Same curriculum. A way in for every pupil.
Inclusive education shouldn’t mean a separate worksheet at the back of the room. Skilly is built on universal design for learning (UDL): every pupil works on the same wellbeing curriculum, and the teacher adjusts how it’s presented, how the pupil responds, and how the environment behaves — pupil by pupil, switch by switch.
For special schools, SEN departments and mainstream classrooms alike: differentiated instruction that’s configured once and then just happens, every lesson, without singling anyone out.
Universal design for learning
One task, three adjustable layers
UDL asks for multiple means of representation, of action and expression, and of engagement. In Skilly each layer is a set of real switches, not a design philosophy on a poster.
Representation
How the task reaches the pupil
The same reflection prompt can be read aloud with each word highlighted, simplified into plain-language steps, rendered in dyslexia-friendly type at a larger size with wider spacing, or shown bilingually in the pupil's home language. One prompt, many ways in.
Action & expression
How the pupil shows what they know
Sentence starters get a stuck writer moving, and a pupil who finds typing a barrier can speak their answer — their own browser transcribes it into the writing box on-device, with no audio ever leaving the tablet. A per-pupil minimum word count means the bar is theirs, not the class average. The AI's formative feedback uses a rubric variant matched to the pupil, and the teacher signs off every level before the pupil sees it.
Engagement
How the environment supports focus
Focus mode clears the screen down to the task. A gentle elapsed-time chip — never a countdown — supports time awareness without pressure. An "I need a break" button is always in reach. Reduced motion, high contrast and a predictable layout keep the room calm.
Learning Profiles
Set by the teacher. Felt by the pupil.
A Learning Profile is a set of support settings a teacher configures for a pupil — starting from a preset or from scratch. From then on, every journal task the pupil opens is already adapted. No pupil-facing labels, no separate app, nothing to remember to switch on.
Autism-friendly
Predictable layout, reduced motion, a step indicator so the pupil always knows where they are, visual supports and sentence starters — a calmer, more structured journal.
Dyslexia-friendly
A dyslexia-friendly typeface, larger text, wider letter and line spacing, read-along audio with word-by-word highlighting, and tap any word to hear it on its own.
ADHD-friendly
Focus mode strips away distractions, the gentle timer supports time awareness, the break button offers a legitimate off-ramp, and shorter targets keep the task startable.
Custom
Every switch is individual. Start from any preset — or from scratch — and tune each setting to the pupil in front of you, with a private notes field for the support plan.
Presets are starting points, not categories — every switch can be adjusted individually afterwards, because two pupils with the same diagnosis rarely need the same support.
The support toolkit
Every switch, by the barrier it lowers
All of this is in the product today — nothing on this page is a roadmap item. Each setting is per-pupil and works alongside the others.
Reading & language
Read-along audio
The prompt is spoken aloud with each word highlighted as it's read — or tap any single word to hear just that word, slightly slower.
Simplify toggle
Re-renders a dense prompt as short plain-language steps and swaps curriculum-formal verbs ('evaluate', 'articulate') for everyday ones.
Dyslexia-friendly typography
A dyslexia-friendly typeface, three text sizes, and wider letter, word and line spacing for easier tracking.
Bilingual EAL mode
A newcomer sees the task in their home language beside the English, writes in either, and can receive feedback in both.
Attention & executive function
Focus mode
Hides navigation and page furniture while the pupil is writing — the task is the whole screen.
Gentle elapsed timer
A quiet time-elapsed chip that supports time awareness. Deliberately never a countdown, never an alarm.
"I need a break" button
One tap opens a calm full-screen pause, with the pupil's work kept safe. Coming back is one tap too.
Predictable layout & reduced motion
The journal keeps the same shape every time, with animation and movement switched off. High contrast available too.
Writing & fair feedback
Sentence starters
Openers matched to the task, one tap to drop into the pupil's draft — scaffolding the start, which is usually the hardest part.
Voice input
A pupil who finds typing a barrier can speak their answer into the writing box. Transcription happens in the pupil's own browser — Skilly never receives or stores the audio, only the text, which is scored and safeguarding-scanned like any typed reflection.
Per-pupil minimum word count
The submit threshold is set per pupil. Ten words that cost real effort count for more than fifty that didn't.
Adapted AI rubric variants
The AI's formative feedback can use a neurodivergent-aware variant, or the Level 1 Learning Programme (L1LP) variant with short, concrete, always-encouraging language.
The teacher signs off
As everywhere in Skilly, the AI proposes and the teacher decides — every level and every line of feedback is theirs to change before a pupil sees it.
For special schools too
One school, every level — labelled honestly
Mixed-needs settings shouldn’t need three tools. Alongside the adapted mainstream curriculum, Skilly is building the NCCA Level Learning Programmes — and here’s exactly where each one stands.
Mainstream curriculum, adapted per pupil
SEN classes in mainstream · AEN pupils in any class
The same SPHE and wellbeing curriculum as everyone else, delivered through each pupil's Learning Profile: autism-, dyslexia- and ADHD-friendly presets or fully custom settings. Same tasks, same classroom, adapted delivery — inclusive education without a separate scheme of work.
L2LP Learning Programme
Mild/moderate GLD · special schools & SEN classes
The NCCA Level 2 Learning Programme, starting with Personal Care & Wellbeing. Authentic NCCA learning outcomes rewritten as “I can” statements at reading age 7–9, with concrete openers, key words, sentence starters and teacher scaffolding notes. Pace-agnostic by design — no class-wide calendar pressure.
L1LP Learning Programme
Profound/severe GLD
Level 1 pedagogy is experiential, sensory and one-to-one — fundamentally different, and not something we'll write at a desk. The AI's L1LP feedback variant is built and waiting; the content itself is being co-designed with special-school partners before it's called production-ready.
Designed around executive function
Starting is the hardest part. So we scaffold the start.
For many pupils with additional needs, the barrier isn’t understanding — it’s initiation, working memory and self-monitoring: executive function. Skilly’s supports are aimed exactly there. Sentence starters remove the blank page. The step indicator holds the sequence so working memory doesn’t have to. Focus mode removes the competition for attention. The gentle timer externalises time without turning it into a threat, and the break button makes self-regulation a legitimate, one-tap choice instead of a battle.
What a Learning Profile is not
- It is not a diagnosis, and Skilly never diagnoses. Presets are named for the supports they bundle, not for the child.
- It is not visible to classmates. The pupil simply gets a journal that works better for them.
- It is not a separate, lesser curriculum. Every pupil reflects on the same learning outcomes.
- It is not automatic. A teacher who knows the pupil sets it, adjusts it and can switch it off.
What we don’t do yet
- AAC or symbol-supported communication (PECS-style boards) — the roadmap conversation we most want to have with partner schools.
- Built-in voice recording — pupils can dictate into the writing box with their device's own speech-to-text, but a first-class record button is still in development.
- Production-ready L1LP content — the pedagogy is being co-designed first (see the programmes above); we won't ship it before it's right.
Feature lists are easy; a SENCO’s trust isn’t. When any of this ships, this page changes the same day.
Inclusion that’s configured once, then just happens.
If you lead SEN provision, teach in a special school, or want your mainstream classroom to work for every pupil in it, we’ll walk you through the Learning Profiles live — with your scenarios, not a scripted demo.