For teachers
Yo Bro for schools
Yo Bro is a practice app your pupils use on their own phone or tablet: for the word lists you hand out, in any of 17 languages, for verbs and language rules, for sums, and for maths — which is free, all of it. It is made mostly for pupils of roughly 9 to 14, in primary and lower secondary school, with a reading course and pictures for the youngest. The Android app is available on Google Play; the iPhone and iPad version is coming soon.
Getting the list in
- Photograph it. Pupils take a picture of the list you hand out. Yo Bro reads it on the device, and they fix anything the camera misread.
- Print it with a QR code. Type the list into Yo Bro once and print it from the app. The printed sheet has a QR code in the corner, and when the class scans it, the whole list travels inside the code. No accounts, no internet.
- Import a spreadsheet. Prepare lists in a spreadsheet and import them as a CSV file. The first line holds the two language codes, such as
en,nl; every line after it has two columns: the word, and what it means.
Practising
Eight ways to practise:
- Test
- Practice test
- Multiple choice
- Learn
- Spelling
- Hints
- Dictation
- Flashcards
With the Today card, pupils practise for a few minutes a day. A word comes back after 1 day, 3 days, a week, a fortnight and five weeks, and goes back to the start when a pupil gets it wrong. Pupils can enter the date of the test, and those words come first.
Verbs, language rules and vocabulary
Verbs: 150 verbs in every tense school teaches, as tables, and the most common of them in real sentences. Those lessons run along a path for each tense and end in a test with a mark, and there are more ways to practise, from spotting the mistake to listening and writing down what is missing.
Language rules: the rules school tests in the pupil's own language. In English: there, their and they're, a or an, the irregular past tense, and word building (help + ful = helpful).
Vocabulary: school words and what they mean. A pupil who practises another language's sees their own word under each one.
For the youngest: learning to read
Learn to read is a course for children starting to read: a few new letters a lesson, a short story with pictures that the phone reads aloud, and questions about it. All of it is free.
For the youngest: Pictures
A subject for children who are only just reading: a drawing with its word underneath, 354 of them in fourteen sets. A lesson is one language and ten to thirty pictures, so you can pick them to match the week's theme. Looking and listening first, then seven ways of asking — from choosing the word to laying the letters out in order or filling in the sound that is missing.
Capitals or small letters is a choice at the first start and a switch afterwards: the youngest classes often get capitals first, and reading is taught in small letters. A set of pictures is shared with the same QR code as a word list.
A battle in class
One phone or tablet hosts a battle from a list and shows a QR code. The others scan it to join, up to 32 players in all, and everyone answers the same words at the same time. Players are animal emoji, never names. There is no server: the hosting device is the server, and nothing leaves the room.
Try your network first. All devices must be on the same network and able to see each other. Many school networks keep devices apart, so ask your IT department. For a small group, the hosting phone can share its own hotspot instead; a phone’s hotspot usually takes eight to ten devices, not a whole class.
Hosting a battle comes with the subscription, so one teacher’s device is enough. Joining is always free.
Maths, free for every pupil
Six subjects — fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, negative numbers and basic algebra — each a learning path, thirty-three chapters in all, and none of it sits behind Yo Bro Pro. A chapter starts by working an example step by step, with a drawing that shows why the method works: a bar, a hundred grid, a double number line, a balance.
Then a practice round, where pupils set their answer on number wheels and a hint gives the next step rather than the answer, and a test with no hints and the results at the end, every question worked through. A wrong answer is told why it was wrong, and gets a second go — and the reasons are the mistakes your pupils actually make, such as adding both numerators and denominators, or comparing ratios by subtracting.
Nothing is a fixed question bank: every question is generated, so a pupil who repeats a chapter gets new numbers.
Sums
Plus, minus, times and divided by, in four levels, and the times tables from 1 to 12.
On paper
Yo Bro prints word lists, Friday's test, worksheets, lesson sheets with their answers, and board games. Every sheet carries a code that scans it back into the app.
Easy to use for every pupil
- A font for children with dyslexia (OpenDyslexic) at the flick of a switch, on screen and on printed sheets.
- Light or dark, following the device.
- Words and stories are read aloud.
- The app itself is available in 17 languages, just like the website.
Privacy and safety
- No pupil accounts and no class lists.
- No chat, no advertising, no tracking.
- Word lists and scores stay on the pupil’s device.
- Savage Software receives no pupil data.
The privacy policy has the details, including how text recognition works on Android.
What it costs
Yo Bro is free to download, with three lists, three ways of practising, the first level of every sum, three sets of pictures, the whole reading course, the first lessons of verbs, language rules and vocabulary — and the whole of maths. Joining a battle is always free.
Yo Bro Pro, by the year or by the month, unlocks more lists, all ways of practising and levels, the other lessons, and hosting a battle. The App Store and Google Play show the price. The subscription renews automatically until it is cancelled; cancel at least 24 hours before it renews, in the App Store or Google Play account settings (how to cancel). When it ends, the paid parts lock again, but nothing is deleted: the lists stay on the phone.
A subscription belongs to the Apple or Google account that took it out. Family settings there (Ask to Buy, Family Link) can require a parent’s approval, and the app unlocks by itself once it is approved. There is no school licence, and you don’t need one.
Getting started in your class
-
Pupils install Yo Bro.
Coming soon App Store Get it on Google Play
- Share the list. Pupils photograph it, or scan the QR code on the sheet you printed from Yo Bro.
- A few minutes a day with the Today card, with the date of the test set.
- End a lesson with a battle.
The leaflet
A double-sided A5 leaflet: one side for pupils and parents, one side for you.
Print it double-sided on A5 paper, flipping on the long edge. On A4, choose “Fit to page”. It prints fine in black and white.
Try it with your class
Want to try Yo Bro with your class, or tell us what your class needs? Mail [email protected].