VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
Supporting vulnerable students and overburdened schools
F
or this month’s View from the Classroom feature, Sal McKeown visited schools and academies across the UK to find out more about how educators are using EDClass to support students, taking the classroom to them by bringing learning online.
“EDClass helps with attendance figures but it’s less about that and it’s more about making sure the kids have got a really high quality provision whilst they’re not on site,” says Michael Martin, Vice Principal at Cromer Academy. The newer forms of AP are transforming the educational experience for many young people who have been excluded or who are difficult to place. Lockdown changed everything. Once we discovered that learners could access education online, we didn’t need to send students to a new education setting to start over again. Online learning could include video, audio, interactivity and discussion. Schools were freed from the tyranny of worksheets as new companies appeared with first-rate resources to motivate reluctant learners.
EDClass is one such company. Based in Dinnington, near Rotherham, it supports 990 learners in 352 schools and 110 Multi Academy Trusts across the UK. They won the Education Resources Award 2024, in the category Collaboration Between School and Supplier. This was for their work with Inspiration Trust, a MAT
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www.education-today.co.uk January 2025
with 17 academies based in Norfolk and north Suffolk.
Easing the burden on schools EDClass has in-built flexibility. A school ‘buys a seat’ but they may choose to use it with one learner for four hours in the morning, and then allocate four hours in the afternoon to a different person. This flexibility is especially useful if they have students who struggle to focus on learning for a whole day. The teachers in school have
admin privileges, so they can log in at any time to see what learners are doing and check the lessons that they’ve completed.
EDClass reduces the pressure on staff as Whitby High School in Cheshire has discovered. Sarah Fleet, Director of Alternative Provision said: “EDClass has assisted us with student absences… It has taken the pressure off our staff to supply work to send home, which has reduced their workload and ensured the work-life balance is in place.”
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