November 2020
WHIZZ EDUCATION AND SUAS IN PARTNERSHIP TO BOOST
LEARNING LEVELS IN IRELAND
Disadvantaged students to benefit from holistic teaching initiative
STUDENTS at DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) schools in Ireland are to benefit from a partnership with a leading education provider in order to improve their levels of learning.
The initiative is the result of a new collaboration between global learning provider Whizz Education and leading Irish literacy charity Suas Educational Development in order to raise standards in mathematics.
It will enable children at 28 disadvantaged schools to use the award-winning Maths-Whizz tuition program, which will be deployed as part of a holistic education engagement.
Suas reached out to Whizz Education in order to support children after their in-person Maths Buddy programs in schools were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Maths-Whizz uses artificial intelligence to tailor virtual lessons to individual students, enabling each child to learn at their own pace in order to close education gaps and catch up on lost learning.
Richard Marett, CEO of Whizz Education, said: "We are delighted to announce this partnership with Suas, which is highly respected for its work in conjunction with DEIS schools in Ireland. Our technology improves learning rates and reduces the educational burden of Covid-19."
David Moffitt, Chairman of Suas Educational Development, said: "Helping children to develop numeracy and literacy skills gives them the tools to break generational cycles of poverty and disadvantage, hence the importance of this innovative partnership with Whizz Education."
Suas works to transform the lives of pupils in conjunction with Ireland's DEIS plan. The DEIS school plan was launched in 2005 by the Department of Education and is aimed at addressing the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities.
The Whizz Education platform is based in the UK and is also currently used by schools as far afield as the UK, Kenya, Mexico, Thailand, Russia, New Zealand, United States of America and United Arab Emirates.
Whizz Education adopts a holistic approach to education that enables schools to benefit from individualised virtual tuition via the Maths-Whizz platform, combined with teaching resources, and capacity building - whilst also providing on-going local support and real-time analytics.
Students who access Maths-Whizz for 60 minutes a week improve their maths age by, on average, over 18 months in their first year of use.[1]
In Kenya, the Project iMlango supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) previously found a 'Maths-Whizz' program doubled learning rates when deployed as part of a holistic education programme.
EDITOR'S NOTES
● Internationally, teachers are overworked. Only 8% have been adequately exposed to the potential of thoughtfully designed technology to transform their working conditions.
● Technology-enabled virtual tutoring could save teachers 7 hours each week, and free up a further 13 hours to re-allocate to aspects of their job where their impact is the greatest.
● Taking steps to embed virtual tutoring within the classroom would represent allow every child to achieve educational outcomes in the long-term without overworking teachers.
● Richard Marett is available for interview. Please contact Melanie Faldo or Gary Thompson at KBA PR via melanie@kbapr.com or gary@kbapr.com
www.whizzeducation.com
www.suas.ie
Contact details
E:support@whizz.comT:+44 (0) 203 328 6564W:www.whizz.com
Whizz Education, Macmillan House, Paddington Station, London, W2 1FT
[1]Whizz Education's internal metrics consistently demonstrate that students who use Maths-Whizz for 60 minutes per week improve their maths age by, on average, over 18 months in their first year of use.