Two years ago, Djanogly City Academy in Nottingham were faced with a challenge. They wanted to provide one-to-one support for their pupil premium students, but couldn’t find any local companies who supplied tuition at an affordable price with the scale and flexibility that they needed.

In the autumn term of 2015, headteacher Jenny Taylor ran a new, two-week initiative at her school, Horfield Church Of England Primary in Bristol. A trial of literacy platform ReadingWise saw major improvements for the 10 pupils involved; so much so that the school now runs three intervention groups of ten pupils daily, helping them to reach many struggling readers.

Engaging the most difficult children is a difficult job for any teacher. However, by using technology, it can aid in engaging the reluctant learners and delivering an outstanding lesson to help them to progress.

Carleton Green Primary School in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire have entirely overhauled their website with the collaboration of Blackpool-based company Schudio. This major redesign saw the addition of a modern logo, professional photos and well-presented content that is clear and accessible, both on computers and mobile devices.

I’m constantly reading articles in broadsheets, such as; “We’re so well educated - but we’re useless” and “The dead hand of central government is weighing down on children and schools”. It’s obvious that the government’s curriculum reforms, as well as proposals to devalue vocational courses, really has meant that schools and colleges need to be creative and look at more innovative strategies to link learning to real life. We need to realise that the pressures of exam results run the risk of turning students into examination machines without actually preparing them for life.