Tech Entrepreneur sets up online Ukraine School to help refugees arriving in the UK

Ukrainian children arriving in the UK are to benefit from the creation of Ukraine School, a free online educational platform to help Ukrainian pupils overcome language barriers and continue their learning whilst settling into schools in the UK.

Ukraine School has been created by tech entrepreneur Brendan Morrissey and his team at eSchools, which provides online teaching and communications solutions to teachers and pupils across 1,100 UK schools.

The free virtual Ukraine School allows teachers to set homework, run class projects, messaging, blogs and calendar and give feedback in English, which is then translated into Ukrainian for children. Once work is completed, it is translated back into English.

Ukraine School is looking to bridge the gap between younger children with little or no English and their new teachers and classmates, an invaluable service for the now over 1000 Ukrainian refugees currently in the UK.

Having developed educational apps, Brendan Morrissey decided to re-formulate some of his previous work to form Ukraine School after war broke out in Ukraine. With 50 languages already available on the platform it is hoped that once the technology is established in the UK, it will be distributed to other countries where Ukrainian refugees are settling. Hundreds of schools in Ireland have already signed up to the platform.

The next step for Ukraine School is to acquire hardware to allow the platform to be accessed outside the classroom. With many refugees expected to not have immediate access to computers or laptops, the organisation is now looking for corporate partners that can donate hardware allowing children to access the website both at home and in school.

Teachers and schools can access Ukraine School by emailing [email protected] where the team will send out passwords to add students. There’s also a free app for parents linked to the eSchools app that allows them to view homework and connect with the school.

Brendan Morrissey, Founder, Ukraine School, commented: 

“The idea behind the platform is that Ukrainian children will be able to continue their education with minimal interruption, in spite of everything else they might be dealing with at the moment. The platform will allow teachers to set homework, run class projects and give feedback, which is then translated into Ukrainian and vice versa when the child completes their schoolwork. It also allows children to connect with new friends and teachers in a safe environment. Our motto at eSchools is that no child is left behind so we had to develop this to assist them.”

“Our hope is that by using the platform, schools in England and local authorities can support refugees in a meaningful way, without incurring further costs on already stretched school budgets.”

“The next step is for other tech companies to get involved, the likes of Google, Microsoft, or Samsung. We’d really like to see these companies support what we’re doing by providing hardware to local schools with our platform pre-loaded. This would allow children to continue learning and working in their new homes in the UK.”