Photon Students: our IB tuition app for students, parents and tutors

What is Photon Students?

Photon Students is Photon Academy's own app for iPhone and iPad. It is built around three people: the student doing the work, the tutor who sets and checks it, and the parent who wants to know how it is going. It has four tabs:

• Today: your next class, the work due soon and the guidebook you were reading.
• Work: everything your tutors have set, with due dates, and everything you have handed in.
• Resources: the Photon Resource Centre, with notes, worksheets and your Photon Guidebooks.
• Me: your account, notifications and help, including short how-to videos.

You sign in with Google, Apple or email, using the same account as ibtuition.sg. Your access and anything you buy are the same on both.

Why our team built it

We wanted everything to do with tuition to live in one place: what was set, when it is due, what was handed in, how it was marked and what to do next. A worksheet handed out in class, a link sent in a chat and a PDF sent by email are easy to lose. One list on your phone is not.

Our team designed and tested every screen on iPhone and iPad, and checked every step, from a tutor setting work to the marked report coming back, before we called it ready. It is the same Photon material our students already use, and the same care that goes into our Photon Guidebooks.

For students: set, hand in, marked

Here is how a piece of work moves through the app:

1. Your tutor sets it. It might be a worksheet, a test, a timed quiz, a short question or a link, always with a due date. You get a notification, and a reminder the day before at 6pm.

2. 

3. You do it on paper, as usual. Open the questions in the app, then hand in by scanning your pages with the camera, choosing photos or uploading a PDF.
4. It comes back marked. When the test has AI marking, your marks arrive a few minutes after you hand in: a score, the marks for each question and a comment on each one.
5. Your tutor reviews it. They can change any mark and add a note, and you are told when they do. The mark scheme opens when your tutor releases it.

Before your first AI-marked hand-in, the app shows exactly what is sent for marking (your pages, with the question paper and mark scheme) and asks you to agree. Your name and email are never sent, and you can change your mind at any time under Me.

Questions and worked solutions, side by side

On iPad, any worksheet that comes with solutions opens in Split view: the questions on the left and the worked solutions on the right, each with its own zoom. Turn on Link scrolling and both sides move together, so you never lose your place.

It is how we teach students to check their work: try the question first, then compare every line with the worked solution and the marks it earns. Doing that on one screen makes it quick enough to do for every question, not just the ones you got wrong.

The rest of the Resource Centre is one tap away:

• Notes and worksheets for every topic: notes, cheatsheets, Basics sheets, tutorials and Mastery questions.
• E-books: your Photon Guidebooks, opening at the page where you stopped.
• AI Marker: check your own working against the mark scheme, included for Photon Academy students.

For parents: see progress without chasing

Most parents want to know three things: what was set this week, whether it got done, and how it went. Photon Students answers all three in one place.

• What was set: the Work tab lists every piece of work, who set it and when it is due.
• Whether it got done: work moves from To do to Done when it is handed in, and anything overdue is marked.
• How it went: every marked test shows the score, the marks for each question, a comment on each one and the tutor's note.

There is no separate parent login: the app belongs to your child. The simplest routine is to sit down together once a week and open Work, then Done. A few minutes is enough to look at the marks, read the tutor's notes and agree what to redo.

Two details matter to many parents. Notifications respect quiet hours, from 10pm to 7am by default for students, so the phone stays quiet at night. And AI marking only starts once the student has agreed, after seeing what is sent: their pages, the question paper and the mark scheme, never their name or email.