Atom Learning is the UK’s largest edtech platform for Key Stage 2 students. Founded in 2018 by Alex Hatvany and Jake O’Keeffe, the platform helps primary school children between years 3-6 to improve their learning and prepare for secondary school entrance exams, including the 11+, and SATs.
Atom Learning is divided into two core learning models. ‘Atom Nucleus’ provides a high-quality and cost-effective alternative to private tutoring for parents wanting to support their children’s learning at home. ‘Atom Prime’ is free for all schools, as well as pupils on free school meals, and is used in classrooms around the UK to support over 90,000 primary school pupils.
What was the catalyst for launching Atom Learning?
Whilst studying at university, my cofounder, Jake, and I worked as tutors, but we became uncomfortable with how inaccessible tuition was to most ordinary families and how much the quality varies. Having seen first-hand the unregulated and unequal nature of private tuition, we decided to design and launch an alternative way for pupils to get the tailored support they need to enhance their educational outcomes.
Tell me about the business – what it is, what it aims to achieve, who you work with, how you reach customers and so on?
We built a platform to help primary school children from all backgrounds improve their learning and prepare for exams. Our product uses teacher created content and predictive technology to create fun, educational experiences that are tailored to each child’s learning style and knowledge level.
Through Atom, pupils complete interactive learning exercises that are never demotivating, but always challenging enough to accelerate progress and build confidence. Both of our Prime and Nucleus platforms use AI to tailor tasks to each child’s individual needs. No other online learning platform employs a model like ours.
How has the business evolved since its launch? When was this?
Since 2018, Atom Learning has expanded massively and our current team consists of over 100 education and technology professionals from across Europe. We’ve also accumulated a resource bank containing over 90,000 teacher-written questions and activities, and incorporated more advanced machine learning into our platform that adapts to changes in student’s moods and motivation levels. Our latest model has increased student engagement on the platform by more than 30% and attainment improvement rates by more than 40%.