SHINE project aims to reach 100 new schools to help tackle teacher workload
SHINE is supporting a teacher-developed platform designed to make marking more manageable while also giving students faster, more personalised feedback.
With 71% of teachers reporting unmanageable workloads and 83% identifying workload as the leading cause of work-related stress*, SHINE is supporting a teacher-developed platform designed to make marking more manageable while also giving students faster, more personalised feedback.
A new phase of funding from SHINE will help Let Teachers SHINE winner Tom Rye bring Fast Feedback to up to 100 new schools over the next 12 months. Schools in the North of England that take part in the project’s evaluation will be able to access the platform free of charge.
Tom Rye, Vice Principal at Harris Academy Purley in Croydon, developed Fast Feedback to make marking more manageable and help students understand how to improve their work.
Tom received an initial Let Teachers SHINE award in 2025 to develop the platform. Since then, Fast Feedback has grown into a working assessment tool, used by schools to mark written answers and multiple-choice quizzes, identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge and generate individualised feedback and tasks to address misconceptions.
The new scaling grant will support the next stage of development, focusing on schools in the North of England and particularly those serving disadvantaged communities.
“I’m really pleased and excited,” said Tom. “The grant reinforces my belief that this is a powerful tool and gives me the confidence to keep developing it. Knowing that a charity like SHINE supports me helps keep me motivated.”
Fast Feedback grew out of Tom’s experience as a school leader. He wanted a way to assess pupils’ work regularly, identify what they had not understood and use that information to shape teaching, without adding to teachers’ marking workload.
Traditional marking can take hours, meaning students may wait days for feedback. Fast Feedback aims to shorten that cycle, helping teachers identify learning gaps and respond while the material is still fresh in pupils’ minds.
During the first year of the pilot, which saw six schools using the platform, over 3,000 pieces of feedback were generated. Tom said: “Based on a conservative estimate of two minutes per response, this equates to approximately 100 hours of teacher time saved.”
The platform supports several assessment methods, including multiple-choice quizzes, extended written answers and GCSE exam questions. It is linked with 40,000 questions from the Oak National curriculum. It can also generate tasks to help pupils revisit areas where they need further support.
At Tom’s own school, the platform is used for quizzes every two weeks across subjects, giving staff regular information about pupils’ understanding.
“I now describe it as an assessment ecosystem rather than just an AI marking tool,” he explained. “So you can have essentially multiple-choice exam marking and written all in one place. And it’s not just the marking; it’s also the data you get from that.”
Tom believes this regular flow of assessment information could help schools respond more effectively to pupils’ needs.
“Every two weeks, we have data on students in our school, which is really powerful and data you wouldn’t usually be able to access,” he said.
Tom has continued to develop he platform in response to feedback from teachers. New features include GCSE exam marking, which gives students a mark for their answers to exam questions, and an independent student tool that allows them to log in and use Fast Feedback for revision at home.
The latter could help more pupils access the platform without relying on school devices or teacher-led sessions. Tom is now keen to develop this aspect further, enabling students to practice exam questions and receive feedback independently.
The platform is also designed to support more responsive teaching. When pupils complete a task, teachers can use the results to identify misconceptions and set targeted follow-up work.
Tom sees its development by a practising teacher as one of its strengths. Rather than building a tool around a narrow set of assessment methods, he wanted something that could meet the different needs of a school.
“When I’ve used other edtech platforms, they’ve never quite fitted what I needed,” he said. “As a teacher, you’re expected to use lots of platforms. We need to make Fast Feedback useful for data analysis without adding to teachers’ systems fatigue.”
The scaling grant will help Tom work with more schools and build a stronger evidence base for the platform. Although early feedback has been encouraging, he wants to understand more clearly how Fast Feedback affects teacher workload, the quality of feedback and pupils’ learning.
A key part of this work will be recruiting curriculum partners, particularly teachers in the North of England, to help develop assessment questions and use the platform in their schools. Schools in the North that take part in the evaluation will receive free access to Fast Feedback.
By encouraging longer periods of use, Tom hopes to gather more meaningful information about its impact on pupils’ progress.
“Last year, schools tended to trial the platform for only a few weeks,” he said. “This time, I’d like partners to commit to using it for a term so we can look at the impact on students’ grades and results.”
The project will also use platform analytics, teacher feedback and case studies to examine how pupils respond to feedback and follow-up tasks.
Tom’s longer-term ambition is for Fast Feedback to become a sustainable, affordable tool that schools can use as a central part of their assessment approach.
“The dream is for Fast Feedback to replace traditional marking, save teachers time and, most importantly, give students high-quality, individualised feedback that improves their learning,” he said.
“The ultimate goal is for it to be self-sustaining, low-cost and good value for schools, becoming the assessment ecosystem they use.”
The new funding gives Tom another year to refine the platform, expand its reach and test its potential to support teachers and pupils. For SHINE, it is an opportunity to help a teacher-developed idea reach more schools while building the evidence needed to understand its impact on workload and learning.
For more information, see the website www.fastfeedback.co.uk