A primary school teacher believes his innovative AI-powered system will revolutionise targeted support for disadvantaged students and reduce the workload of teachers and teaching assistants.
Jordan Scott, from Benton Dene Primary School, in Newcastle, has received a Let Teachers SHINE award of £16,000 to fund ProVision, an online intervention and pupil data management system.
Targeted interventions – teaching strategies aimed at tackling the specific needs of students – are crucial for bridging the attainment gap between children from low-income households and their peers.
Research shows that targeted interventions can improve student progress by more than five months.
Current practices often miss this potential due to systemic issues, Jordan said.
“Existing strategies often fall short of supporting diverse student needs. Inadequate progress-tracking systems also contribute to inefficiency and increased workloads.”
Jordan’s solution is to create a system which uses AI to streamline the planning, implementation, and monitoring of interventions, ensuring they are tailored to individual student needs.
The user-friendly system allows staff to select children for specific interventions and give information about any gaps in learning and how often the support is needed. The AI then generates bespoke intervention programmes for individual children or groups of children.
“It will ensure a more targeted and consistent approach,” Jordan said.
Teachers can add comments to a pupil’s profile, recording daily performance within interventions. Costs of interventions can also be included for management oversight of spending on specific children.
“It all aids that idea of closing that gap because you’re seeing exactly what the specific areas of development are and then the solutions are laid out for you.”
The system will integrate learning support plans and the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Register, consolidating fragmented processes to ensure efficient use of time.
“A huge part of the system is about reducing the workload for teachers as well as closing that disadvantage gap,” Jordan said.
“It means teachers can spend more time teaching, planning and supporting children – doing the important things. This is about making the whole education system more streamlined, I would say, but not at the expense of quality. Quality is at the forefront of everything that I want to create.
“My view is that AI is going to offer such an improvement to the lives of everyone in education because AI does the doing. The teacher still does the thinking. It’s going to revolutionise the way teachers work because it’s going to dramatically reduce the proportion of their job that is taken up with admin, freeing up their time to do more teaching.”
Jordan is working on several projects to improve the education system and the funding from SHINE means he can move forward with “one of the most complex” of his ideas.
“It’s opened the door to creating one of the most, in my opinion, effective ideas that I have, for schools.
“I was over the moon when I heard the news. I was in my car, about to leave school, and I went back inside to tell my colleagues. I’m still smiling now just thinking about it. It’s a brilliant feeling.
“I really can’t wait to get started on the project and to be involved in the network of SHINE teachers. I am excited about being able to access that range of expertise.”
Jordan hopes to see his system introduced in schools nationwide, initially focusing on primary schools but with the potential for adaptation to secondary education.
“If, say, 100 schools, across the country are using this product, it would just be such an amazing feeling. I would be so proud,” he said.
Fiona Spellman, CEO of SHINE, said: “AI is a powerful tool that has the potential to transform education and contribute positively to improving teacher workload.
“Far from being a threat to our brilliant education workforce, AI can help to target support where it is most needed, bringing insights to life in the classroom.
“We are very excited to be supporting Jordan’s innovative and exciting work in this field, and cannot wait to see the impact in schools.“