Skodel was founded by identical twins Ian and Julian Fagan, and their friend Huon Peard. The idea originated from Ian's personal experience with mental illness during his final year of school. What Ian found most beneficial was having Julian as an outlet to share what was on his mind. Skodel was designed to be an outlet for all students.
Skodel is used in over 100 schools with resoundingly positive feedback. Schools can use Skodel on any device to send a check-in to students online. The check-in is fast and mimics the engaging features of social media to give students an opportunity to express how they're feeling and why they're feeling that way. Students are engaging with this with over 50,000 check-ins sent a month, a 60% completion rate on these check-ins and of those 60%, 75% are leaving meaningful open ended feedback and 75% are sharing that they are feeling either a positive or negative emotion. For teachers, the feedback has been centred around the simple yet effective presentation of data that has enabled them to quickly get to know their students. In some cases teachers have supported students during challenging times, connected them to clinical support and other times they have shared in moments of joy thanks to Skodel.
Skodel was launched in March 2020 and has since onboarded over 100 schools across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US. The Ministry of Education in New Zealand funded a group of schools through their URF in rolling out Skodel after a successful trial period with two foundational schools. Over 500,000 check-ins have been sent on the platform since launch and completion rate is at 60%. The goal for Skodel over the next two years is to establish strategic partnerships that fast track adoption and provide additional support for schools in managing student wellbeing. A key product focus is the introduction of Skodel's wellbeing planning tool which will enable schools to have all students and staff on their own individualised wellbeing plan.
Please contact info@skodel.com if you are interested in using Skodel at your school.
