A pilot to support the most in need year 10 students in Birmingham and the Black Country throughout the COVID-19 crisis has been announced today with the potential to become the basis of England’s first National Edtech Hub. The programme has been set up by Nesta, the innovation foundation, Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust, and GLUU, with contribution from national charity Trauma Response Network.

In mid-April, the Government acknowledged school closures risked widening the attainment gap for students and announced that it would provide laptops or tablets for disadvantaged 15-year-olds and 4G routers to help some families get online. Nearly 8 weeks later, many of these items have still not been delivered to schools.

At the time Nesta said the tech wasn’t enough in itself and made the call for training for teachers to transition from face-to-face teaching in classrooms, to teaching online in a way that supports learning, engagement and effective feedback and assessment. Teachers were concerned that the most vulnerable students would still find it difficult to engage online and would miss out on the pastoral care and emotional support given to them when at school.

‘Eduu.School’ is a holistic programme led by a pioneering Multi Academy Trust to address the deficits of the government’s ‘tech pledge’ for disadvantaged students. The project includes training for teachers, together with teaching and educational resources and social-emotional and technology support for the students and their parents.

Launching next week, for a couple of thousand students, the programme will go beyond providing tech equipment to the most in need by bringing together a unique, expert team of acknowledged industry leaders in online learning, mental health and scale-up to build an agile, rapid delivery programme to address teacher concerns. If the pilot is successful, the project has the potential to become a national EdTech Hub framework.

With the timeframe for school openings still in debate and concerns about a second peak of coronavirus, it is important to establish a platform that allows home learning and school learning to be consistent and with linked analytics. In this new world, schools must prepare for a ‘blended’ education system, involving teachers and technology.

Eduu.School aims to deliver joined-up and measurable live online learning programmes using the Microsoft 365 platform that most schools already pay for (as part of their IT) but rarely use to support students directly. This removes the necessity for schools to search for solutions themselves, and they will still be able to customise the platforms to fit their needs. Assessments, pastoral and wellbeing support, will then be monitored centrally and fed back to the schools and the local authority.

Joysy John, Director of Education, Nesta says, “With this model, teachers will be provided with a ‘plug and play’ online toolkit that they can adapt to their needs. This will not only help with learning but also the emotional needs of their most vulnerable students. Teachers will also be provided with extensive Professional Development to support them through these unprecedented times. As other industries prepare for ‘the new normal,’ so must the education system. Our goal is to create a self-sustaining model to support a system-wide move to blended provision.”

Sir Mark Grundy, CEO, Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust says, “Our nation’s children, particularly those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, are in urgent need of support in both their learning and wellbeing. We are helping to share our knowledge and experience in delivering online teaching and learning using Microsoft solutions to help schools better support their children at home”

Sean Gardner, MD of GLUU says, “By bringing together leading industry partners we have created a structured framework to deliver a new model for blended provision. We aim to make this a long-term programme and by bringing together experts in their fields we are creating a scalable solution to a national problem.”

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For more information contact Juliet Grant in Nesta’s press office on 020 7438 2668 or 07866 949047, [email protected] or [email protected]

Nesta_Press [email protected]

Notes to editors:

About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society. We've spent over 20 years working out the best ways to make change happen through research and experimenting, and we've applied that to our work in innovation policy, health, education, government innovation and the creative economy and arts. Nesta is based in the UK and supported by a financial endowment. We work with partners around the globe to bring bold ideas to life to change the world for good.