Let’s chat about feedback.

A lot of conversations around AI in education tend to focus on fear, replacement or extremes. What interests me far more is how technology can genuinely support the people at the centre of education, teachers and young people.

That’s one of the reasons I’ve really enjoyed building a relationship with Olex.ai over the last year.

Olex uses AI to support long-form marking in subjects like English. Essays, extended responses and analytical writing can be assessed against clear criteria with a level of accuracy that I’ve found genuinely impressive. Of course, teachers still moderate, review and apply professional judgement. That human expertise matters enormously. Foundations matter.

What stands out to me though is the capacity it creates.

Teacher workload remains one of the biggest challenges across education. Marking takes time, concentration and emotional energy. When teachers are carrying huge volumes of assessment, it inevitably impacts wellbeing, work-life balance and the psychological space needed to support students properly.

Tools like Olex can help relieve some of that pressure.

When marking becomes more efficient, teachers gain time back. More importantly, they gain headspace back.

That headspace matters because education is built on relationships.

It allows teachers to have better conversations with students. It creates more opportunities for encouragement, reassurance and personalised support. It allows feedback to become part of an ongoing dialogue rather than a process that feels delayed and disconnected.

The speed of feedback matters too.

Young people are far more invested in their learning when feedback arrives while the work still feels fresh in their minds. The relationship between effort and response becomes clearer. Students can act on feedback quicker, reflect quicker and improve quicker.

That creates momentum.

I’ve also found it really encouraging to see the impact this is already having in schools using the platform day to day.

A great example of this is how Olex.AI has transformed feedback across LEO Academy Trust by providing immediate in-class marking and personalised pupil targets, removing delays between submission and response. Teachers now spend less time marking and more time delivering targeted one-to-one support, helping shift their role from “marker” to “mentor.” The platform has reignited teachers’ passion for teaching writing while encouraging pupils to take greater ownership of their learning through independent editing and improvement. Across the Trust, Olex.AI has also created a consistent, high-quality feedback approach that has improved pupil engagement, attainment, and work quality.

The value is not simply speed or efficiency. The value is what teachers and students are then able to do with the time, energy and insight created.

One of the features I’ve especially enjoyed exploring is Olex’s Imaginator tool. Creativity can sometimes feel difficult for young people to articulate, especially in writing. Ideas exist in fragments. A scene, a feeling or an image sits in their imagination, but they struggle to fully develop it on the page.

When students can visualise aspects of their writing, something shifts.

Their confidence grows.

Their curiosity grows.

They begin exploring their ideas in greater depth because the abstract starts to feel more tangible. Creativity becomes something they can build upon rather than something they are simply searching for.

That connection between creativity and confidence is incredibly important.

Schools using the Imaginator feature have spoken about students becoming more engaged with writing and more reflective about how they communicate ideas. One teacher described how pupils could “visually see how to improve their written communication” through the process.  

Nothing sits in a vacuum. When learners feel more engaged with their writing, they often become more willing to refine it, improve it and take pride in it.

My relationship with the Olex team is still relatively new. I first met them in January 2025 and quickly felt a strong alignment in values and purpose. Soon afterwards, I reached out to ask whether they would support the Let’s Thrive programme as a sponsor.

I’m genuinely grateful they said yes.

Their support has helped me continue developing resources, activities, mini quizzes and opportunities that allow schools to explore the Let’s Thrive philosophy and the 7Cs to Thrive:

Curiosity. Creativity. Collaboration. Compromise. Communication. Community. Courage.

Partnerships matter most when there is shared purpose behind them. For me, this partnership feels rooted in a genuine understanding of people, wellbeing and opportunity across the education ecosystem.

Potential is everywhere, but opportunity is not.

That’s why thoughtful innovation matters.

When technology is designed with people in mind, it can help teachers feel more supported, help students feel more confident and help schools create healthier environments for learning and growth.

To work in service of education is to work in the business of hope.  

Something to think about…

As AI continues to become part of everyday life in education, perhaps the most valuable innovations will be the ones that create more time for connection.

More time for conversations.

More time for encouragement.

More time for creativity.

More time for people.

Because the heart of education always has and always will be human.