Deborah kickstarts her home-school platform

A new online learning platform developed by a former teacher from Ballymena hopes to benefit hundreds of thousands of UK children as home schooling continues during lockdown and beyond.
Launched this week, www.homeschoolondemand.com has been developed by Ballymena-born woman Deborah FitzsimmonsLaunched this week, www.homeschoolondemand.com has been developed by Ballymena-born woman Deborah Fitzsimmons
Launched this week, www.homeschoolondemand.com has been developed by Ballymena-born woman Deborah Fitzsimmons

Launched this week, Home School On Demand has been developed by Deborah Fitzsimmons and her team of 11 other self-employed tutors, with the support of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s Kickstart programme.

It provides a platform for qualified teachers, tutors, industry experts and coaches to be able to offer their courses for children in an educational-focused and collaborative space.

The business creates affordable access to structured courses for home-schooled children and provides opportunities for young people to extend their learning beyond the classroom setting.

It will also support school revision for key examinations and provide essential support for parents.

A former teacher for over 17 years, Deborah is also the founder of Go2Educate, an education and training organisation which provides resources, online courses and tutoring for children studying Business Studies and IT/Computer Studies.

She said: “I had always wanted to expand the Go2Educate business further to include a more extensive range of subjects.

“By taking it fully online, I knew I could sell engaging and interactive virtual curricular and extra-curricular courses that would benefit the 68,000 children permanently home schooled across the UK.”

Deborah set about developing www.homeshoolondemand.com in November 2019 by bringing together a group of 12 self-employed tutors initially, who would offer a wide range of subjects for children and young people aged seven to 18.

Although originally intended to be launched in September, the onset of the pandemic saw plans accelerated, bringing the launch forward by four months.

“Over the past couple of months millions of parents across the UK found themselves having to home school their children all of sudden, with no experience of having done so before,” she said.

“Without the right support, this can be a hugely daunting prospect for parents, who are doing their very best to ensure that their children can continue their education and don’t fall behind in important subject areas. This was the experience of a friend of mine, who was aware of my plans for the business and urged me to make the platform available much sooner if I could.”

Deborah applied to Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s Kickstart programme which offers specialist mentoring support to local start-ups and businesses in their first years of trading.

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