Founder Stories: Learning Ladders -Supporting Parental Involvement Throughout Homeschooling and Beyond.
It goes without saying that the education system has been massively impacted over the past year, and that homeschooling has dominated much of the pandemic. Parents have had to step into the role of teachers and support their children in ways they may have never done so before. For many parents, juggling home and work life with teaching responsibilities has been challenging, and the importance of parental involvement in education has become increasingly clear. As we seek to eventually transition away from homeschooling, how can we assure that this vital parental involvement is maintained?
Meet Learning Ladders, the company that provides schools a solution to upkeep and supporting parental involvement, keeping the connections between home and school alive.
In this third edition of the Founder Stories blog series, we introduce you to Matt Koster-Marcon, the CEO of Learner Ladders and former primary school teacher who turned a teacher/SLT pain-point into a successful and missional venture. In 2020, we welcomed Learning Ladders to TwinklHive and to mark the occasion, we asked Learning Ladders to share some of their highlights of 2020 and some of their goals for 2021.
Q: 2020 was an unprecedented year for all businesses, perhaps even moreso for those in the education space. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
A: For us like many others in the education sector, the constant change and uncertainty of 2020 provided many challenges. Our key focus was ensuring that we support our customers and the community as a whole, as we knew our product could help. Learning Ladders is a product that connects home to schools, that supports parents so they know exactly how to help their children with their learning at home. Suddenly, our purpose of achieving this became even more relevant in 2020. That’s why it was key for us to get our products in the hands of as many people as possible.
Another challenge for us was ensuring that we were reactive, ensuring that our product met the changing needs of our customers. We had to change our development plans to facilitate this; we changed things around very quickly and rushed out some product features which we knew would suddenly become a lot more relevant. One example is the ability to create and share end of term reports completely digitally, removing the need for parents and teachers to physically meet.
Q: You also had some great achievements last year, including winning a BETT award and securing investment. What is your biggest goal for Learning Ladders in 2021?
A: The award was great recognition, especially as we have been shortlisted for five years in a row — it was the cherry on top of the first part of our growth. The investment with TwinklHive also a great achievement in 2020.
When we launched, we tried to revolutionise how schools think about their data, including how they think about formative assessment and parental engagement. Around the time we launched, nobody was talking about getting parents involved at home or about making that easy for primary schools. No one was recognising that you needed to support parents so that they know how to help at home. When we launched, these were the key things that we were trying to introduce to the market and they’re still very relevant today.
In 2021, we are introducing another step change in the market — we’re not resting on our laurels! We’ve got a brand new platform launching, we’ve got new ideas we are pursuing and it’s going to be a really exciting year for us. Not losing sight of our purpose has suddenly become even more relevant, but we are going to take it even further — there are lots of new and exciting things to come from Learning Ladders in 2021.
Q: Learning Ladders encompasses so many vital tools for educators and learners — what would you say are the main benefits of using it?
A: It has so many vital tools and everything is in one place, which makes it very simple for teachers. As a former teacher, and with a development team led by former teachers, we are fully focused on our end user. We listen to our customers and our product is designed to help teachers improve all aspects of their teaching and learning.
Our approach and purpose provides a huge benefit to educators and learners alike. The fundamental logic underpinning Learning Ladders is centered around connecting school to home. It’s absolutely critical to support parents so that they can support and scaffold their children’s learning, rather than just supervise. Once lockdown is over, this level of parental engagement will remain — I think parents now recognise the role they have to play, and schools recognise the importance of parental involvement too, along with their responsibility to facilitate and support it. The genie is out of the bottle, which is great for us as we’ve been arguing this case for the last five years. We’ve been making it clear that schools need to engage with parents and give the parents the support and resources they need to help their children. Learning Ladders are here to help with that and we are the only system to provide that support in the way that we do.
“ We’ve been making it clear that schools need to engage with parents and give the parents the support and resources they need to help their children. Learning Ladders are here to help with that and we are the only system to provide that support in the way that we do.”
Q: You’ve recently joined us in TwinkHive, how are you finding it so far?
A: I think we have been really struck by the genuine passion of the whole team and we are fortunate to work with everyone from the COO to the marketing and product teams. Everyone believes in their mission and wants to help us, and to help our end users — the schools. Our work with TwinklHive is more than just an investment; fundamentally, the partnership we have between the two companies will be so exciting, for ourselves and for educators.
Q: Based on your journey so far, what advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur considering setting up their own business?
A: Find a problem and solve a problem. Don’t just focus on a concept which you think is a great idea — make sure there is an actual need behind your idea.
I’d also emphasise to always listen to what the market tells you and always talk to your market; we in Learning Ladders are still listening to our market today and will continue to do so. Don’t be afraid to get things wrong.
My last piece of advice is about collaboration — I am the sole founder of Learning Ladders, so I know that if you have the opportunity to find a partner or join a mentoring scheme or accelerator then you should take it. It’s important to have a mechanism for receiving advice, otherwise it can be very lonely at the top.
Q: Finally, what are the biggest trends you expect to see in EdTech this year?
A: I think there are probably three trends I expect to see this year. The first is a lot more EdTech adoption. People who were maybe nervous about EdTech have been forced to try it and have discovered that it can be extremely powerful. With that said, I think that others — especially die-hard EdTech evangelists — will realise and recognise that EdTech isn’t necessarily a global answer to everything and that the importance of teachers is critical, particularly in primary education. We will hopefully settle on a really sensible equilibrium where people will understand the value of EdTech but they will also understand the place of EdTech; that it is there to support the teacher, never to replace them.
Another key trend is likely to be consolidation. Schools are beginning to realise that there are products out there now which house many solutions under one roof. The idea that you have to have multiple products, serving different problems with five different logins, will begin to diminish as schools will realise that there are products that offer consolidation. One example is a product like Learning Ladders that does everything under one login, but does so in a specialist way.
The third trend would be the importance of home — school relationships and collaboration. The importance of parents in children’s learning has been highlighted during the pandemic. I think it’s particularly important for the education of young children, that schools will continue to involve their parents. Now that parents have understood that they need to be included a lot more in their children’s education, I think this trend will have a really positive impact.
Q: Are there any other reflections you would like to add?
A: In terms of reflecting on the last year and looking forward, I hope that schools and parents will recognise the huge amount of effort that has gone into education this past year. What education and the school system has achieved in its entire sense has been astonishing in the past 12 months. I hope everyone is able to reflect and take a sense of pride and remember who was there for them and what worked.
For more information on Learning Ladders and their product, along with some interesting articles and information on the importance of parental involvement click here.
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