Learning Ladders Education
Learning Ladders Education (School Explained Ltd) is a UK-based SaaS company that provides a cloud-based pupil progress tracking, assessment, and parent engagement platform for international and UK primary and early-years schools, sold as an annual subscription with modules for EYFS, homework, GL data integration and inspection readiness.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Learning Ladders Education does
Learning Ladders Education (legal entity: School Explained Ltd, UK company number 08400688) is a privately held SaaS company founded around 2012-2013 by former teacher Matt Koster-Marcon. The company sells a cloud-based pupil progress tracking and assessment platform to primary and early-years schools, with a particular focus on British international schools across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. It operates from a registered office in West Wickham, Kent, with operational and customer support teams in the UAE providing follow-the-sun coverage, and stores customer data on an AWS RDS high-availability cluster in the Ireland region. It is Cyber Essentials Plus certified and GDPR compliant.
The core product, Learning Ladders, is a modular platform built around configurable Assessment Frameworks (any curriculum, any subject, any language), a flexible 'Track Assessments Your Way' engine for teacher judgements or objective-level markbooks, Scenario-Led Data reporting, Gap Analysis across cohorts and prior years, and a 'Multiplier Effect' where a single data entry propagates into parent updates, student reports, intervention flags, and inspection evidence. Adjacent modules include the EYFS Tracker & Learning Journal, Automated Student Reports, Homework & Assignments, the GL Data Dashboard (integrating GL Assessment CAT4, PASS and Progress Test data), the Pre-Inspection Dashboard, and the Curriculum Lab — a resource search engine aggregating BBC Bitesize, Oak National Academy and Twinkl. The Ladders at Home parent portal provides parent tutorials and progress updates in 100+ languages.
The business model is a recurring annual per-school subscription (auto-renewing, with a 90-day cancellation window), complemented by a 30-day self-serve free trial and a small bookable-training revenue stream; pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. Go-to-market is sales-led direct enterprise selling (book-a-demo) augmented by partner referrals through ASCL (recommended partner, 21,500+ school leaders), BSME, Fobisia, BESA and HPL. The company reports >90% annual licence renewals, a 4.7/5 EdTech Impact rating, and three BETT Awards (2020, 2022, 2025) for Best Whole-School Product for Teaching, Learning and Assessment.
Learning Ladders Education firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Learning Ladders Education
- Legal name
- School Explained Ltd
- Website
- https://learningladders.info
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Learning Ladders Education (School Explained Ltd) is a UK-based SaaS company that provides a cloud-based pupil progress tracking, assessment, and parent engagement platform for international and UK primary and early-years schools, sold as an annual subscription with modules for EYFS, homework, GL data integration and inspection readiness.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Learning Ladders Education industry classification
Industry- Product category
- K-12 Education Assessment Software
- NAICS
- Exam Preparation and Tutoring (611691), Educational Support Services (61171), Educational Services (611)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Curriculum, Lesson Planning & Instructional Content Platforms (EDAJAMAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Survey, Formative Assessment & Classroom Response (Quizzes/Polls) Tools (EDAFADAN), Assessment, Testing & Analytics Platforms (Formative/Summative) (EDAJAMAC)
Keywords
Where Learning Ladders Education is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices4 records
Markets served
Learning Ladders Education business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Annual School Subscription: Recurring annual licence fee per school (auto-renewing annually unless 90 days' written cancellation). Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. Revenue is recurring subscription tied to the academic-year cycle.
- Free Trial Onboarding: 30-day free access to a fully-specced Learning Ladders and Ladders at Home platform with a custom-built site for each prospect, used as a conversion funnel to paid subscription.
- Bookable Training: Paid training sessions on any topic, available on request with a small fee per booking, supplementing the free unlimited customer support and free online CPD included in membership.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Quote-based annual school licence with free 30-day trial |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels11 records
Learning Ladders Education product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Learning Ladders is a cloud-based SaaS platform that enables primary and early years schools to track pupil progress against customizable assessment frameworks, generate automated student reports, and engage parents in their children's learning. The platform combines assessment, reporting, inspection evidence preparation, homework/assignments, GL Assessment data integration, and a multilingual parent portal (Ladders at Home) in a single system. Schools subscribe via an annual licence fee with a 30-day free trial available.
Product overview
Learning Ladders is a single cloud-based platform (trading as Learning Ladders Education, developed by School Explained Ltd) for international Primary and Early Years schools, delivered as a core product with multiple integrated modules. The core Learning Ladders platform provides configurable Assessment Frameworks, Track Assessments Your Way, Scenario-Led Data, Gap Analysis and automated Student Reports. These are complemented by the dedicated Early Years (EYFS) Tracker & Learning Journal module; the Homework & Assignments module; the External Data – GL Data Dashboard; the Lesson Content & Ideas (Curriculum Lab); the Pre-Inspection Dashboard; and the Ladders at Home parent portal — all interoperable within the same platform to combine curriculum assessment, progress tracking, parental engagement and inspection evidence preparation in one system.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Ladders at Home: Parent portal and engagement platform (hosted at laddersathome.co.uk) that keeps parents informed and involved with their child's learning in 100+ languages.
- The Curriculum Lab
Products and services
- Learning Ladders Core cloud-based pupil progress tracking platform for international Primary and Early Years schools, providing configurable assessment frameworks, automated reporting and parental engagement in 100+ languages.
- Ladders at Home Integrated parent portal that automatically shares pupil progress updates, portfolios, messages and homework with parents, with parent tutorials available in 100+ languages.
- Pre-Inspection Dashboard Configurable inspection-style reporting tool that aggregates curriculum-led attainment, progress and pupil-group evidence for short-notice inspection readiness.
- User Support / Customer Support Free unlimited customer support delivered from teams in the UAE and UK, plus free online CPD and bookable paid training sessions for schools.
Quantifiable outcome
- 90%+ annual licence renewal rate among schools.
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Learning Ladders Education
Customer profileNamed customers21 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Learning Ladders Education technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
AI capability1 record
Feature11 records
Learning Ladders Education partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
16 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship recommended partner, strategic co-development, core regional gtm partner, content/integration partner, core content integration partner, content partner, core data integration partner, core infrastructure provider, industry body / regulatory affiliation and industry standards body.
- ASCL (Association of School and College Leaders)flagship recommended partnerLearning Ladders is ASCL's recommended partner for assessment analytics and parental engagement. ASCL represents more than 21,500 school leaders, providing significant reach into UK and international schools.
- HPL (High Performance Learning)strategic co-developmentJoint implementation of Learning Ladders and HPL is positioned as a formula for improving outcomes; content references how the two products work together.
- BSME (British Schools in the Middle East)core regional gtm partnerBSME supports a network of high-quality British international schools in the Middle East and facilitates partnerships between member schools and education-focused business partners, including Learning Ladders.
- Fobisia (Federation of British International Schools in Asia)core regional gtm partnerFobisia is a not-for-profit membership organisation supporting British education in Asia. Partnership gives Learning Ladders reach into Asian British international schools.
- TeachPitchcontent/integration partnerTeachPitch provides content curation, AI and online training to teachers and schools, integrating with Learning Ladders to address information abundance in the classroom.
- Twinklcore content integration partnerTwinkl provides teacher-created planning, assessment materials and teaching resources that are surfaced directly within Learning Ladders via the Curriculum Lab.
- BBC Bitesizecore content integration partnerBBC Bitesize resources are surfaced inside Learning Ladders via the Curriculum Lab search engine for lesson plans and resources.
- Oak National Academycore content integration partnerOak National Academy resources are surfaced inside Learning Ladders via the Curriculum Lab search engine for lesson plans and resources.
- Developing Expertscontent partnerDeveloping Experts is referenced on the 'Who we work with' page, indicating integration with or content provision for Learning Ladders' curriculum resources.
- EEG (Education Endowment Group)content partnerEEG (referenced on the 'Who we work with' page) appears to provide content or research resources integrated with Learning Ladders.
- Wondecore data integration partnerWonde is a specialist third-party data integration provider used by Learning Ladders to pull data from school MIS systems into the platform.
- Groupcallcore data integration partnerGroupcall is a specialist third-party data integration provider used by Learning Ladders to facilitate MIS data exchange with schools.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)core infrastructure providerAWS provides the cloud infrastructure for Learning Ladders; data at rest is stored in an HA DB cluster in the Ireland region of AWS RDS.
- GL Assessmentcore data integration partnerGL Assessment CAT4, PASS and Progress Test data integrates into Learning Ladders via the GL Data Dashboard, allowing comparison of external standardised data against internal assessments.
- BESA (British Educational Suppliers Association)industry body / regulatory affiliationLearning Ladders is a member of BESA and follows its industry code of conduct. The CEO serves as an Executive Council member and Vice Chair, and the BESA logo appears on the site footer.
- EdTech Evidence Groupindustry standards bodyLearning Ladders is a founding member of the EdTech Evidence Group, contributing to raising standards of evidence across the EdTech sector.
Scale indicators9 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Learning Ladders Education competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Arbor Education: UK school MIS with built-in assessment, reporting and parent communication modules serving primary and secondary schools. Closest direct competitor on the combination of MIS + assessment + parent engagement that Learning Ladders bundles for UK and international schools.
- ManageBac: International schools platform (curriculum planning, assessment, reporting, parent engagement) widely adopted by IB and British international schools. The most directly comparable international-schools competitor on parent communication and assessment workflow.
- Toddle: Teaching, learning and assessment platform purpose-built for international schools, with strong parent engagement and curriculum customisation. Targets the same international primary and IB school buyer that Learning Ladders serves.
- Classroom Monitor: UK-based formative assessment and progress-tracking platform for primary and special schools. Directly comparable on objective-level tracking, marking and reporting, and named as a legacy incumbent Learning Ladders seeks to displace.
- Target Tracker: Long-standing UK primary school pupil tracking and assessment platform, historically the incumbent that Learning Ladders explicitly positions against as a modern replacement. Closely overlapping product surface (assessment frameworks, progress tracking, parent reporting) for the same UK Primary buyer.
- Educater: SEN-focused assessment and progress tracking tool widely used in UK primary and special schools. Learning Ladders directly targets Educater users as a feature-rich alternative for SEN settings, making it a direct feature-and-segment competitor.
Broad incumbents
- SIMS (Capita): UK's dominant school MIS used by the majority of state schools, with assessment and reporting modules. A broad incumbent rather than a best-of-breed challenger - bundling risk to Learning Ladders as procurement consolidates around MIS contracts.
- ClassDojo: Widely adopted classroom communication and parent engagement platform used by primary teachers globally. Not a direct assessment competitor but a broad incumbent in the parent engagement layer that Learning Ladders' Ladders at Home portal competes against.
- Bromcom: Cloud-based UK school MIS with assessment, reporting and parent portal features. Acts as a broad incumbent that can bundle assessment functionality into MIS contracts, competing with Learning Ladders for school budget share.
- ParentPay: UK's leading school payments and parent communication platform, now part of a wider education group including SIMS. A broad incumbent with established parent reach that competes at the parent-engagement and school-communication layer.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Learning Ladders Education social profiles
Digital presenceLearning Ladders Education financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Learning Ladders Education leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Learning Ladders Education funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Learning Ladders Education M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Learning Ladders Education
What does Learning Ladders Education do?
Learning Ladders is a cloud-based SaaS platform that enables primary and early years schools to track pupil progress against customizable assessment frameworks, generate automated student reports, and engage parents in their children's learning. The platform combines assessment, reporting, inspection evidence preparation, homework/assignments, GL Assessment data integration, and a multilingual parent portal (Ladders at Home) in a single system. Schools subscribe via an annual licence fee with a 30-day free trial available.
Is Learning Ladders Education a public or private company?
Learning Ladders Education is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Learning Ladders Education founded?
Learning Ladders Education was founded in 2013. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Learning Ladders Education based?
Learning Ladders Education is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Learning Ladders Education make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Annual School Subscription is the primary driver. The others are free Trial Onboarding and bookable Training.
Who are Learning Ladders Education's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Arbor Education, ManageBac, Toddle, Classroom Monitor, Target Tracker and Educater. Broad incumbents are SIMS (Capita), ClassDojo, Bromcom and ParentPay.
Does Learning Ladders Education have an API?
No public API is recorded for Learning Ladders Education.
What industry is Learning Ladders Education in?
Learning Ladders Education's product category is K-12 Education Assessment Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAJAMAD, Curriculum, Lesson Planning & Instructional Content Platforms, with a secondary code of EDAFADAN, Survey, Formative Assessment & Classroom Response (Quizzes/Polls) Tools. Its NAICS code is 611691 and its SIC code is 8200.