Our Story

Just a few months after their chance encounter, Rich and Veejay found themselves in a boardroom with 3M (the company behind Post-it Notes®).  It was at this meeting that FlashSticks (like FlashCards, only sticky!) language Post-it Notes® were born!

With FlashSticks®, there was an augmented reality app that meant a tutor helped learners with pronunciation they were struggling with. Despite gaining stockists, lots of customers and lots of rave reviews, it was proving difficult to make the desired learner impact without big marketing budgets for promotion.

One group of customers for FlashSticks® was schools, which meant Veejay was spending an increasing amount of time in schools talking to school leaders. A challenge he kept hearing about was the one surrounding EAL (English as an Additional Language) and diverse classrooms with lots of newly arrived pupils.

The team set about building a new type of platform to assist with the EAL challenge – one that could be life-changing for both teachers and students.

FlashAcademy® onboards their first official school! Anderton Park Primary took a risk on a completely new EAL platform that had big ambitions, but was very much in its infancy.

Veejay took to the roads of the UK, visiting school after school to showcase FlashAcademy®. Strong demand meant this soon became unmanageable and so our sales team started to grow.

The wider education, creative and technical team continued to grow and so did the passion to make an even bigger impact. It wasn’t all plain sailing though.  The team faced several obstacles, made its fair share of mistakes, but kept sight of its goal to keep innovating to improve opportunities for learners.

As it did for so many, the pandemic threw the team into unchartered territory.  However, it soon became clear that FlashAcademy® was needed more than ever, as a remote learning tool that could genuinely assist EAL learners in such a difficult time. The company also launched the first ever digital EAL proficiency assessment, with a goal of saving millions of hours of teacher time used up on paper assessments.

New personalised learning experiences were introduced for Primary and Secondary school learners. FlashAcademy® had now become the UK’s leading EAL platform for schools.

Between 2020 and 2022, the FlashAcademy® team doubled in size, there are now over 40 of us. The team also surpassed 1,000 UK schools as customers – a long way from partnering with our very first school, Anderton Park Primary.

We expanded our global reach through partnerships with multiple GEMS schools. A groundbreaking collaboration with Belfast Metropolitan College led to the development of an innovative ESOL assessment tool for the Further Education sector. The year also brought recognition as a GESS awards finalist. A particular highlight came from Eldon Primary School, where 80% of pupils progressed at least one language acquisition stage using FlashAcademy® over a 12 month period, demonstrating the platform’s real-world impact on student achievement. Moving to a remote-working first model allowed us to further expand our team without regional barriers – welcoming team members from as far as Egypt and Zimbabwe!

The launch of LEAP revolutionised ESOL assessment efficiency, streamlining the pre-enrolment process. A significant £250,000 UFI grant win enabled the start of our journey towards a specialised workplace English language platform, addressing the crucial need for better language support in professional environments. The year also saw the launch of a comprehensive EAL and wellbeing campaign, amplifying expert voices from across the sector on a vital topic. Our EAL learning app was shortlisted for multiple awards, including the Education Resource Awards and both Teach Primary and Secondary.