Firefly Learning

Firefly Learning is an educational technology company based in London, England[1] with offices in Sydney, Australia that provides virtual learning platforms to hundreds of schools around the world. The Firefly platform allows teachers, students and parents to publish and access information from anywhere with an internet connection.[2]

Firefly Learning Ltd
TypePrivate Limited Company
IndustryEducational Software
FoundedLondon 2005
Headquarters
London
,
United Kingdom
Key people
Joe Mathewson
Founding Partner
Simon Hay
Founding Partner
ProductsFirefly
Student Planner
Teacher Planner
Parent Portal
WebsiteFirefly Learning

Background

Firefly Learning was started in 2000 by Joe Mathewson and Simon Hay,[3] two 15-year-old students, at St. Paul’s School in London, who developed it during school holidays, after they became frustrated with the school’s antiquated internet system.[4][5] They developed the concept during lunch breaks at the physics labs and teachers at St. Paul's began using the system.[6] Soon afterward, Forest School expressed interest in the new system.[7]

In 2010, students at Wellington College stranded due to ash cloud grounding thousands of flights were able to continue with their lessons via an e-learning platform provided by Firefly Learning.[8] In 2012 BETT nominated Firefly for an Innovation in ICT award for its development of the Student Planner iPad app that automatically updated students' planners with assignments assigned by the teacher.[9]

Firefly has been named a BETT finalist every year since, and in 2014 won an innovation award in London.[10]

In November 2016, Firefly raised $5.6 million (£4.5 million) Series A funding round from BGF Ventures and Beringea.[11][12] By that time, Firefly learning was used by 480 schools in 32 countries.[12]

Services

The cloud-based support platform used by Firefly allows teachers to set homework assignments, track students' progress, provide feedback and share learning resources, on it. The platform has desktop and mobile apps, it also has its own API for education software providers allowing the users to plug in their content.[11]

Issues

On 23rd March 2020, high demand from schools and pupils working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a severe Firefly overload, with many users experiencing slowdowns or complete outages.[13]

References
  1. Lomas, Natasha (15 November 2016). "Firefly takes $5.6M Series A for its online learning tool for schools". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  2. "Transforming Education Through Technology". Bloomberg TV. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  3. "Joe Mathewson, co-founder of Firefly Learning, on turning his teenage hobby into an EdTech startup". UKTN (formerly Tech City News). 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2017-10-09.
  4. Cole, George (11 January 2011). "Web whiz-kids". Guardian. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  5. Dann, Kitty (13 December 2013). "Small business in the spotlight ... Firefly". Guardian. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  6. Sam Shead (January 16, 2015). "Don't be scared: Firefly founder Simon Hay urges schools to let pupils open up PCs". Tech World. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  7. "After St. Paul's". St. Paul's School. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  8. Woolcock, Nicola (April 20, 2010). "No 'volcanic ash holiday' as schools set exiled pupils work online". The Times. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  9. "BETT 2013 Finalists". BETT. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  10. "Sparkle like Firefly, and sound like Music House". Hammersmith and Fulham. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  11. Lomas, Natasha. "Firefly takes $5.6M Series A for its online learning tool for schools". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-09.
  12. "'Edtech' business Firefly Learning raises £4.5m". Growth Business. November 16, 2016. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  13. "Show My Homework and Firefly down: Homework apps not working as children forced to study remotely".
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