Nisai Education Trust
Nisai Education Trust’s mission is to advance the education of the public in general – and particularly amongst teachers and educationalists – on the subject of online and blended education, to promote research for the public benefit in all aspects of that subject and to publish the useful results.
Online learning provides an opportunity to meet the targets of the UN SDG30 Goal 4 (Education) at scale and ‘ensure equal access to education and training for the vulnerable’. (UN 2018)
Nisai Education Trust
Nisai Education Trust’s mission is to advance the education of the public in general – and particularly amongst teachers and educationalists – on the subject of online and blended education, to promote research for the public benefit in all aspects of that subject and to publish the useful results.
Online learning provides an opportunity to meet the targets of the UN SDG30 Goal 4 (Education) at scale and ‘ensure equal access to education and training for the vulnerable’. (UN 2018)
The NET Innovation Webinars
Watched by over 1200 practitioners in 4 continents, the NET webinars became a phenomenon during the Covid-19 pandemic when practitioners needed to support a range of students remotely and we are continuing the accessibility and collaboration that they became known for. The webinars bring together academic experts from the Universities of Bristol, Oxford Brookes and Toronto and outstanding practitioners in learner engagement and wellbeing. We aim to strike up rich conversations and provide a source of information and expertise.
The webinars cover topics such as the how innovation and agility in online education can reduce the challenges faced by learners with additional needs, including during the Covid-19 pandemic, supporting DME/2e learners in alternative provision and realising the potential of vulnerable learners.
Conference on Promoting Effective Special Education Needs Provision Between UK and Vietnam
20 March 2023
Nisai Education Trust was involved in delivering the March 2023 conference on Promoting Effective Special Education Needs Provision. The conference was supported by both the Vietnam Ministry of Education and the British Embassy in Hanoi. It was itself innovative as delegates and presenters were both online and physically at the conference venue and also working in both languages.
The conference brought together practitioners, non-government organisations and academics from both the UK and Vietnam to look at the current position and future responses to the improvement of SEN provision in Vietnam. The conference also featured the announcement of a Pilot Special Educational Needs between Nisai Group (UK) and Ha Tinh Province (Vietnam).
Supporting DME /2e Students to Reach Their True Potential
3 March 2022
Following a project to produce support materials for practitioners, we opened the conversation surrounding DME/2E (Dual & Multiple Exceptional/Twice-Exceptional) learners. Hear from experts in the field and those working with students on the topic.
Speakers:
Rebecca Howell – Director of the DME Trust
Sarah Johnson – President of PRUsAP
Gemma Stewart – Safeguarding and Mental Health Lead at PINC College
Magic Bullet – Reshaping Education to Meet 2030 Goals
12 June 2021
This webinar brought together people with extensive experience in the area of online and blended education to make some initial reflections and provided a space to start the debate about what effective and relevant education experiences will look like in a radically changed world.
Speakers:
Natalia Amelina – Chief of the Unit of Teacher Professional Development & Networking at UNESCO IITE
Munir Hasan – Head of the Youth Programme and General Secretary at Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad Committee (BdMOC)
Paul Keenleyside – Executive Director, Nisai Education Trust
Building the Bridge
12 June 2021
With a fantastic set of highly-acclaimed speakers, this webinar examined issues in education for children with additional needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speakers:
Prof Barry Carpenter – Professor of Mental Health in Education at Oxford Brookes University, UK
Prof Todd Cunningham – Associate Professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada
Margaret Room MBE – Operations Manager at Units of Sound
Addressing Pandemic Challenges in Education through Inclusive Online Education
9 June 2021
Highly topical support for teachers during the coronavirus pandemic, this webinar brought together an international set of experts to discuss how inclusive online education can reverse learning loss and knowledge regression.
Speakers:
Prof Todd Cunningham – Associate Professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada
G.H.S Ambat – Assistant Secretary for Alternative Learning Systems, Department of Education, Philippines
Sarah Dove – President at PRUsAP, UK, and author of Behaving Together: A Teacher’s Guide to Nurturing Behaviour
A Helping Hand
This webinar looked at emerging tools and practices that professionals could use to help the most vulnerable pupils as we progressed through the coronavirus pandemic into a ‘new normal’.
Speakers:
Sarah Dove – President at PRUsAP, UK, and author of Behaving Together: A Teacher’s Guide to Nurturing Behaviour
Trystan Williams – Deputy CEO at Venturers Trust
Marius Frank – Strategic Lead for E-Learning Development at Achievement for All
Across the Divide
11 May 2020
This webinar considered how schools could mitigate for the impact of ‘lock-down’ on children with additional needs.
Speakers:
Prof Adam Boddison – CEO at nasen and Chair of Whole School SEND
Fabienne Vailes – Associate Fellow of the Bristol Institute of Teaching and Learning at the University of Bristol and co-author of How to Grow a Grown-Up: Prepare your Teen for the Real World
Sam Williamson – Principal at Merchants Academy and Executive Leader at Venturers Trust
Trystan Williams – Deputy CEO at Venturers Trust
Nicky Spencer-Hutchings – Mental Health Occupational Therapist at Notton House School
20 March 2023
Nisai Education Trust was involved in delivering the March 2023 conference on Promoting Effective Special Education Needs Provision. The conference was supported by both the Vietnam Ministry of Education and the British Embassy in Hanoi. It was itself innovative as delegates and presenters were both online and physically at the conference venue and also working in both languages.
The conference brought together practitioners, non-government organisations and academics from both the UK and Vietnam to look at the current position and future responses to the improvement of SEN provision in Vietnam. The conference also featured the announcement of a Pilot Special Educational Needs between Nisai Group (UK) and Ha Tinh Province (Vietnam).
3 March 2022
Following a project to produce support materials for practitioners, we opened the conversation surrounding DME/2E (Dual & Multiple Exceptional/Twice-Exceptional) learners. Hear from experts in the field and those working with students on the topic.
Speakers:
Rebecca Howell – Director of the DME Trust
Sarah Johnson – President of PRUsAP
Gemma Stewart – Safeguarding and Mental Health Lead at PINC College
12 June 2021
This webinar brought together people with extensive experience in the area of online and blended education to make some initial reflections and provided a space to start the debate about what effective and relevant education experiences will look like in a radically changed world.
Speakers:
Natalia Amelina – Chief of the Unit of Teacher Professional Development & Networking at UNESCO IITE
Munir Hasan – Head of the Youth Programme and General Secretary at Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad Committee (BdMOC)
Paul Keenleyside – Executive Director, Nisai Education Trust
12 June 2021
With a fantastic set of highly-acclaimed speakers, this webinar examined issues in education for children with additional needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speakers:
Prof Barry Carpenter – Professor of Mental Health in Education at Oxford Brookes University, UK
Prof Todd Cunningham – Associate Professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada
Margaret Room MBE – Operations Manager at Units of Sound
9 June 2021
Highly topical support for teachers during the coronavirus pandemic, this webinar brought together an international set of experts to discuss how inclusive online education can reverse learning loss and knowledge regression.
Speakers:
Prof Todd Cunningham – Associate Professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada
G.H.S Ambat – Assistant Secretary for Alternative Learning Systems, Department of Education, Philippines
Sarah Dove – President at PRUsAP, UK, and author of Behaving Together: A Teacher’s Guide to Nurturing Behaviour
This webinar looked at emerging tools and practices that professionals could use to help the most vulnerable pupils as we progressed through the coronavirus pandemic into a ‘new normal’.
Speakers:
Sarah Dove – President at PRUsAP, UK, and author of Behaving Together: A Teacher’s Guide to Nurturing Behaviour
Trystan Williams – Deputy CEO at Venturers Trust
Marius Frank – Strategic Lead for E-Learning Development at Achievement for All
11 May 2020
This webinar considered how schools could mitigate for the impact of ‘lock-down’ on children with additional needs.
Speakers:
Prof Adam Boddison – CEO at nasen and Chair of Whole School SEND
Fabienne Vailes – Associate Fellow of the Bristol Institute of Teaching and Learning at the University of Bristol and co-author of How to Grow a Grown-Up: Prepare your Teen for the Real World
Sam Williamson – Principal at Merchants Academy and Executive Leader at Venturers Trust
Trystan Williams – Deputy CEO at Venturers Trust
Nicky Spencer-Hutchings – Mental Health Occupational Therapist at Notton House School
What we do
Online education in developed and developing nations has often been defined by ‘edu-tech’ companies and their relationship to the traditional education providers (schools, colleges). The model used is one that is geared to working at scale with little personalisation for learners and their individual needs and contexts, creating inequalities in the benefits realised.
This inequity particularly impacts vulnerable learners, who have a variety of barriers to accessing the education system due to individual learning needs or disabilities, economic or social circumstance, or lack of digital accessibility or digital literacy.
Nisai Education Trust:
Carries out proofs of concept and action research into effective models of online education that meet the needs of the most vulnerable learners accommodate their individual characteristics and contexts.
Develops professional understanding of best practice in:
- the organisation and leadership of online education,
- the development of pedagogy and the curriculum for online and blended education for vulnerable groups.
- learning from Nisai Education Trust’s activity is published for public benefit, targeting teachers and educationalists, to improve future educational provision for vulnerable learners.
Our Projects
In early 2020 everyone experienced a changed world – and needed to know more about delivering learning online through the pandemic. During 2020 and 2021, we dedicated ourselves to reaching out to educators to share our knowledge, and to ensuring that the projects we had begun were successful. You can see information about our projects below.
Units of Sound Goes Cloud-Based
This project extended the reach of the Units of Sound second chance literacy program by converting it to HTML which enabled a cloud-based, mobile version. The project also evaluated the potential for delivery within the United States education system through small partner projects. Units of Sound has supported vulnerable learners in adult literacy projects, young offender institutions, and within the Charter School system.
The project was funded by Oak Foundation’s Learning Differences Programme and we worked in partnership with Georgia State University’s national adult literacy research centre at Atlanta and Betwixt Consulting USA.
Over 4,300 learners have been able to continue on Units of Sound due to the cloud-base, mobile version being available, and a further 3,348 learners have joined since the cloud-based version went ‘live’ in January 2021. In addition, 180 literacy teachers and tutors in 132 schools and teaching centres in the UK and Asia have been trained to deliver the programme. The evaluation of the US market – with a focus on the barriers engendered through market structure and current public service procurement limitations – was published for public information.
Connecting Learners to UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals
The project developed an innovative pilot programme to learn more about how we can best use blended (online and in-school) experiences to engage young people in the global sustainability agenda. We used our foundation of knowledge and experience to develop a programme that included developing digital capability, digital literacy, personal wellbeing and great teaching.
The project, funded by UNESCO and Nisai Group, targeted 40 children in 10 schools in the Russian Federation. We partnered with UNESCO Institute of Information Technologies in Education and the St Petersburg school district
The project delivered successfully to pupils and schools, with the learning being reported in the project evaluation by UNESCO IITE. Following the project, IITE supported further scalability evaluations in Asia.
NET Innovation Webinars
The NET Innovation Webinars were initially a response during the coronavirus pandemic to educators’ need to understand best practice in delivering education online, what the impacts on learner and educator well-being were, and how we might incorporate this learning into new models of education following the pandemic. The project continues to bring together experts and outstanding practitioners to hold conversations about innovation in education, online and blended learning to empower and inform educators. The NET Innovation Webinars support educators across the world who need access to expertise on topical issues related to supporting vulnerable students and online/blended learning.
This project was funded by Nisai Global and we worked with many partners, including Achievement for All, Department of Education in The Philippines, the DME Trust, Nasen, PINC College, PRUsAP, Units of Sound, Universities of Bristol, Oxford Brookes and Toronto, Venturers Trust.
So far the NET Innovation Webinars have supported over 1200 educators across four continents as they responded to the challenges of online and blended through and beyond the Covid – 19 pandemic. Educators told us that NET Innovation Webinars brought something of real value at a difficult time, with 100% of attendees rating the webinars as ‘good’ or better.
Guidance for Educators in AP about DME Learners
Many children in who have had a rough ride in traditional education have hidden talents and abilities. In this project, we worked in partnership with specialist organisations and practitioners in Alternative Provision settings to develop appropriate materials for educators to be able to identify and support the complex needs of children with DME.
The project was funded by Nisai Global, Potential Plus UK and The Potential Trust and we worked in partnership with The DME Trust, PRUsAP, PINC College and Nasen to deliver it.
We delivered downloadable support and guidance on how to identify and support learners with Dual and Multiple Exceptionality whilst we made it available to every teacher in every Alternative Provision setting in England.
Lockdown Laptops
We made laptops available to families who had no access to technology during local lockdowns so that children could continue learning, The target group was primary school-aged children in the Philippines who were unable to attend school due to local coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.
The project was funded by Nisai Group and we partnered with Faith Grower School, Philippines. The result was that 60 primary school-aged children were able to continue their education by accessing education programs from Singapore when they could not attend school.
Universal Design for Learning goes online
This project sought to investigate how the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model might effectively support teaching on online learning platforms for vulnerable learners. We applied Universal Design for Learning into an extant virtual/blended school – seeking to create an integrated and individualized learning system for pupils.
The aim was to support equity and innovation in teaching and learning and also to identify and disseminate models of best UDL practice. It was undertaken by teachers currently delivering to pupils and the learning was used by educators working in online and blended education with pupils with learning differences, and those deploying the UDL delivery structure.
The project was funded by Nisai Group and we partnered with CAST/UDL. The outcome of the project was that detailed evaluation of how the UDL structure can be applied in the online learning context was developed for the UDL Implementation and Research Network and published online.
Refugee Mothers’ Literacy
In this innovative project, Nisai Education Trust provided technology and program support to Happy Baby Community to enable refugee mothers (of new-born babies) to develop their English language literacy. The target group was refugee mothers of new-born babies based in London, UK. We worked in partnership with Happy Baby Community and the project was joint-funded by HBC and Nisai Group.
20 refugee mothers had access to online functional language learning throughout the coronavirus pandemic where otherwise their access to learning would have stopped. One of the initial successes of this program has been one mother gaining a place on an MSC course at the University of London. In addition, we have gained further understanding as to the most effective online pedagogy to support the development of functional literacy skills for this vulnerable group.
Working with Staffordshire University on research into online education
Nisai Education Trust will support the recently awarded research grant - a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Nisai Group with Staffordshire University - awarded by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI).
The Staffordshire University team, including Dr Charlotte Fearn who will be embedded within Nisai, will work with to apply academic knowledge and critical understanding of the on-going disruption to children’s progress as part of the long-term fall-out of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis. We know that a significant number of schools and families are continuing to experience real issues in terms of children’s low attendance, poor engagement, and rejection of the formal education system. Key to the success of the project will be involving those children, schools and families in the research and service design.
Dr Jim Pugh, Director of the Institute of Education at Staffordshire University said: ‘We have a track record of research and evaluation projects which fall within the realm of widening access and participation to education, and which align strongly to the projects aims and outcomes. Staffordshire University is really excited to be involved in this project as it presents a novel research and development challenge - developing cutting edge digital approaches to learning and teaching for the compulsory sector.’
The 2.5 year project will find out more about how we can best use non-traditional education to ensure that all children get access to high-quality education. It will then develop innovative services that will enable children and young people to stay engaged in the education process - gaining the outcomes they need and deserve in a rapidly changing economic and technological environment.
Dhruv Patel, Founder and CEO of Nisai Group commented: ‘In an education landscape revolutionised by digital technology we must ensure that we meet the moral and economic imperatives to ensure equitable access to quality education for every learner, regardless of learning need, age, background or socio-economic status. This project is proof of both organisations passion for, and commitment to, that cause!’
As research findings emerge from the project they will be published through both the University and the Nisai Education Trust website.
This project extended the reach of the Units of Sound second chance literacy program by converting it to HTML which enabled a cloud-based, mobile version. The project also evaluated the potential for delivery within the United States education system through small partner projects. Units of Sound has supported vulnerable learners in adult literacy projects, young offender institutions, and within the Charter School system.
The project was funded by Oak Foundation’s Learning Differences Programme and we worked in partnership with Georgia State University’s national adult literacy research centre at Atlanta and Betwixt Consulting USA.
Over 4,300 learners have been able to continue on Units of Sound due to the cloud-base, mobile version being available, and a further 3,348 learners have joined since the cloud-based version went ‘live’ in January 2021. In addition, 180 literacy teachers and tutors in 132 schools and teaching centres in the UK and Asia have been trained to deliver the programme. The evaluation of the US market – with a focus on the barriers engendered through market structure and current public service procurement limitations – was published for public information.
The project developed an innovative pilot programme to learn more about how we can best use blended (online and in-school) experiences to engage young people in the global sustainability agenda. We used our foundation of knowledge and experience to develop a programme that included developing digital capability, digital literacy, personal wellbeing and great teaching.
The project, funded by UNESCO and Nisai Group, targeted 40 children in 10 schools in the Russian Federation. We partnered with UNESCO Institute of Information Technologies in Education and the St Petersburg school district
The project delivered successfully to pupils and schools, with the learning being reported in the project evaluation by UNESCO IITE. Following the project, IITE supported further scalability evaluations in Asia.
The NET Innovation Webinars were initially a response during the coronavirus pandemic to educators’ need to understand best practice in delivering education online, what the impacts on learner and educator well-being were, and how we might incorporate this learning into new models of education following the pandemic. The project continues to bring together experts and outstanding practitioners to hold conversations about innovation in education, online and blended learning to empower and inform educators. The NET Innovation Webinars support educators across the world who need access to expertise on topical issues related to supporting vulnerable students and online/blended learning.
This project was funded by Nisai Global and we worked with many partners, including Achievement for All, Department of Education in The Philippines, the DME Trust, Nasen, PINC College, PRUsAP, Units of Sound, Universities of Bristol, Oxford Brookes and Toronto, Venturers Trust.
So far the NET Innovation Webinars have supported over 1200 educators across four continents as they responded to the challenges of online and blended through and beyond the Covid – 19 pandemic. Educators told us that NET Innovation Webinars brought something of real value at a difficult time, with 100% of attendees rating the webinars as ‘good’ or better.
Many children in who have had a rough ride in traditional education have hidden talents and abilities. In this project, we worked in partnership with specialist organisations and practitioners in Alternative Provision settings to develop appropriate materials for educators to be able to identify and support the complex needs of children with DME.
The project was funded by Nisai Global, Potential Plus UK and The Potential Trust and we worked in partnership with The DME Trust, PRUsAP, PINC College and Nasen to deliver it.
We delivered downloadable support and guidance on how to identify and support learners with Dual and Multiple Exceptionality whilst we made it available to every teacher in every Alternative Provision setting in England.
We made laptops available to families who had no access to technology during local lockdowns so that children could continue learning, The target group was primary school-aged children in the Philippines who were unable to attend school due to local coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.
The project was funded by Nisai Group and we partnered with Faith Grower School, Philippines. The result was that 60 primary school-aged children were able to continue their education by accessing education programs from Singapore when they could not attend school.
This project sought to investigate how the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model might effectively support teaching on online learning platforms for vulnerable learners. We applied Universal Design for Learning into an extant virtual/blended school – seeking to create an integrated and individualized learning system for pupils.
The aim was to support equity and innovation in teaching and learning and also to identify and disseminate models of best UDL practice. It was undertaken by teachers currently delivering to pupils and the learning was used by educators working in online and blended education with pupils with learning differences, and those deploying the UDL delivery structure.
The project was funded by Nisai Group and we partnered with CAST/UDL. The outcome of the project was that detailed evaluation of how the UDL structure can be applied in the online learning context was developed for the UDL Implementation and Research Network and published online.
In this innovative project, Nisai Education Trust provided technology and program support to Happy Baby Community to enable refugee mothers (of new-born babies) to develop their English language literacy. The target group was refugee mothers of new-born babies based in London, UK. We worked in partnership with Happy Baby Community and the project was joint-funded by HBC and Nisai Group.
20 refugee mothers had access to online functional language learning throughout the coronavirus pandemic where otherwise their access to learning would have stopped. One of the initial successes of this program has been one mother gaining a place on an MSC course at the University of London. In addition, we have gained further understanding as to the most effective online pedagogy to support the development of functional literacy skills for this vulnerable group.
Nisai Education Trust will support the recently awarded research grant - a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Nisai Group with Staffordshire University - awarded by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI).
The Staffordshire University team, including Dr Charlotte Fearn who will be embedded within Nisai, will work with to apply academic knowledge and critical understanding of the on-going disruption to children’s progress as part of the long-term fall-out of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis. We know that a significant number of schools and families are continuing to experience real issues in terms of children’s low attendance, poor engagement, and rejection of the formal education system. Key to the success of the project will be involving those children, schools and families in the research and service design.
Dr Jim Pugh, Director of the Institute of Education at Staffordshire University said: ‘We have a track record of research and evaluation projects which fall within the realm of widening access and participation to education, and which align strongly to the projects aims and outcomes. Staffordshire University is really excited to be involved in this project as it presents a novel research and development challenge - developing cutting edge digital approaches to learning and teaching for the compulsory sector.’
The 2.5 year project will find out more about how we can best use non-traditional education to ensure that all children get access to high-quality education. It will then develop innovative services that will enable children and young people to stay engaged in the education process - gaining the outcomes they need and deserve in a rapidly changing economic and technological environment.
Dhruv Patel, Founder and CEO of Nisai Group commented: ‘In an education landscape revolutionised by digital technology we must ensure that we meet the moral and economic imperatives to ensure equitable access to quality education for every learner, regardless of learning need, age, background or socio-economic status. This project is proof of both organisations passion for, and commitment to, that cause!’
As research findings emerge from the project they will be published through both the University and the Nisai Education Trust website.
“At Nisai Education Trust we really believe in the power of innovation in education. The past 25 years have seen the start of a revolution in how we think about education and in how we relate to technology – all borne out in the response around the world to the Covid-19 pandemic. But there are huge questions to answer around how we are going to harness the innovation, and how new technologies will interface with more traditional education structures as we move forward. Our hope is that we can make some contribution to the understanding of online and blended learning, and share it widely with educators. If you share that vision, please do get in touch!”
Paul Keenleyside
Executive Director, Nisai Education Trust
Nisai Education Trust Ltd is recognised as a charity in England & Wales. Registered Charity number 1195283
Our Partners
These projects could not be done alone; we have worked with many partners to deliver them and continue to develop relationships. We are grateful to the organisations we have worked with for their commitment to the projects, their support for learners and their contributions to the understanding of best practice in online and blended education.
