Britannica Digital Learning have partnered with school improvement teachers at Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust to co-create LaunchPacks – a locally-curated collection of online content resources.
Working to address the curriculum shifts facing schools across the UK, Britannica and Shireland have pulled together a range of carefully structured lesson plans, knowledge-rich information text and rich media content to support high-quality classroom delivery.
LaunchPacks also include professional information support to help teachers use digital tools effectively in the classroom. This is particularly important since subjects like the humanities – which are suffering from significant teacher shortages – are often taught by non-subject specialists.
This new partnership represents one of the fist collaborative solutions built to support the government’s Edtech Strategy. This is particularly timely in light of recent changes to the Ofsted Framework, under which almost a third of the ratings for schools evaluated since September 2019 have declined from previous reviews, while close to half are deemed to be failing.
With research from Sparx revealing the true extent of the teacher workload crisis – in which 70% of teachers claim they would discourage others from joining the profession due to workload expectations – it’s no surprise that one of the challenges listed by the Department for Education (DfE) in the Edtech Strategy is growing teacher workloads.
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Striving to address the issue, Shireland and Britannica aim to provide tools that do the ‘heavy lifting’ on theme, lesson and progression planning, while maintaining a good level of teacher autonomy.
LaunchPacks also provides a Complete Curriculum Programme (CCP) that encompasses everything a teacher needs to cover the national curriculum across an entire key stage, kicking off as a CCP for Key Stage 4 History and Geography, before expanding to primary level and other subject areas.
“There’s global crisis in education. In many parts of the world, children who should be in school aren’t. For those who are, their schools often lack the resources to provide them with adequate instruction. At a time when quality education is arguably more vital to one’s life chances than ever before, these children are missing out on the learning they’ll need to participate in the world economy, contribute as responsible global citizens, and grow into adults who can lead active and fulfilling lives,” says Karthik Krishnan, global CEO of Britannica Group.
“The future of our world depends on education leaders addressing these problems, and one of the ways to do it is through partnerships with ministries of education, innovative schools and expert educators. Britannica is excited to partner with Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust to deliver an engaging learning experience for students, and save teachers time by providing curated modular content in multiple digital learning formats that are tied to meeting the new Ofsted requirements. This partnership is one of many Britannica initiatives aimed at addressing the global education crisis and deliver on our brand promise — Save time. Learn more. Be sure. Be prepared.”