Anusha Narayan

Classify

Designing a flexible, user-centred platform to simplify how schools track student progress

Context

Group project in final year

Duration

1 year

Team

Group of 6

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The Challenge

Primary school teachers often struggle with effectively tracking student progress due to rigid, clunky systems that are not designed with their workflows in mind. These tools tend to be time-consuming and heavily reliant on manual data entry, making the process inefficient and taking valuable time away from teaching.

Research & Discovery

We conducted over 30 interviews with primary school teachers and headteachers to understand the current landscape and pain points.

Users

The users are those at the heart of school operations - teachers managing the day-to-day realities of the classroom, and headteachers overseeing performance, priorities, and outcomes across the whole school.

Teachers

Goals

Easily take note of feedback on-the-go

Identify students who need extra support early

Track academic and personal student progress

Pain Points

Feedback cannot be given on-the-go

Data entry is a manual & time-consuming process

Tracking is spread across multiple platforms

Headteachers

Goals

Gain an overview of pupil progress

Streamline tracking and payments

Ensure no child falls through the cracks

Pain Points

Multiple platforms and payments to manage

Struggle to get actionable insights from data

Risk of missing important concerns

Key Insights & Actions

Data entry must be effortless and intuitive to support consistent daily use

Teachers are inputting data frequently, often under time pressure, so even small friction points can lead to inconsistency or avoidance. Streamlined, low-effort interactions are key to maintaining accurate and up-to-date records.

The system needs to reduce the need for multiple tracking tools

Schools often have to track a wide range of data - academic progress, behaviour, interventions - leading them to rely on multiple separate systems. This creates fragmentation, added cost, and inefficiency, highlighting the need for a more unified approach.

Clear, reliable overviews of each pupil’s learning journey are essential

Both teachers and leaders need to quickly understand how a pupil is progressing over time. This requires data to be presented in a way that is coherent, contextualised, and easy to interpret at a glance.

Data should be easily analysable at a whole-school level to support strategic decision-making

Headteachers rely on aggregated data to identify trends, gaps, and areas for intervention. The system should enable efficient analysis across classes, cohorts, and time periods without requiring complex manual work.

Decisions & Product Direction

Dictation is the primary way for teachers to record reflections

Teachers are the primary day-to-day users, responsible for capturing and updating student data. Any solution needs to fit seamlessly into their routines - quick, low effort, and intuitive - so tracking doesn’t become an added burden.

Automatic classification against curriculum targets will greatly save time

Reflections are mapped to curriculum standards, allowing tracking grids to be automatically prepopulated. This saves teachers significant time, particularly in more subjective subjects like PE and art.

All tracking needs should be managed in one platform

Schools need a single platform that supports all areas of student development, including academic progress, personal growth, and social development. Bringing this tracking into one place gives teachers and school leaders a more complete view of each child’s learning journey.

Filters and automatic report generation are more important for senior leadership

Headteachers need to filter progress data across different student groups, generate reports at any time, and access clear, data-backed insights to support decision-making.

Solution

Teachers can make reflections in any form that they prefer

Teachers can record reflections in the way that works best for them — through voice notes, quick in-lesson observations, or end-of-day writeups. With a mobile-friendly platform, reflections can be captured anytime, anywhere.

Actionable, meaningful insights are provided based on reflections

Student progress is more than just numbers on a screen. Classify combines data management with meaningful, human-centred insights, helping teachers understand progress in context without manually analysing large amounts of data.

Teachers can track individual pupils, classes, or key stages at a glance

Teachers get real-time insights on pupils, classes, groups, and cohorts, all synced with their school’s LMS. This enables them to quickly spot trends, implement timely interventions, and track their impact over time, supporting more informed, data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.

Positioning & Differentiation

We carried out a competitive benchmarking activity to understand how Classify can fit in the landscape of educational softwares

Key Findings

Clear opportunity for differentiation

Classify can differentiate itself through the dictation and smart classification features - neither of which are provided by existing softwares

Competitive pricing advantage

Classify offers broader functionality at a comparable or lower cost, strengthening its value proposition.

Early Validation & Industry Recognition

Beta Testers Signed Up

We have 13 teachers who are excited to be part of our beta testing cohort!

Pilot Schemes Confirmed

We have 3 primary schools who are ready to be part of our pilot scheme!

We are delighted to have been finalists in the Mayor’s Entrepreneurship and the AXA Startup Angel competitions in 2024!

Reflection & Next Steps

We are currently building our platform, ready for our first pilot - stay tuned!