Groundbreaking innovation supports every student to excel
Westbourne’s innovative approach is revolutionising the global education landscape, giving students the skills and insight they need to be tomorrow’s leaders.
Posted: 13th October 2025
A pioneering vision
Westbourne’s evolution in recent years, from local Cardiff school to boundary-breaking global network, with schools in the UK, Sydney, Singapore and, shortly, Mumbai, marks a significant achievement in our history. This expansion reflects our commitment to delivering a truly innovative global education, like no other school, extending our impact far beyond Cardiff and empowering students through access to a dynamic network of like-minded peers and specialist teaching spanning three continents.
Carving out a global reputation as an exciting innovator in the education space, we seek to push the boundaries of what can be achieved through the latest technology and practice, to transform learning outcomes in the UK and globally.
We are the only school in the UK combining long-proven traditional teaching methods with award-winning innovations, allowing us to deliver global lessons in conjunction with global sister schools – as well as designing a market-leading tailored AI tutor to further deepen and enhance the student learning experience in a fast-changing world.
Fuelled by award wins including The ISA Award for Innovation in Independent Education, and The Global EdTech Award for a Transformational Use of Education Technology, we firmly believe that we are doing things like no other school. We have already long adapted to harnessing the opportunities of modern technology to make our students genuinely future-ready, furnishing them with the know-how, skills and tools to stand apart from their peers.
So what are we doing?
Highlights of our innovative practice include:
- One of the first schools in the UK to adopt AI technology, we are supporting students to revise smarter and deeper with KnowVa Coach, our very own bespoke AI-supported 1-2-1 tutor, developed with leading academics from Cardiff University and INSEAD Business School.
- We use the latest EdTech to seamlessly share resources and expertise between teachers and students across the entire world, driving global innovation and collaboration across core subjects.
- Our groundbreaking Holographic Teacher, a central part of our Global Classroom model, brings the world’s finest subject specialists to our UK students and vice versa.
- Through our Global Staffroom, teachers across our global schools can collaborate and share research and methodology, supporting them to develop and further diversify teaching practice and curriculum.
- Google Classroom allows teachers to share their materials with students, giving feedback through direct annotation; Forms give automated feedback; and Century provides AI-assisted feedback to give students three ‘frequencies’ of assessment feedback.
- Classes are equipped with primary and secondary displays, including thoughtfully positioned cameras to allow absent students to experience the classroom naturally even when not physically present.
- Robotics are used at each key stage to aid computational thinking: Sphero at KS1 and 2, Sphero Bolt at KS3 and Fable for KS4 and 5.
- 3D Printing Labs develop advanced STEM skills, and through 3D modelling students make characters for games, 3D models of geographical features for Geography and mechanical parts for Physics.
- Our Greenpower Electric Racing car has been modelled by students from scratch.
- And much more…
"The holographic teacher has really helped to boost my confidence. The revision sessions are much better than getting a tutor in at home, because we know it is one of our teachers so we all really listen. It's so interactive.” Ben, UK, Year 11
“It felt as though Mr Ayres was in the room with us; he was writing on the board, helping our understanding and doing everything that our teachers in Singapore do but he was in the UK. It was incredible.” Harikesh, Singapore, Year 12
Our Global Classroom
Our vision is the seamless global transmission of knowledge, where teachers working across all of our schools work as one, supporting each other and developing best practices to give our students the next possible education. Complementing this, we seek to ensure that students joining our campuses worldwide feel part of a larger whole – part of a dynamic network of like-minded young people who are curious about learning and academic collaboration, now and as alumni.
As a result of cutting-edge digital initiatives, we now offer extra teaching sessions for our students outside of their main school day for support, revision and mentoring. We run classes that we could not timetable otherwise, taught live, in person, by ‘holographic teachers’ from our global schools. This brings the very best global subject specialists to the heart of Cardiff, sharing their knowledge, insight and passion.
The ‘holographic teacher’ initiative, which we call our Global Classroom, is fully operational on three continents. It affords unprecedented opportunities for academic collaboration globally, with students across the UK, Singapore and Sydney working and interacting with one another in real-time and as if in the same room, on joint projects, revision booster sessions, and exciting ‘live’ research that would not be possible without this technology.
With every impediment to learning removed, interaction is as ‘human’ as possible. We eliminated the camera shyness that usually features in remote video interactions, and by making the remote teacher as ‘live’ as possible, we make the whole experience of additional support natural, as if the teacher were really there. Students benefit from different explanations and approaches from teachers across the group, regardless of their time zone.
We are also empowered to run live global co-curricular initiatives that we would not be able to deliver otherwise, including real-time global debating competitions and academic challenges, to the delight of our students worldwide.
"The way I've been learning this term is completely new and something I've never experienced before. It's inspiring having a teacher from a different country - Mr Tang is based in Singapore. He's projected into the room and it really feels like he's there with us. He can see us and hear what we are saying, and he can also see us writing answers on the board so it's very interactive. At the moment, we're learning about the value of businesses and how stakeholders benefit from them. It's definitely one of my most enjoyable lessons!" Harsh, UK, Year 10
“I’m trying to find study methods that work for me, and the new technology helped me gain two grades. It was so helpful to gain different ideas from my two teachers, in the UK and Singapore. The technology helped you forget that he wasn’t really here.” Amelie, UK, Year 11
Defining the future of education: KnowVa Coach
KnowVa Coach is our groundbreaking, custom-made AI tutor and revision assistant that uses the latest neuroscience research to deepen student learning and improve exam results, complementing and enhancing the outstanding teaching we already deliver at Westbourne.
Developed by Westbourne in collaboration with Cardiff University’s Department of Neuroscience and Adjunct Professor Adrian Johnson of INSEAD Business School, Knowva Coach uses proven neuroscience-backed methods including Socratic Questioning, the Retrieval Technique and the Testing Effect to provide instant personalised feedback to students.
At Westbourne, the software has boosted student grades by an average of 30%, that’s at least 2 grades higher.
The intuitive programme offers our students infinite exam questions, instant feedback and model answers to ensure they revise smarter in less time, providing high quality online tutoring 24/7, no matter the location and to suit the individual needs of the student. Whilst Socratic questioning encourages deeper engagement with study materials, the Testing Effect prompts an unlimited number of exam-style questions so that students are not dependent on limited past papers to test their knowledge.
"KnowVa Coach makes it really easy to revise. It uses Socratic questioning, which pulls questions related to the topic to expand your answer and knowledge, and it shows you what a perfect answer to the question looks like. I’m using KnowVa Coach for Computer Science, and we also have it for Business Management as well. It really helps you deepen your knowledge in core areas.” Igor, IB student
“It's very simple to use and is really useful because it truly prompts you to say as much as you can on that topic. KnowVa Coach pushes you, saying, ‘Can you comment further on this?’ It helps my brain make connections between themes and questions. It works especially well for me as I don’t like studying in isolation, on my own. Having the AI there saying, ‘Oh, you did this really well’, or ‘You could try that better’ is motivating you to keep going.” Xena, IB student
The essential tailored revision tool
We know that other schools are using AI. We already also use Century, Google Classroom and Gemini to deliver efficiencies to our teachers and students. The difference is how we expand and extend this technology. We are the only UK school to have enlisted a university neuroscience research department, and a sector-leading business school, to develop a custom AI tool improving student outcomes.
KnowVa Coach is currently programmed to deliver the highest quality feedback and revision support for the IB Diploma curriculum. We are now working on rolling out the cutting-edge technology across A-Levels, to GCSE students and other key year groups, helping learners of all ages and abilities to excel.
This summer we plan to publish a research paper sharing the impact of our work, focused on how different neurologically-beneficial approaches improve learning, and how we have used this research to deliver a powerfully bespoke AI-driven 1:1 tutor employing Socratic questioning techniques whilst asking exam-style questions. This perfectly aligns with Westbourne’s highly personalised educational approach.
For more information on KnowVa Coach, visit our website.
“KnowVa Coach is really helping me to revise for my IB exams. It provokes me to think more and to delve into all the details. KnowVa Coach works with a pool of IB resources, so it directly uses IB materials and past papers and mark schemes. I know that the information is valid and can be trusted, moreso than the Internet, for example, which always needs to be checked.” Illia, Sixth Form student
“KnowVa Coach, and the technology behind it, is set to revolutionise the education space. Data shows that in the UK, parents spend an average of £2,750 per child annually on private tuition to boost their understanding of a certain topic or approach. KnowVa Coach completely eliminates this need, supporting the student on a personalised level to think more deeply about what they are studying, complementing the personalised teaching we already provide here at Westbourne. KnowVa Coach is optimised to ask the right questions to support students in their learning, using the extraordinary power of AI. After a successful launch with our Sixth Form students here at Westbourne, we are now working on supporting other schools to use this game-changing technology, so that more students can benefit and see higher grades.” Stuart Ayres, Vice Principal, Westbourne School
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