Case Studies

Life Lessons, Oak National Academy tender development

Oriel Square delivered two winning tenders enabling Life Lessons Education to partner with Oak National Academy. Life Lessons was selected by Oak to develop a full spiral curriculum with accompanying lessons in the core subject areas:
Primary education – Relationships and Health Education (RHE)
Secondary – Relationships Sex and Health Education (RSHE)
Through this work, all schools in England will have access to free, high quality lessons that help with teacher confidence and support children to develop the knowledge and skills to make informed life choices and stay safe.

Our Head of Operations Claire Gilbert was well-placed to manage this project, drawing on decades of experience working in edtechs, and expertise in managing the complexities of the tendering process. Claire worked closely with the co-founders and key team members at Life Lessons to gather and develop the information required for the bid and shape it to deliver over 30 required documents.

“Government tenders are complex and overwhelming. You actually made a difficult process enjoyable. Working with us systematically through the deliverables, we appreciated your project management skills combined with an understanding of education and curriculum. We are delighted with the result.” – Jamie O’Connell, Co-CEO, Life Lessons

“It was a privilege to work alongside the team at Life Lessons Education and help them reach many more young people with their inspiring and innovative approach to RSHE. We were delighted that the tenders were successful.” – Claire Gilbert, Head of People and Operations, Oriel Square   

Jacari ELT: bespoke professional development course design and delivery

English language teaching charity Jacari had identified a need for professional development for their team which Oriel Square was able to offer on a pro bono basis. The focus was on developing writing and storytelling skills to engage their audience and convey their message to stakeholders.

Having worked with Jacari managers to identify the desired outcomes, Oriel Square’s Research and Strategy Manager, Hannie Kirkham; Design Manager, Rebekkah Hughes; and Communications Manager, Keira Moulding worked together to design the course.

We distilled what we know about creating impactful reports for education into a streamlined process and a template for the Jacari delegates to follow during the course. 

At the end of the half-day session, delegates had produced a detailed content plan for their report writing contexts, ready to implement.

“The session was really useful and I liked the balance between giving us information and tips and working through activities to get us thinking about a specific report we will be writing. It definitely filled a learning need across our team.” – Natasha Wooldridge, Fundraising and Supporter Engagement Manager

“I really enjoyed the workshop; the facilitators were great and made the course interesting. Using real life examples and applying learning to our context made it particularly useful, and the course was very interactive.” – Shaiane Gallardo, Programme Coordinator

“I really enjoyed the course, and feel much more confident about writing reports in the future. The information was really nicely presented and it wasn’t too much, just the right amount. Thank you.” – Aggie Kaziszyn, Programme Coordinator

T level resources and publishing process

We are working to develop T level resources for teachers and learners, focusing on delivering quality resources to improve learning outcomes. The resources cover engineering and manufacturing, health and science, digital, and construction. 

Oriel Square provided expertise in designing a publishing process that worked for our client’s team. We then worked closely with the team to deliver their vision for the resources.

Over 18 months, we have taken the project through research, commissioning, writing, production and development to create high-quality resources that will help learners progress in their chosen pathways.

We work with a dedicated team of specialist teachers, reviewers, editors and industry experts to ensure we are delivering the highest-quality materials in time for the new school year.

“One thing that has been key to the project’s success was establishing best practices for collaborating with the in-house team. Because we have been working closely together throughout, we have built trust in the process and the project has gone from strength to strength as we continue to learn from earlier stages”. – Sarah Bean, Project Leader

research and communications

British Council exam mapping research and communications

We worked with the British Council to support the marketing and delivery of their Secondary Plus course and provided recommendations to inform work on subsequent editions.  

The British Council wanted to map the course to national and international examinations to help market the current edition and to support teachers in helping students prepare for these exams.

This included research to map the course content to exams in the British Council’s top markets, alongside international assessments; a report summarising the findings; exam advice added to the teaching guides for each of the 120 modules; and two marketing decks to communicate the work.

“What worked well on this project was having multiple people in the Oriel Square team working on different phases depending on their area of expertise. When I came in towards the end of the project to work on the marketing materials, I had a really clear brief and objective, and I was able to speak to others in the team to collate the information I needed and develop that into something suitable for the target audiences.” – Keira Moulding, Communications Manager

HP Cambridge Partnership for Education EdTech Fellowship for The Gulf

We worked with CPE to develop the teaching curriculum and then deliver it by inviting guest speakers and expert trainers to engage with the Fellows.

Cambridge was looking to communicate expertise in EdTech to cohorts globally by bringing expert voices into the room so that our Fellows could hear from a range of experiences from major interventions in all parts of the globe. It was also looking to build a genuine fellowship so that the alumni would stay in touch for the rest of their careers to exchange ideas.

We were able to deliver those outcomes by developing the teaching curriculum and then working with experts in EdTech – be that academics or political leadership from Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa – to deliver the learning outcomes.

The calibre of the Fellows has meant that there has been a great desire to learn and we have a cohort who can apply their learning and the experience of others immediately in the work they’re doing.

We have successfully set up an environment where people can discuss their experiences and concerns while navigating these difficult waters. We succeeded in building a fellowship where people will continue sharing ideas and experiences for years to come.

Research

Off2Class white paper

Oriel Square worked with Off2Class to produce a report that celebrated the successes of two ELT initiatives through research-based evidence, and highlighted where there was an opportunity to go further. Targeted at policy-makers, investors and the media, the report communicates the effectiveness of the English language learning programmes globally, including case studies from the US and from the Middle East.  

Off2Class is an EdTech platform which aims to provide high-quality ESL (English as a second language) digital content. The company partnered with the Ismaili Community on a successful pilot to deliver English lessons to learners in conflict zones and worked with Tulsa Public Schools in the US to deliver lesson content to refugee students. 

We put together the report content plan using interviews conducted by the client, and preliminary quantitative results from the programme in the three conflict zones. Our team then built on this earlier research by interviewing key stakeholders and analysing the full set of results from the programme coordinators to author the report. 

It was important that the human stories of the programmes shone through and that the report would generate interest and enthusiasm among policy-makers and investors. We worked with Off2Class, their partners, and key stakeholders for approval and feedback and our in-house design team created a final report that worked with the client’s existing branding. We also created an infographic and blog post to accompany the main report, which enabled Off2Class to present its findings to a wider audience. 

It was great to work with the Off2Class team who are passionate about learning and making a difference through English. We’re proud to have had our work on this project featured in the BESA and Educate Ventures report on the use of effective evidence in EdTech. 

Primary literacy publishing for FFT

Phonically decodable readers

Working with FFT’s author, our Publishing Delivery Team managed the creation and quality assurance of 68 phonically decodable readers for Reception and Year 1 students alongside supporting classroom resources for teachers. The resources created are part of the DfE-validated FFT Success for All Phonics programme. For this, we:

– created a design template for the readers and supporting materials and finalised samples;
– worked with the FFT team to define the author brief;
– provided an experienced commissioning editor to support authors to deliver engaging, high-quality stories in line with the programme’s progression;
– edited, proofread and typeset 68 readers, supping print-ready and ebook versions of final files.

Reciprocal Reading anthology

Following the increasing popularity of the FFT’s Reciprocal Reading training programme and the EEF’s evaluation of the efficacy of Reciprocal Reading, FFT wanted to extend into more schools. As part of the training programme for Teachers and TAs, Oriel Square produced an anthology of the best story texts to use with Year 5 and 6 students as Reciprocal Reading passages. For this, we:

– managed the review and permissions clearance for the chosen texts;
– created an internal page and cover design;
– took the final texts through typesetting and proofreading to deliver print-ready files.

“FFT has worked with Oriel Square on several projects to support the foundation’s work. We’ve been impressed by the range of services they offer and the consistently high-quality output. To support our content development, Oriel Square’s expert team managed the creation and quality assurance of various components of the Success for All and Reciprocal Reading programmes.” – Paul Charman, Managing Director, FFT

Publishing

Collins IGCSE Malay for Cambridge International Assessment 

Oriel Square worked with local teams in Malaysia to produce content for the IGCSE Malay syllabus endorsed by Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE). 

From manuscript to delivery we produced a student’s book and teacher’s guide for Collins, taking both through first-time endorsement for the Cambridge International IGCSE Malay syllabus. The course books provide teachers and learners with materials which fully prepare students for the IGCSE exam, exposing them to a wide range of reading materials in Standard Malay as well as developing their writing skills. 

For this project, we set up a Malaysia-based team. The team included teacher-reviewers to critique the materials, consultants to give advice on cultural sensitivity and review language proficiency, and authors currently teaching Malay as a first language in an IGCSE classroom context to write lesson plans and student textbook pages. Before bringing potential contributors on board, samples of work were assessed to ensure the highest quality throughout. 

FFT’s The Apex Project report

Oriel Square produced a research report for FFT looking at the elimination of avoidable early literacy failure. FFT wanted support from Oriel Square to launch their findings on early literacy failure and promote The Apex Project as a possible solution. 

Improving early literacy is key to transforming education outcomes. This project examined the effects of early literacy failure (where students are significantly behind where they are expected to be by the end of KS1) on attainment outcomes for students across England.  Intended for ministers, special advisors and key stakeholders, the aim of the report was  to raise the profile of early literacy failure as an issue and The Apex Project as an effective solution. The report outlines the aims of The Apex Project, its key findings so far, and its plans for the future. 

We ran a workshop with key internal stakeholders at FFT to fully understand their purpose and ambitions, and grow ideas about the campaign. From this, we created a guiding policy and set of recommendations for the campaign, which included the launch of a report. For this, we: 

– worked collaboratively with the FFT team to develop their manuscript and highlight how the report’s findings are supported by the government’s own research and other case studies;

– created a newly branded design for the report, which has since been used in other related FFT reports;

– took the finalised manuscript though editorial stages and typesetting.

We’re proud that our work on this project has supported FFT to improve early literacy outcomes. 

“FFT has worked with Oriel Square on several projects to support the foundation’s work. We’ve been impressed by the range of services they offer and the consistently high-quality output. … They helped our team to deliver compelling thought leadership content to raise FFT’s profile and credibility through a research report looking at early literacy failure as part of The Apex Project.” — Paul Charman, Managing Director, FFT

Bloomsbury Lit in Colour research and report

As part of their commitment to the Lit in Colour initiative, Bloomsbury commissioned a report to put the spotlight on diversity in plays and drama and increase students’ access to plays by Global Majority writers. We worked with Bloomsbury to conduct research with key stakeholders from education, theatre and publishing to inform a set of recommendations, then took the report through the commissioning, writing, editorial and design stages.  

Working with the National Theatre and Open Drama UK, we conducted independent research with teachers, publishers, awarding bodies, theatre organisations, practitioners, authors and playwrights. The resulting research report drew on multiple sources: a quantitative survey, in-depth interviews, roundtable discussion and desk research. 

After conducting the research, we took the report through the commissioning, writing, editorial and design stages. Our in-house Design Manager created the cover design and report branding for use across Bloomsbury’s Lit in Colour campaign and the report’s launch.

Ark Maths Mastery programmes

We worked with ARK Curriculum Plus to support in reviewing and making updates to one of their research-informed curriculum programmes. Oriel Square helped produce detailed PowerPoint slides and lesson plans to support the teaching of primary maths from year 1–5.

For each unit, we produced comprehensive student- and teacher-facing resources to cover up to three weeks of teaching including: slide decks, accompanying task sheets, a unit narrative document which runs through the general themes and topics in the slides and what the unit covers and what teachers will be covering, and a planning guide for teachers.

Our in-house Project Lead put together a team with expertise in primary maths to work on the templating, development and proofreading of the student and teacher materials. Everyone on the team was familiar with the content and the publishing processes, allowing us to deliver high-quality content to schedule. 

The success has been in the planning, and the regular communication. The Oriel Square Project Lead did a fantastic job setting everything up, getting all the freelancers in place, and it’s been a breeze to manage. We have weekly meetings (currently lasting around 8 minutes) and because everyone knows exactly what they’re doing, even when an issue does come up, it’s easily navigated and sorted out.

_{Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik}

Collins Happy Handwriting resources

We worked with Collins to produce a handwriting course which guides progression from Reception to Year 6, teaching children to write with speed and fluency in the most efficient way possible. The course includes teacher guides, student practice books and front-of-class presentations for all year groups. 

As well as carrying out all editorial stages of the project and briefing the artwork, we created a unique set of fonts, specifically designed to develop handwriting skills. Our in-house Design Lead managed this process, working with a specialist typographer and Collins’ handwriting expert to create fonts which facilitated the aims of the course. We designed the fonts to emulate the most natural and efficient form of handwriting and accommodated for dyslexic learners by differing the shapes of commonly confused letters.

“Oriel Square’s expertise in font and design, regular communication, and a friendly atmosphere helped the process of completing the font for our project run very smoothly. I trusted that the Design Manager was in control of the schedule and technical requirements throughout.”
Commissioning Editor, Collins

“The team has great focus and dedication to delivering products, while maintaining excellent relationships with all parties involved. Despite its complexities and numerous potential pitfalls, this project was run in exemplary fashion.”
Jamie Clarke, Jamie Clarke Type

Oxford University Press Oxford Language Report

We worked with Oxford University Press (OUP) to produce the first Oxford Language Report which examined the causes and impact of the “word gap” on young pupils, and sought to understand how to support schools to narrow and ultimately close the word gap. The teams at OUP and Oriel Square were delighted with the result: widespread coverage in the media of this important issue, and engagement from education policy-makers and influencers keen to help.

Applying Oriel Square’s expertise in educational publishing, we guided the project from its development stages through to completion. We facilitated OUP’s project discussions by chairing meetings, allowing the team to develop the report’s narrative and concluding position with efficiency. We then oversaw the publishing process, taking it through editorial and design and delivering in time for OUP’s award-winning publicity campaign.

Hodder Education Group eduu.school online resources

As learning pivoted online at the start of the pandemic, we worked with Hodder Education Group to produce a set of online resources for schools. eduu.school provides fully mapped curriculum resources integrated with mental health and wellbeing support for key stages 1–4, providing learners with access to engaging, innovative and quality lessons.

Oriel Square joined the project to carry out all editorial stages, working with a team of experienced editors to prepare the resources, which covered a variety of school subject areas, for publication online. We worked strategically to make sure that teachers had an ongoing supply of new materials to suit their teaching schedules, meaning some resources were prioritised and published within a short timeframe. 

The result was a sequenced series of fun and visually appealing front-of-class digital presentations for use online, as well as a range of accompanying online materials such as lesson plans and worksheets.

Collins international kindergarten materials

We worked with Collins to create a new kindergarten course for the international market, covering the core subjects for Kindergarten 1 and 2. Each stage and subject includes an Anthology, Activity Books and a Teacher’s Guide, as well as accompanying digital and audio tools.

We joined the project at the market research phase, in which we gathered feedback from international schools in several countries to gain understanding of how the course could be effective in the classroom. With this insight, we worked with specialist authors to develop the course content and then took the materials through all editorial stages. 

We also commissioned songs and developed digital tools to be used alongside the print components. Illustrators for the project were sourced from the course’s target market countries, ensuring that course materials were relatable and engaging.

Corporate strategy facilitation

We worked with the senior team within a major educational publisher to review their strategic priorities in the wake of the pandemic. This involved planning and delivering a hybrid workshop for the global team and, subsequently, producing a strategy report which offered a clear, practical action plan.

Our approach to strategy follows the framework laid out by Richard Rumelt in Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters (2011), which is notable for its lack of jargon and insistence on clarity and coherence in action planning. After delivering an interactive, tailored workshop, our report included a diagnosis of the publisher’s competitive position as well as a guiding policy statement to inform the final action plan.

training

RM inclusion workshop

Our diversity and inclusion Subject Champion, Imaan Munir, leads our inclusion training offering. Oriel Square’s Five Aspects of Representation in Education workshop helps participants to understand the different aspects of representation and learn how to use them to prioritise intersectionality and transform their approach to diversity and inclusion initiatives. This diversity and inclusion workshop for RM focused on representation in educational content.

All of our training can be tailored to meet specific needs. For RM, we delivered an in-person diversity and inclusion workshop to help the team gain a better understanding of how to assess and adapt specific resources to make them more inclusive. We used Oriel Square’s Five Aspects ‘Specs’ of Representation to approach intersectionality through the lens of race, gender, class, neurodiversity and disability. 

The RM team is working hard to achieve its goal of making its resources inclusive for all as they seek out new ideas and best practices to develop their understanding.

Our training is continually updated and is informed by leading industry events and research with organisations working to make the education sector more inclusive. Read our blog about why representation matters or click below to find out more about our diversity and inclusion training. 

2Simple thought leadership report

We worked with 2Simple to produce A guiding hand: the journey to confidence, competence and an engaging curriculum, looking at the last decade of computing teaching and the ways that Purple Mash and their computing curriculum improve computing teaching and learning. The report launched at BETT 2022 and was picked up by DfE officials at the show.

Applying Oriel Square’s expertise in research and educational publishing, we developed the report structure and content, working alongside stakeholders and contributors within the 2Simple team. We conducted interviews with Purple Mash users to uncover and demonstrate best practices, and then oversaw the report publishing process, taking it through editorial and design.

Online CPD modules with Carina Consulting for IBMS

We worked with Carina Consulting to produce CPD eLearning modules for The Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS). Each module included interactive elements such as quizzes and animations to create an engaging user experience, suitable for all types of learners. 

As well as briefing the module content and carrying out all editorial stages, we briefed media content and developed interactive quizzes and assessments to adapt the modules for an online format. Since the content required very technical diagrams and images, we worked with a science animation specialist to ensure high quality and accuracy across the modules. Alongside this, we briefed storyboards and scripted videos which were then produced to assist learning and enhance the user experience further. 

Here’s what the client had to say:
“Competent team, good planning, great communication and high-quality outputs.”
Andrew Pember, Managing Director, Carina Consulting

Pearson The Life of Dr Harold Moody eBook

We worked with Pearson P.R.I.M.E, the voice of Black, Asian and Multiple Ethnic colleagues at Pearson, to reproduce a booklet about the life of Dr Harold Moody as a free online resource for schools, suitable for key stages 2 and 3. The booklet is part of P.R.I.M.E’s initiative to champion the hidden stories of historical Black individuals.

We worked with a multi-stakeholder team to complete all editorial stages of this project, including the author Stephen Bourne, illustrators, Pearson P.R.I.M.E representatives and a Pearson publisher and designer. The final PDF booklet gives an illustrated biography of Dr Harold Moody and finishes with a set of age-appropriate and curriculum-linked discussion questions for both KS2 and KS3 readers.