Online Booster Programme Proves Popular Choice for Struggling Schools

With hundreds of schools throughout England failing to meet Government targets, an innovative new solution from one of the UK’s leading providers of online learning could provide the answer education professionals have been looking for.

The National Challenge, a Government initiative that aims to improve standards in English secondary schools so that by 2011, at least 30 percent of students in each school will achieve a minimum of five GCSEs at A*-C grade, including English and Mathematics, was launched by the Secretary of State in June 2008. With 638 schools falling below this threshold last year, the 2009 exam period is seen as a crucial time for schools that either failed or narrowly passed the challenge, with many facing the threat of closure should significant improvements in the attainment levels of their pupils not occur.

The Nisai Group, a pioneering provider of online learning solutions, has recently launched an innovative solution to the problem in the form of short booster courses that are designed to provide extra support to those students requiring additional help with their studies to enable them to achieve the necessary grades. Nisai’s extensive experience in providing engaging and inspiring online learning to a wide range of young people has been used to create these concentrated packages, which are tailored to meet the requirements of each school and group of students.

Karen Farmer, Associate Deputy Head of Winifred Holtby School Technology College in Hull, one of the schools that only narrowly achieved last year’s target with between 30 and 35 percent of students reaching the required grades and one of the first schools to begin using the Booster Programme said, "The Nisai Virtual Academy was recommended to us as a way of motivating students and perfectly fits our requirements. We want to provide a different experience for our children who have previously struggled with Maths or English to get a grade C. Using Nisai has allowed us to give them a different learning experience in addition to the booster sessions to enhance the provision currently in place”.

"The classes are flexible and the children have really enjoyed a different way of being taught”, continued Mrs Farmer. The secure online environment provided by the Nisai Virtual Academy has been designed to motivate and engage students with their learning and has already been used by many Local Authorities as an effective means of enabling students unable to attend school, such as those with medical problems, to access education.

"I have been very impressed with the support offered and the responses to questions we have received. Nisai have been able to meet our needs for the different cohorts of students that we have and I will definitely be using them in the future. I would recommend the Nisai Virtual Academy to others without a doubt and already have", concluded Mrs Farmer.