Social distancing technology introduced to protect children on the school run
School transport specialist Kura has updated its award-winning vehicle tracking and safeguarding technology, creating a tailored solution to help schoolchildren maintain safe social distancing while using school bus services. Kura’s smart registration software allows schools to keep track of exactly who has travelled on the bus each day, to facilitate contact tracing. Updates to the service and processes mean parents can be safe in the knowledge that their children will be the Government-mandated two metres apart from the next passenger. Through these measures, combined with adapted routes, schools will be able to safely transport pupils to and from school, while maintaining social distancing measures and minimising the risk of infection. Kura is further ensuring pupil safety with a range of additional precautionary measures. These include fully-contactless registration, with children tapping on and off the bus using their pre-assigned fobs, a cap on the number of students allowed to ride on each vehicle, and each vehicle being thoroughly sanitised between journeys. Kura harnesses powerful tracking and app technologies to provide schools with a safer, greener and more cost-efficient school run service, increasing pupil uptake of school transport, reducing the need for cars and in turn reducing traffic congestion, both on the roads and at the school gates. The business manages a virtual fleet of 30,000 vehicles and, pre-lockdown, Kura’s technology was in use over 300 travel routes, providing safe home to school services for 7,000 pupils daily. Kura also continues to provide home-to-school transport services to the children of key workers attending school throughout lockdown. Using advanced geofencing technology, Kura allows schools and parents to keep track of when pupils get on and off the bus, while also providing transparent, real-time journey updates. Schoolchildren can “tap” on and off the school bus using an NFC (Near Field Communication) fob. The system then notifies trusted family members, guardians or friends in real-time when the children are boarding or alighting, in turn significantly easing parental concerns about their children’s safety when travelling to and from school without parental supervision. Mathew Hassell, founder and CEO at Kura, said: “While children getting back into the classroom is crucial for their wellbeing and future prospects, this will not have come at a welcome time for many parents required to begin going back to work, they may not always have the time for the daily school run in current circumstances, and recent days have proven that public transport options cannot be relied upon. “The UK coach and minibus industry has thousands of vehicles ready to go now, that can accommodate groups of passengers comfortably while maintaining safe social distancing measures. However, to make shared vehicles a viable option more needed to be done to enhance the safety of passengers on-board, which is why we’ve adapted our existing groundbreaking technology to specifically meet the needs of those who will need to travel to and from school over the coming months. “With walking, cycling and public transport not logistically-viable for all in the current climate, shared, school-managed transport remains a safe, greener way for pupils to reliably get to and from school, if the right precautions are put in place. With the tens of thousands of suitable school vehicles currently sitting idle, there are more than enough vehicles to transport children safely.” For more information about Kura’s COVID-19 social distancing measures, please visit https://www.ridekura.com/2020/05/safer-transport-covid-19/
Wellbeing amongst teaching staff drops since lockdown in new survey
60% of teaching professionals rated their wellbeing positive before lockdown restrictions, dropping to 32% since lockdown has been in place More than four fifths (81%) believe their employer has a responsibility to look after their wellbeing 47% say having adequate mental health support from their employer has also become more important since lockdown Wellbeing amongst teaching professionals has taken a dive since lockdown restrictions were enforced in March, according to a new survey by recruiting experts, Hays. As the UK recognises Mental Health Awareness Week, Hays urges employers to consider the effect working remotely in lockdown is having on their staff. From a survey of over 16,200 professionals, close to two thirds (60%) of those who work in teaching rated their wellbeing positive before restrictions were put in place, but only 32% said it was still positive since lockdown. Those who rated their wellbeing as negative rose from 9% to 28%. Roughly a fifth (21%) said a lack of social interaction has been the greatest challenge to their wellbeing, followed by isolation and loneliness (18%). Workers look to employers for more support More than four fifths (81%) of teaching staff say their employer has a responsibility to look after their wellbeing, but over half (55%) state that their employer hasn’t provided any wellbeing support during the lockdown. Of those who said their employer was providing support, 25% also said their employer is offering social activities, followed by training and counselling (both 15%). Work-life balance is a bigger priority since lockdown For 41% of those who work in teaching, work-life balance has become more important to them since lockdown, despite 46% rating their work-life balance between average and very poor. Having adequate mental health support from their employer has also become more important since being in lockdown, according to nearly half (47%). To support teachers with their work-life balance, Hays Education has recently launched Wellbeing First, the UK’s first free wellbeing training available for school staff across the UK. This training consists of free courses to help teachers and staff manage their stress levels, reduce their anxiety, foster positive mental health and prioritise their work-life balance, while also meeting CPD requirements. Paul Matthias, National Specialism Director of Hays Education, commented: “Staff wellbeing needs to be a top priority for those in teaching as the impacts on the profession are continuously being felt. Although every teacher is in a different position, remaining transparent and communicating to employees frequently will be extremely important as our way of working continues to change. Some of the steps employers can take include using internal communication channels to provide wellbeing advice, cultivating an open and trustworthy culture, offering training to support mental health and wellbeing, and being flexible with schedules and expectations. These support systems will help teachers through the changes and challenges ahead and allow them to continue carrying out the essential work they do.” For more information on the free Wellbeing First or other training courses, visit: https://educationtraining.hays.co.uk/
One third of the population affected by schools shutdown
Over 21 million people — 11 million parents and 10 million children, or a third of the population — are being affected by schools shutdown across the UK, according to a new analysis of official government data. Up to two thirds of parents have received no contact from schools with advice about supervised learning, leaving them to fend for themselves. While schools remain open, only 180,000 vulnerable children or those of key workers attended school on average each day following the Easter holidays (21 April – 1 May). The remaining 98 per cent of school children have been forced by the coronavirus outbreak to continue their education at home under the supervision of parents and carers. The new data analysis by education campaign group Just Add Parents reveals that: 14.2 million parents with dependent children have been affected by the closure of schools and childcare services 11 million of those parents have school-age children between 5 and 18 years old 10.2 million children typically attend school, but an average of only 180,000 are currently attending — two per cent of the total During the lockdown, 98 per cent of school age children will be dependent on the support and motivation of parents to complete their schoolwork Peter Sigrist, founder of campaign group Just Add Parents, comments: “Parents have always played a vital role in their child’s education but coronavirus has harshly revealed the gap between a school’s ability to communicate and parent’s ability to teach. Schools need help to move beyond information. They need to equip parents with knowledge, confidence and clarity to make sure their children don’t lose out on a whole year of education.” A recent report from education charity the Sutton Trust (note 1) revealed half of schools (50 per cent secondary, 47 per cent primary) offer no general advice to parents about supporting learning and only one in three (36 per cent secondary, 34 per cent primary) had contacted parents to offer specific advice about supervised learning. This means parents have mostly been left to work it out for themselves. The Department for Education has published only five paragraphs of advice on “the expectations on schools regarding staying in touch with parents whose child is at home”. It contains no suggestions on how schools can help parents play the role of educators during the shutdown (note 2). The coronavirus is affecting parents and children unevenly. The Sutton Trust research reveals most parents with a degree feel confident directing their child’s learning, compared to less than half of those parents who did not attend university. Only one third of children in state schools have joined online classes during the shutdown, while over half of children in private schools have taken part daily in live or recorded online lessons. Sigrist continues: “While schools are doing their best to send information to parents and provide access to technology, from the examples we’ve seen, few appear to recognise the role that good communication plays in giving parents the support they need to build home-schooling into their already busy, stressed out schedule. All the evidence shows that clear, consistent and regular communication, whether by email, app or video, helps parents avoid becoming overwhelmed and losing confidence.” Education researchers in Latvia concluded a major study of education during their coronavirus shutdown and found a strong connection between communication and confidence (note 3). The research team at Edurio found three quarters (76 per cent) of parents who received clear communication from their school also had confidence that their children would meet their learning goals. Where school communication was completely unclear, only nine per cent of parents were confident in their children’s learning success. The same research found that while communication was the most important factor in delivering successful home-based education during the crisis, schools also need to focus on clarity over volume, with communications a few times a week almost as effective (91 per cent clear) as communication a few times a day (95 per cent clear).
Staff retention during a pandemic: what the UK education sector needs to know
Although some announcements have been made in regards to when children might return to classroom learning, most year groups in schools, as well as colleges and universities throughout the UK remain closed for the foreseeable future. The education sector has had to make big changes to the way they communicate with, as well as the way they educate pupils, students, parents – and staff. But what exactly does COVID-19 mean for staff retention in educational institutions during this period? Is it possible that maintaining a full staff might not happen during the pandemic and lockdown period? What is the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme? If you’re not already, you should be familiar with the term ‘furlough’ or ‘being furloughed’ – a term coined by the government, in regards to their Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Briefly, the scheme allows institutions and businesses to keep staff protected during the lockdown period and continue paying wages, which is 80% of their salary or up to £2,500 per month. Throughout many schools, colleges, universities etc. in the UK, and worldwide, however, certain staff members are paid through recruitment agencies or umbrella companies, such as supply teachers. Currently, there isn’t any solid advice on whether or not these organisations can claim back through the government’s scheme. However, if individuals are being paid through a PAYE, there may be opportunity for them to be furloughed continue receiving some element of their wages. Am I eligible? If you’re a supply teacher or staff member, and you usually work through recruitment agencies, consult with your agency about your previous role and try to make steps to be furloughed. Remember, if you are successful in being furloughed, you won’t be able to work for that particular job, even if requested to. If you have a fixed term contract with a school, you will be a crucial part of the team when it comes to supporting other teachers. If you’re a contracted teacher, there should be no change to your employment during lockdown. Your role may continue by remote teaching, as well as looking after key workers’ children, during allocated times. If you’re a vulnerable person however, you won’t be expected to do this, as this could put you at risk, especially if you have an illness. Your main focus throughout the lockdown period may be to plan the delivery of next year’s curriculum, as well as planning for if you’re expected to go in and teach certain year’s before the end of the school year. Department improvement and development are also important tasks, particularly with the education sector, as we’re expecting to see huge changes in learning and teaching because of the pandemic. Online teaching software, such as Kinteract, enables teachers to effectively communicate with students and parents during the lockdown period – and beyond. What about Further Education? If you work for a college, which is not primarily funded by the government, you will be eligible for furlough, especially if you work in departments such as finance, student administration, human resources, and marketing. Admin and support staff are an essential part of college life. Although not all of these staff will be furloughed, it’s important that those that can be are. This is so that when colleges begin again, students will be aware of familiar faces. What about Higher Education? Fixed-term contracts are much more likely to happen in universities, such as visiting lecturers, support workers, and researchers. Throughout UK universities, there are queries over the impact that the pandemic could have on staff retention. This could be based on speculation that international students will no longer apply and perhaps September 2020 applicants will defer to next year. Can an independent school apply for the job retention scheme? Yes – but this depends on certain elements. An independent school should not rely on the government to offer additional funding, unless they receive this already. If you are an independent school and can prove that cash flow has been affected by the pandemic, for example, parents may have ceased paying fees – then independent schools may be allowed to furlough staff and gain payment from the government scheme. Online and remote learning Staff and students, wherever they’re based, can benefit from online and remote learning. For many education staff members, this might be a completely new way of teaching, but can only complement classroom-based learning. Using an online platform enhances the teaching experience for the student, rather than replacing the teacher entirely.
Remote learning ‘Zooms’ to success
As the lockdown continues, education providers are adapting their teaching styles to ensure the continuity of learning. Keele and North Staffordshire Teacher Education (KNSTE) are utilising video remote learning to enable lessons to continue and further develop trainee’s knowledge. Director of KNSTE, Di Swift, explained: “In these unprecedented times we are taking new approaches to our teaching and utilising technology to enable remote classrooms to continue. “It is vital that our trainees are as well prepared as they can be, so that they can play their part in utilising the power of education to positively transform lives.” “We cannot pretend to replicate school-based elements of the programme online, but we can still offer high quality professional learning and development.” KNSTE have teamed up with Dialogue Works, utilising video conferencing to introduce their cohort of trainees to a metacognitive framework, based on an A-Z of ‘Thinking Moves’. This approach has helped trainees to develop their subject knowledge and lesson planning in a highly focused way. ‘Thinking Moves’ is based on Philosophy for Children, with the aim of enhancing communication and thinking skills, as well as accelerating personal, social and intellectual development. The Ultimate Guide to Personalized Tutoring: Helping Learners Reach Their Full Potential Mrs Swift continued: “We are delighted to be working with Dialogue Works to continue broadening our trainee’s knowledge through a range of interactive resources. “Metacognition capabilities plays an important role in maximizing learning – for both our trainees and their future students – and, given the current social restrictions, we are delighted to be able to continue to develop our trainee’s pedagogical understanding.” The collaboration launched to great success, with course leaders and trainees alike praising the online sessions. Following the positive feedback received, KNSTE are now exploring other online learning pathways to ensure their trainees learning experience is not disrupted. For more information about KNSTE and the courses on offer, visit: www.knste-shaw.org.uk
Re-opening schools and colleges – employers questions answered
The government has asked schools and FE colleges to start to re-open from 1 June for some students has caused a large amount of controversy. Many schools and colleges have remained open to the children of key workers and those who are vulnerable, but opening up to a wider group of children will need careful preparation. This article by Joanne Moseley at national law firm Irwin Mitchell, explains the issues you will need to consider. 1. Conduct a risk assessment All employers must take all reasonable steps to ensure that their staff work in a safe environment. If risks are identified, you must reduce these to the lowest practicable level. Before re-opening schools and colleges, or extending teaching to a wider group of pupils, you must carry out a Covid-19 risk assessment. General guidance produced by the HSE states that you must: identify what work activity or situations might cause transmission of the virus think about who could be at risk decide how likely it is that someone could be exposed act to remove the activity or situation, or if this isn’t possible, control the risk. Each of these steps must be carefully considered and documented. In the context of schools and colleges, Public Health England have said that the risk of transmission will be lowered if they apply ‘comprehensive infection control measures’. You should also read and follow new guidance: Covid-19: implementing protective measures in education and childcare settings which recommends: minimising contact with individuals who are unwell by ensuring that those who have coronavirus symptoms, or who have someone in their household who does, do –not attend childcare settings, schools or colleges cleaning hands more often than usual ensuring good respiratory hygiene by promoting the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach cleaning frequently touched surfaces using standard products, such as detergents and bleach minimising contact and mixing by altering, as much as possible, the environment (such as classroom layout) and timetables (such as staggered break times) The government has said that the majority of staff won’t need PPE beyond what they normally need for their work – even if they are not always able to maintain a distance of two meters from others. 2. Consult health and safety representatives Where unions are formally recognised, you must consult with the unions on health and safety matters and discuss your proposals for making your workplace safe for staff with union H&S representatives. If you fail to do this, it will give rise to issues under your collective bargaining arrangements and a breach of specific statutory duties. If you don’t have a union representative or a collective agreement, then you need to consult with your employees directly – as individuals or through workforce elected H&S representatives. If unions do not engage, you may need to go direct to staff on the proposals for workplace arrangements – but you should get further legal advice before doing so. Consultation involves giving information and taking into account what health and safety representatives say before making any health and safety decisions. Be open to comments and suggestions. The law doesn’t state when you must consult, or for how long, but it does say it should be ‘in good time’. In practice, this means you have to allow time for your employees to consider the issues and provide them with informed responses. 3. Consider individual circumstances You will need to know which members of staff fall into the clinically extremely vulnerable category (and must remain at home) and those who are clinically vulnerable. We recommend that you undertake individual risk assessments for those who are clinically vulnerable to ascertain whether it is safe for them to return to work. In most cases, they should be allowed to work from home. You’ll also need to consider what, if any, evidence you need from individuals who are in the vulnerable groups. In some cases, you can ask and reasonably expect evidence of a health condition to be provided (to be held and processed as sensitive personal data). In others, and in particular where they live with a vulnerable person, you cannot insist on this evidence being provided as the person affected is not your employee. You should also consider which members of staff use public transport to travel to work as current guidance is to avoid public transport where possible. You’ll need to consider how busy their route is likely to be and, perhaps look at other ways in which staff can travel safely. The Government has published safer travel guidance for passengers which asks users to ‘consider all other forms of transport before using public transport’. Where there is no alternative people are advised to; maintain social distancing (and wait for another service is their bus/train is already full), travel off peak and wear a face covering. Clearly this requires flexibility of the employer in terms of usual start and finish times. 4. Encourage staff to co-operate with requests for information We are aware that some unions are advising staff to not engage if they are asked by their employer if they are available for work. Make it clear to staff that you are asking for information in order to undertake risk assessments and to consider all options in light of the government announcement on re-opening and that you expect them to respond. We recommend that you: Explain that you will only open if your risk assessment indicates it is safe to do so and encourage them to cooperate in discussions Explain that you are engaging (or seeking to engage with the unions) and are considering their recommendations to re-opening Emphasise collating this information is important so that you can understand which staff are particularly at risk and that that you will be seeking to consult with health and safety representatives and unions in relation to all proposed measures for managing re-opening Set a date when that information needs to be
Safeguarding across a multi-academy trust
The scale of managing safeguarding across a multi-academy trust can come with particular challenges, including a lack of continuity between systems, patchy communication between and within establishments, unsecure channels for sharing information, lack of access to high-level data and difficulty identifying trends across and between schools in the group. We work closely with a lot of trust-wide safeguarding leads, including Sue Bailey from Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (ATLP). We’ve found that her experience coming into that role closely mirrors the experiences of many of the other trust-wide safeguarding leads we know well. ATLP has 14 schools catering from early years through to sixth form, covering a range of localised needs across three geographic areas, which each responds to a different safeguardinag board and also complies with the Trust’s regulations. When Sue stepped into the role of Trust Safeguarding Lead in 2018, her priorities were to coordinate safeguarding across the Trust, train and provide supervision for the Designated Safeguarding Leads, ensure everyone was kept up to date with the latest guidance and developments and be present in schools as much as possible in order to provide on-the-ground support. She also wanted to thoroughly assess the systems and levels of experience and skills across the schools in order to know how best they could support each other. What struck her immediately was that everyone was using different reporting methods, so she soon brought all the schools onto one system with MyConcern. Sue immediately found that having consistent systems and methods across the Trust meant that she was able to look at everything as a comprehensive picture, identifying, for instance, how many safeguarding and wellbeing checks were being conducted, emerging trends, increases in domestic violence or challenges around children’s mental health. This enabled her to increase signposting to staff so they could find the guidance they needed to tackle the relevant challenges within their schools. It also meant that she knew exactly what training she needed to introduce where. Now, record-keeping has become efficient and helpful, rather than a just a necessary task. Having updated information in the right place in chronological order, showing who said what when, means a full picture can be painted for each child. Records are also readily accessible from the app at home, rather than locked in a cupboard within individual schools, meaning information can be immediately accessed when needed. We wanted to bring peace of mind to Trust-wide Safeguarding Leads so they know they are doing everything they can to consistently safeguard and protect the children and young people across all their schools. Our new and exciting MyConcern solution which we have called ‘Clarity™’ has been designed especially for Multi-Academy Trusts and large groups of establishments working together. Clarity, is able to aggregate critical safeguarding data from separate instances of MyConcern and allows that data to be collected and viewed from one central location. This is a significant game-changer for MATs as it allows them to analyse all of the relevant data in a meaningful way for the first time. This higher-level view allows Safeguarding Leads to pinpoint issues in one area or establishment which could spread to others. It allows for the quick and easy identification of risks and trends so that early help can be put into place to prevent escalation. The comprehensive data reports inform decision making, allowing users to identify training and resourcing requirements to encourage preventative action. Clarity also enables users to prove that interventions are working and demonstrate that processes comply with all statutory responsibilities during inspections. With the safety and wellbeing of children and young people at the heart of everything we do, we recognise the challenges of ensuring the in-depth understanding and management of safeguarding concerns across multiple sites. We want to make this as easy as possible for organisations to do so effectively, especially during such uncertain times. We have also been working hard to help more schools manage safeguarding concerns remotely throughout the COVID-19 lockdown crisis by offering access to our school-level software free of charge to all schools that currently don’t have an electronic record keeping system until September 2020. The safeguarding challenge for all education settings has come into sharp focus since the lockdown was imposed. MyConcern ensures that you have the right tools to meet those challenges and are well-equipped to keep vulnerable children and young people safe. To find out more about adopting MyConcern Safeguarding Software in your school or Clarity across your organisation, please visit www.myconcern.co.uk. Article by Mike Glanville. Mike is a former police officer with more than 35 years of high-level safeguarding experience. He is co-founder and Director of Safeguarding Services for the safeguarding software solution MyConcern.
Wellbeing focus for Cheshire primary schools
With children and parents approaching their ninth week of school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, three Cheshire primary schools are supporting pupils and parents with wellbeing resources. A coronavirus and wellbeing page has been set up by Clutton, Little Sutton and Upton Heath Church of England Primary Schools on their websites, featuring activities for children to undertake and sources of support for mental health and wellbeing. At Little Sutton Primary School, staff have been involved in creating a wellbeing video with advice and tips for children, such as doing things that you love, getting outdoors for fresh air, exercising, keeping brains active with home learning and chatting to a grown up about any worries or fears. Upton Heath Primary School has also created a video for children, encouraging them to talk to a trusted grown up about any worries they might have. The video features KS, the monkey puppet of KidSafe UK which is a safeguarding programme utilised at Upton Heath. Learning Mentor Jan Morris explains: “Many children will be finding it very hard to be away from school for so long, away from their usual routines, their friends and their teachers. Parents and carers too will be finding this extended lockdown difficult, particularly the uncertainty of not knowing when it will end. We wanted to help parents and children to navigate this difficult time by providing curated resources to support them, and will provide add new resources each week.” “The video we created is based on a programme we utilise at Upton Heath called KidSafe. We have been delivering KidSafe sessions to the children of Upton Heath for the past 5 years, along with our puppet KS. The aim of KidSafe UK is to protect, educate and empower children. KS is well known to all the children in school and they often stop by as they are passing to say hello, offer a high five or ask how he is feeling. Yes, even the children in Year 6! He is a very valued member of Upton Heath.” “We deliver five sessions consecutively to each class, and then deliver a follow up/refresher session three months later. We are always joined by KS and the children enjoy helping him to deal with his ‘yukky feelings’. The main message that the children learn is that if they are feeling sad, scared or worried and get yukky feelings, they should say no, walk away and tell a trusted grown up. With the majority of children not at school at the moment, we wanted to create the video to remind all children of this important message.” Upton Heath, Clutton and Little Sutton Primary School have also provided school website resources on mindfulness. Year 3 teacher Ms. Dolz of Upton Heath C of E Primary School has encouraged both children and parents to utilise mindfulness, saying: “Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the here and now without judgement. It is easy when you know how, as any activity can be done with a sense of mindfulness. For example, whilst eating dinner the focus of attention can be directed to the flavours and textures of the food. This means focusing on what is happening now, not yesterday, and not tomorrow.” “Times as they are, it is even more important to focus our minds and bodies to be in the present moment, without feeling fearful about the future. Practising mindfulness is incredibly empowering to children and it can help them manage stress and anxiety. Moreover, it can help them to feel encouraged to try new things and take more risks, reduce anxiety by focusing their breathing and promote kindness as a replacement for judgement.” The wellbeing resources can be accessed on the websites for Upton Heath, Clutton and Little Sutton. Little Sutton, Clutton and Upton Heath Church of England Primary Schools are all part of The Samara Trust, a multi academy trust formed in March 2018.
The UK has paved the way to a 21st century education for all
Coronavirus has a lot to answer for, much heartache and tragic loss but one rather more positive effect has been the emergence of a truly active and enjoyable life online for many of us. Education is no exception as, enter a British man, who has miraculously turned education on its head by capturing more than 2000 students who have joined his online school, taking free, live, quality lessons, delivered by fully-qualified, volunteer teachers. His ground-breaking vision and quick-thinking actions have resulted in the creation of an online school teaching the core subjects, maths, English and science to 5-18 year olds and it only started on 20th March, at the beginning of lockdown. Apart from the core subjects, his school offers yoga and dance to keep his students on their toes and more subjects are being added to the regular timetable all the time. Latin is commencing shortly as he believes that this is an important core element of a good education. So, who is this emerging Titan of the world of teaching and learning? He is Ali Latif who comes from a middle – class British family which holds robust beliefs about the benefit of a good education. Ali is a physics graduate and holds a masters in financial economics and his family has also always placed a strong emphasis on being altruistic and giving back to society. Ali’s mother inculcated a strong desire in him to help others as she led by example and fostered children with learning difficulties for many years. In a nutshell, Ali’s mission in life is to provide a free, live, quality online education for all in the world and he is already doing so for students in 15 other countries apart from the UK. Children in remote villages in Zambia and Namibia are benefitting tremendously right now and his education tentacles are spreading fast across the globe. Can you imagine a world where all refugees receive an education despite their poor living conditions? Ali is already on it and refugees in Greece are learning as we speak! Teachers and staff at The Online School find Latif to be a charismatic and engaging leader and they are willing to contribute to his dream without pay because the ambition of educating the world for free is a bold ambition but one, they realise, that must be fully achieved as soon as possible if we are to consider ourselves a civilised society. If we have the technology to accomplish giving an education to every single person, which we do, then all we have to do is get the word out so everyone can logon; it really is as simple as that.