GENERAL NEWS The Twinkl Group acquires Natterhub
The Twinkl Group has announced its acquisition of Natterhub, an interactive, gated platform that gives schools and parents all they need to teach learners how to stay safe online and be responsible digital citizens.
By providing a ‘sandbox’ for pupils to practise navigating the digital world, Natterhub embeds crucial online safety discussions and experiences into the curriculum, rather than isolated events that limit engagement. The platform provides interactive social media-like features, as well as impactful lessons that resonate with students - making learning, and the discussions about online safety, more meaningful and effective.
“With reports showing children are spending more time online than ever before, there is added pressure to equip them with the knowledge to explore the digital world safely,” commented Caroline Allams, co-founder and Product Director, Natterhub. “Meanwhile, new technologies such as AI are increasingly
Inversity and FT set nationwide challenge to boost student current affairs engagement
Inversity, the skills startup equipping British students with applied AI skills, partnered with Andrew Jack, Global Education Editor at the Financial Times for a nationwide AI challenge.
Over the course of 4 weeks, 400 students worked on a challenge set by Inversity and Andrew Jack: to use AI to build software that helps young people to better engage with quality media, and develop their critical thinking.
The winner, 17-year-old Ahmad Adebowale from Liverpool Maths School, has created a prototype named Skewdle that offers a gamified approach to learn how to identify misinformation in online media and instead engage with genuine high-quality news content.
Dr James Kuht MBE, CEO and co-founder of Inversity, said: “We set our learners the world’s most interesting and important problems each month, and Andrew raised the bar with this one.
“It was fascinating to see the AI-powered ideas that learners came up with: from applications which gamified the process of reading news articles from different viewpoints, to web browser plug-ins to help identify disinformation, to the winning entry, ‘Skewdle’, which looks like a Wordle-for-media-literacy skills in the making!”
Andrew Jack added: “Misinformation is an existential problem with dangerous consequences that we have a collective responsibility to fight, and it’s top of the agenda for both the Financial Times and Inversity to tackle.
“There were many excellent responses to the challenge. Skewdle was particularly impressive due to its technical maturity, user-friendly design and interactive features. Ahmed had also conducted important market research to put his invention in the right context of what users need.”
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influencing how children develop social and emotional skills. Joining the Twinkl ecosystem will allow us to help schools better address these challenges and prepare the next generation.” Natterhub offers a secure environment where children aged 5-11 can learn about online safety through engaging, interactive content. The platform features two distinct offerings: • Natterhub for Schools: A robust resource deployed by schools, providing teachers and pupils with digital safety content, animated lessons, and educational social media functionalities, including news feeds, polls, quizzes, and chat/messaging capabilities.
• Natterhub for Home: Aimed at parents, this version delivers interactive content to teach digital skills outside the classroom. Natterhub adds to The Twinkl Group’s existing B2B education offerings used by schools and multi-academy trusts around the world - including Twinkl resources, Twinkl Phonics Training, and online assessment tool Educake.
“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Natterhub and look forward to helping them grow and have an even bigger impact,” commented Jonathan Seaton, founder and CEO of The Twinkl Group. “This marks a significant step forward in Twinkl’s ongoing mission to help those that teach, allowing us to address even more challenges for schools, educators, parents, and students alike.”
Sky and Adobe expand digital storytelling challenge for schools
Sky and Adobe have launched a brand-new series as part of The Edit, their bespoke digital storytelling challenge for schools. Students aged 8-18 across the UK and Ireland can now create their own movie trailers with the help of Adobe Express and Sky content, joining the 160,000 students who have already benefited from The Edit’s news report series.
With free, ready-to-use resources available for teachers to download, students can develop their creativity, collaboration and communication skills without leaving the classroom. The process of producing, recording and editing an animated movie trailer based on their very own story, gives students invaluable insight into careers within the creative industry, and equips them with the critical skills to pursue them.
Launched in 2020, Sky and Adobe’s The Edit is working to break down the media industry’s barriers to entry and bridge the digital skills gap, while offering an insight into what a career in the media might look like. The latest series of The Edit offers classroom-ready AI, unlocking inspiration and creativity through Adobe Firefly generative AI features.
Fiona Ball, Group Director of Bigger Picture and Sustainability at Sky, said: “Being able to engage young people from all backgrounds in the art of digital storytelling, opens up new possibilities for what careers they can pursue in the future and nurtures a more diverse talent pool for the creative industry.”
In 2023, The Edit engaged almost 600 schools across the UK, Ireland and Italy, half of which were from underserved communities.
December 2024
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