Grassroots Education school-built & school-owned technology

Apps designed and built by teachers

Micro-solutions are small, purposeful apps built by teachers to solve specific classroom problems. They use familiar Google tools, Apps Script, and somteimes AI, and they fit the exact needs of the school that made them.

Integrated with the Google Workspace environment

Google Workspace provides all the tools a school needs to build its own technology solutions: Sheets as a database, Docs as a template engine, Drive for secure file storage, Gmail for communication, and Apps Script as the glue that connects them all. Most schools use these tools every day without realising they already have everything needed to automate the tasks that currently eat their time.


Example automation - student transfer certificate maker

Perhaps you manually compile transfer certificates at a time cost of 20 minutes each. A web app might extract relevant information from your data, apply it to your Docs template, and convert to a shareable pdf. It could move the created certificate to a unique Drive folder for each child and send an email link to the parent. A call to an AI api might even produce a translated version. The whole process is now completed reliably in seconds: select the student, click the button, and sit back!

Example first application

The 30 minute web app

Here is an example application that a teacher could make in the first training session, and use thereafter. It gets the children's names and photos (or avatar) from a Google Sheet, as well as a secret list of children that cannot be in the same groups and either puts children into random groups, or picks one student - icecream stick style. Try it out!


Integrated Example — Primary computing assessment

A complete assessment and reporting system built by one teacher

This teacher-made example combines Google Apps Script, Google Sheets, and AI-generated summaries to build a bespoke formative assessment system for Primary Computing. It was built within a school context, by a teacher, to solve a real problem.


What this system does

  • Children complete a bespoke self-assessment form at the end of each topic
  • Teachers quickly add notes on the fly during lessons
  • A Google Sheet stores everything
  • A summary app combines all the data to give a visual overview
  • AI is used to read all data for selected students and generate a progress overview
OUTPUT: Apps Script Web App + AI API

Teacher summary: all assessment data at a glance

A quick visual overview of class progress, with AI-powered individual reports available on demand.

Teacher summary interface showing confidence levels across topics

At a glance the teacher can see confidence levels across every topic taught, for every child in the class. The colour coding makes gaps and strengths immediately visible.

AI-powered summaries are available for each child, drawing on both child self-assessment and teacher observations. The AI interprets the combined evidence rather than just repeating it.

Note on data privacy: student names are replaced with placeholders before any data is sent to the AI model, ensuring no personally identifiable information leaves the school's systems.
INPUT 1: Apps Script Web App

Student self-assessment form

Children complete this at the end of each topic. Built with Apps Script rather than Google Forms for precise control over the experience.

Student self-assessment form

Children select their class first, which populates the name dropdown automatically. This isn't possible with standard Google Forms, but it means every entry is matched to an exact student record, with no typos or mismatches.

Names come from the Google Sheet alongside a unique student number, allowing results to be joined with any other school data.

Apps Script also gives full control over appearance - important when young children are completing the form independently without errors.

INPUT 2: Apps Script Web App

Teacher assessment form

Teachers add lesson observations quickly on an iPad during class with no formal structure needed.

Teacher assessment form

The form is designed for speed. There's no need for formal language or structured notes as the AI reads the teacher's natural observations and turns them into coherent summaries.

Access is controlled through Google login, so only teachers can submit observations. Additional access control can be added via Drive sharing settings.

DATA STORAGE: Google Sheet

Storing the data

Everything lives in one Google Sheet: class lists, self-assessment results, and teacher observations, in separate tabs.

Google Sheet with assessment data tabs

The first tab holds the class list: names, gender, and the unique student reference number from the school database. This number is what links assessment data to every other record.

The second tab records self-assessment results which is read by the summary app to generate class overviews and individual reports.

The third tab holds teacher observations which are combined with self-assessment data to give the AI a complete picture of each child's progress.

This is the pattern that scales. Any app that collects data from students or staff writes back to a Sheet. The student reference number from the database app ensures every piece of data can be matched precisely — across topics, across years, across tools.
How it all fits together

The database app and micro-solutions work as one system

The assessment example above gets its class lists from a Google Sheet. With the student database app, that Sheet can be generated in seconds, the right students, the right fields, ready to power the app. You can test the data export app which extracts information from Google Sheets here.

"Export Year 4 students with their names, gender, and student IDs. That Sheet becomes the class list for the self-assessment form. The form writes results back. The summary app reads both. The AI generates the reports. The whole system, built by one teacher, using tools the school already had."
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Data export

The database app exports exactly the right students with exactly the right fields, including unique student IDs that link everything together.

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Forms write back

Student-facing and teacher-facing Apps Script forms write directly to the Sheet. Student IDs ensure every entry is matched precisely.

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AI interprets

The summary app reads all the data and calls an AI API to generate reports, with names removed before they leave the school's systems and added back after.

Next page

stage 2: shared framework

Explore how a shared tools will bring all teacher made applications into a unified framework.