bonus mechanic

The XP formula during an event is straightforward:

Boss battle: 20 XP per correct card (2× the standard 10)

Standard event: 10 XP per correct card (base rate only)

A boss battle pays double XP, 20 per correct card instead of the standard 10; standard (non-boss) events run at the usual 10 XP per card. The doubling is automatic: ticking Boss battle on the event form applies it. There is no separate XP field to set.

The boost applies to sessions started from the event banner and nothing else. It is not a blanket multiplier on everything a student does that week: a Speed Round, Marathon, Drill weak cards, Topic drill, homework session or teacher-hosted live class started separately all pay the ordinary 10 XP per correct card. The rate is fixed when the session starts, so a session begun while the event is live keeps the boosted rate even if the student finishes after the end time.

XP earned during events counts toward all the same places as regular XP: subject rank threshold, subject leaderboard position, and (for individual accounts) league tier. A boss battle can meaningfully accelerate rank progression for students who engage during the window.

Example in context: a student completing a 15-card standard session at 75% accuracy (≈ 11 correct) during a boss battle earns 11 × 20 = 220 XP from that session versus the usual 110 XP outside an event.

How events are created

Events can be created at three scopes:

Class events: Created by any teacher from their Class page. Visible only to students in that class.
School events: Created by Heads of Department or platform admins from the School page. Visible to all students and classes at that school.
Platform events: Created by Educator admins from /admin/events and scoped to all individual accounts (scope=individual). School students never see these.

The creation form collects:

Title: The event name shown on the dashboard banner and in the event list. Up to 80 characters. Keep it short and motivating: “Pre-mock push”, “Boss: The Great Challenge”, “Half-term sprint”.
Description: One sentence on the banner saying what the event is and why students should care. Required, up to 240 characters.
Banner emoji: Sets the theme of the banner. Picked from a categorised list (Popular, Subjects, Seasonal, Food, Study, Nature).
Topics: The card pool for the event. At least one topic is required. Where several subjects are available, subject tabs sit above the list. The event's topics replace the class's own topic or subtopic filter for event sessions, but each student still gets only cards for their class's exam board and, in GCSE Science, their class's Science route, so an AQA class is never served Edexcel-only cards during an event.
Class-collective: Class events only. Makes the card target a class total instead of a per-student one. See the section above.
Boss battle: Higher-tier cards only and double XP, 20 per correct card. Set automatically by the checkbox, so there is no separate XP field. Ticking it also switches the medal to the Boss frame.
Card target: Always shown, on every event. Labelled Cards to complete normally and Cards to hit (class total) when class-collective is ticked. 5–100 per student, or 5–2,500 as a class total. See the calibration guidance above.
Starts and Ends: Whole days, in UTC. The event runs from 00:00 UTC on the start date to 23:59 UTC on the end date; there is no time-of-day control. You can schedule in advance, and the banner does not appear on student dashboards until the start date. The end date must be after the start date, and an event cannot run for more than six weeks.
Medal name and emoji: What students see on their profile when they finish. The name is required, up to 40 characters.
Badge style: The frame on the medal: Standard (circle), Boss (gold shield), Seasonal (star) or Legendary (shimmering hex). Boss battles always use the Boss frame. Keep Legendary for once-a-year events so the shimmer still means something.

Once saved, the event appears in the event list on the page you created it from: the Class page for class events, the School page for school events. An event cannot be edited or deleted afterwards, including before it starts. The only change you can make is ending it early, which is covered below. If you got a detail wrong, end it and create a replacement.

Creating a class event: from your Class page, scroll to the Class events section and click + New event. Set the title, description, banner emoji, topics, card target, dates and medal, then tick Boss battle and Class-collective as you want them. School-wide events are created by your Head of Department from the School page.

Managing a running event

Each event row in the Class page or School page list shows its dates, card target, how many students have completed it, and a status pill reading upcoming, live or ended. While it is upcoming or live, the row also carries an End now button. Clicking it once asks you to confirm, and the second click brings the end date forward to this moment. The event disappears from student dashboards straight away, and any sessions started after that earn the ordinary rate.

Ending an event early never takes anything away. Medals already earned are kept, the event record stays for reporting, and XP already banked is untouched. Use it when a target has been reached with days to spare, when a topic choice turns out to be wrong, or when a class needs the pressure lifted. The class teacher who created the event can end it, as can a Head of Department for their school's events.

Participation report (HoDs)

For school-wide events, Heads of Department get a per-event report. Click the event from the School page to open it. At the top are four figures: total students, how many started (with the percentage of the school reached), how many completed, and the completion rate among those who started.

Below that, a per-class table shows students, started and completed for each class, which is the quickest way to see whether take-up was even across the department. The full student table then lists every student with cards seen, correct answers and accuracy, and either the date they completed, their running total against the target, or Not started. It is sorted with finishers first, so the students who have not engaged are at the bottom where you can act on them.

Cosmetic rewards: event medals

Completing an event awards an event medal, a cosmetic badge that appears permanently on the student's profile. Eligibility works differently by event type. For class-collective events, the medal is awarded to every student in the class the moment the class's combined correct-answer total crosses the card target. Everyone earns it together, including students who did not personally contribute. For every other event, a student earns the medal when their own count of cards seen crosses the target: it rewards getting through the work, so a wrong answer still counts toward it. There is no ceremony at event end; completion is recorded as answers come in.

Medals are permanent. They do not disappear when the event ends, and they cannot be earned again after the event closes. A student who misses an event will not be able to obtain that event's medal later, which gives events a genuine exclusivity that makes participation feel meaningful to students who care about their profile.

Medals are visible on the student's profile page in the cosmetics section, displayed in chronological order with the most recently earned first. Hovering or tapping a medal shows the event name and the date it was earned.

Why medals matter motivationally

For students who care about their profile appearance, the medal collection acts as a tangible record of participation history. A student with five event medals can see, and show, that they have been consistently engaged across multiple terms. This is a secondary motivational layer on top of XP and rank: even students who are not in contention for top leaderboard positions have a reason to participate, because the medal will be theirs regardless of how many cards they answered relative to classmates.

Tip: when announcing an event in class, mention the medal, especially for students who are less competitive but respond well to collecting. “Everyone who takes part earns the badge, not just the top players” is a framing that tends to bring in students who would otherwise opt out of anything that feels like a ranking exercise.

Viewing current events

There is no separate events page for students. Active events surface on the dashboard, automatically:

Dashboard banner. A themed strip near the top of the student dashboard showing the event name and description, a chip saying whether it is a class, school or Educator event, a progress bar filling toward the card target, the number of days left, and the medal on offer. Boss battles are red and carry a Boss · 2× XP chip.
The numbers under the bar. A class-collective event reads “420/1,500 class correct · you 38”, so a student sees both the class position and their own contribution. Every other event reads “38/100 cards”, counting cards seen.
A completed banner. Once the medal is earned the strip turns green and confirms it: “Your class earned the …” for a class-collective event, “You earned the …” otherwise.

The banner is rendered when the page loads, so the progress bar and the days-left figure refresh on the student's next visit rather than ticking over live. There is no per-card XP display during a session and no base-plus-bonus breakdown on the done screen: the practice screen shows no event chrome at all, and the done screen shows a single session XP total, already at the boosted rate.

Nothing to sign up for. Students never have to “join” an event, enter a code, or configure anything. If they are in scope and study one of the event's subjects, the banner is simply there on their dashboard the day it starts. The one thing they do have to do is start their practice from that banner rather than from the practice screen, because that is what ties the session to the event.

Tips for teachers

Events are most effective when they are intentionally timed and announced. The XP bonus alone will not generate engagement if students do not know an event is running. The dashboard banner helps, but a quick mention in class makes a significant difference.

Run a boss battle in the week before a test

Pre-assessment revision is the single highest-leverage moment for an event. Students who would otherwise do one reluctant session are motivated to do several when a class bar is visible and classmates are watching the same counter. A 3–5 day class-collective boss battle starting the Monday before a Friday test tends to produce noticeably higher session counts than any other intervention.

Align events with half-term revision periods

Half-term is when study habits collapse most reliably. A 5–7 day event spanning the break gives students a reason to open the app when there is no school structure reinforcing it. Keep the target modest for a half-term event (students have more competing demands than a school week) and lean on the boss-battle bonus to reward the sessions that do happen.

Announce events in class for best take-up

The dashboard banner is reliable but passive. A 30-second announcement (“We’ve got a boss battle running this week, every correct card counts toward the class total, go and check the bar on your dashboard”) consistently doubles or triples first-day participation versus the banner alone. If you can show the bar on a classroom screen, even better.

Use events to recognise collective effort publicly

When a class hits its target, acknowledge it in the next lesson. “We got there on Thursday night. The class did over 800 correct answers in three days” is a moment of genuine collective pride that costs nothing to deliver and reinforces the habit you are trying to build. Students remember the sessions where the class pulled together, not the sessions where they answered ten cards quietly at home. If the target lands with days still on the clock, you can end the event there and finish on a high.

Avoid event fatigue

Events are most motivating when they are special. Running a boss battle every week reduces the novelty rapidly. Within a month, students treat the event banner as wallpaper. A cadence of one or two events per half-term, timed around genuine milestones (an upcoming assessment, a topic completion, a holiday break), keeps the feature feeling like an occasion rather than routine.

Quick reference: teachers create class events from their Class page; HoDs create school-wide events from the School page. You need a title, a description, at least one topic, a card target, start and end dates, and a medal name. Boss battles pay double XP (20 per correct card), set automatically by the checkbox. Events end on their end date; the only later change is End now.

Practice: all seven practice modes, card types, the adaptive picker, XP, and streaks
Leaderboards & leagues: class, school, global, and league leaderboards; how XP earned during events affects standings
Profile & cosmetics: where event medals appear, rank progression, and unlockable cosmetics