A free online platform is set to help newly-arrived Ukrainian children carry on their education and get to know classmates.
Ukraine School allows homework, projects, messaging and feedback to be translated between English and Ukrainian, helping bridge the gap between children with little or no English and their new educators and peers.
“The idea behind the platform is that Ukrainian children will be able to continue their education with minimal interruption, in spite of everything else they might be dealing with at the moment,” said Brendan Morrissey, whose team at eSchools have been repurposing their usual online teaching tools.
“It allows children to connect with new friends and teachers in a safe environment. Our motto at eSchools is that ‘no child is left behind’, so we had to develop this to assist them.”
Before bringing it to the UK, Morrissey launched the scheme in his native Ireland.
“It’s been crazy,” he told the Irish Times, two weeks in. “We are onboarding refugees all day long.”
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Once established in the UK, the plan is for the tech to be distributed to other countries where Ukrainian refugees are settling.
Beyond that, Morrissey is calling for partners to help Ukraine School be accessed beyond the classroom, with many refugees expected not to have immediate access to computers or laptops.
“The next step is for other tech companies to get involved, the likes of Google, Microsoft, or Samsung,” he said.
“We’d really like to see these companies support what we’re doing by providing hardware to local schools with our platform pre-loaded. This would allow children to continue learning and working in their new homes in the UK.”
Teachers and schools can access Ukraine School by emailing ,where the team will send out passwords to add students. There is also a free app for parents, linked to the eSchools app, that allows them to view homework and connect with the school.