This repository contains preparatory work (e.g. software proposal, market research, design thinking, XD protoypes) for my final project of my degree. Coding has not yet begun and will likely need a separate repository.
The project is a web-application for children looked-after by local authorities - i.e. children in social care, legally known as 'children looked-after' or CLA - to arrange extra tuition for help with their homework. Consistently, the proportion of CLA achieving expected minimum results at GCSE is fewer than half the number of non-looked-after children achieving those minimum standards. Therefore, many CLA enter adulthood with low quality qualifications and are disadvantaged in the labour market. This can negatively affect the individual's self-esteem and mental health and also negatively impacts society as a whole through pressure on public services. Homework Hero is targeted at secondary school children only (younger children are excluded) for two reasons. Firstly this is an attempt to minimise risks to child safety and secondly the implications of falling behind at secondary school are more severe.
Existing online tuition services and agencies are typically full of highly qualified, career professional teachers and the rates these tutors charge is likely to be prohibitively expensive for CLA. Undergraduate students often struggle financially and they have typically finished compulsory secondary education sufficiently recently to have useful insight into curricula and exam practices. Therefore, Homework Hero seeks to encourage undergraduates to register as tutors to supplement their income and also to have a positive impact in the lives of CLA. British schools receive a Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) grant from central government for each CLA enrolled at the school. Schools with CLA amongst their pupils are legally required to appoint a designated teacher, responsible for supervising the education of the CLA. Each CLA must have a Personal Educational Plan (PEP), agreed between the child, the designated teacher at their school, their guardian and the local authority. If a short-term goal/target - for example, to raise the child's results in a specific subject, within a given timescale up to approximately 12 weeks - is written into a CLA' Personal Educational Plan, the school's designated teacher can choose to allocate some of the PP+ grant funding to paying for catch-up tuition.