A Teesside-based education technology company has secured funding towards the development of a range of apps that promote learning outside the classroom.
Life Ninja will use the Innovate 海角视频 grant to develop an engagement network to be used by schools both within the 海角视频 and overseas.
The Middlesbrough business uses cutting edge technologies to help primary schools meet their digital needs through a suite of apps powered by an intuitive web dashboard.
The Innovate 海角视频 money will ensure the success of the business and help promote future growth.
Life Ninja is the brainchild of friends Trevor Willis and Tom Bailey who met at an antenatal class whilst expecting their first children. As their children grew and started primary school, they recognised the need for technological solutions to solve the problems many schools, parents and students face daily.
Co-founder Mr Wills said: 鈥淏eing granted an Innovate 海角视频 grant is a real vote of confidence in our unique approach to engaging parents, students, and teachers around the life and learning of the student.鈥
The firm鈥檚 apps include Learning Ninja, which is a free homeschooling hub that enables children, parents, and teachers to collaborate around the life and learning of a student. Individual apps can 鈥榩lugin鈥 to the network so they can all work seamlessly alongside one another.
With many students forced to work from home over the past year with the Covid-19 pandemic, the engagement platform allows parents to be kept informed of their child鈥檚 work progress during the day.
Learning Ninja can also be used by schools as a one-stop-shop home learning solution that supports communication with parents. It includes a reading records section, live quizzes, tournaments, and the opportunity for students to earn coins to use on building their own platform-wide avatar scenes, as well as purchase items created by teachers and parents, such as 30 minutes Minecraft play or a bike ride.
Message Ninja can be used as a communication hub not just between a school and parents, but for internal exchanges. It differs from other education communication apps in that parents can book appointments with teachers and make payments, fundraising activities and events can easily be organised, and digital consent obtained, reducing the workload on teachers.
Teachers can also schedule video lessons via the app calendar.
Zap Maths brings the maths curriculum to life, encouraging student participation and empowering teachers to draw on a deep bank of material or create their own questions and games.
Andy Preston, Mayor for Middlesbrough said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 brilliant to see Middlesbrough鈥檚 Life Ninja expanding and doing even more work to get kids learning. Businesses like Life Ninja are helping to build an incredible and exciting future for Middlesbrough. Of course, the coming weeks will remain tough, but we are on a path to great things.鈥
