Bath-based digital education company Doodle sparkled at this year’s SPARKies on Thursday evening, scooping the ‘Good’ award – recognising the best use of technology for doing good. The SPARKies awards brought together over 300 of the South West region’s tech and digital communities to The Assembly Rooms, Bath to celebrate the best start-ups, designs, hardware and people in the digital world.
DoodleMaths and DoodleEnglish use in-built intelligence and algorithms to construct work programmes unique to each child. Based on a child’s individual level, strengths and weaknesses they target a learner’s Zone of Proximal Development - the narrow band between what a learner can do with and without help - and continually adapt to set work at just the right level for them.
Tom Minor, CEO says:
"We're delighted to have won the SPARKies’ Good Award, against some amazing companies that truly reflect the strength of the South West as a tech hub. We've worked really hard over the last 18 months to continue to build a product that boosts the confidence and ability of thousands of youngsters. I think the judges' recognition of this, along with the increasing amount of work we have been doing with charities and in the community, helped us push ourselves out there in the face of some pretty stiff competition.”
The judges were impressed with the way Doodle’s technology address maths and English anxiety and build confidence in the children who use them and how the learning programmes are so accessible - DoodleMaths and DoodleEnglish are affordable educational technology solutions, currently helping 293,000 children around the globe achieve confidence in maths and English. Internationally the company has worked hard to help put DoodleMaths into the hands of children from poverty-stricken areas.
The award coincides with the launch of this year’s Summer Challenge which is designed for children to combat summer learning loss through short bursts of regular engagement with Doodle’s learning programmes throughout the holidays. All children need to do is earn 750 stars and a 14-day ‘streak’ over the summer holiday. Children who complete the challenge receive a congratulatory certificate, wristband and pin badge.
A study conducted by Doodle and academics at Bath University revealed that educational apps can help prevent summer learning loss – the loss of academic skills and knowledge over the course of the summer holidays. Pupils using DoodleMaths for 20 minutes per week over the summer holidays were four times less likely to suffer learning loss than those who didn’t.
For more information on this year’s Summer Challenge and how to download the apps visit:
https://www.doodlemaths.com/doodlemathschallenge/
https://www.doodleenglish.com/doodleenglishchallenge/