Children deserve educational technology designed around how they learn and how they feel.

Designed to support children’s learning and wellbeing, erniee creates ethical, personalised and imaginative educational apps, connecting digital experiences with real life.

Our approach What we do

The moments behind our first two products.

She wanted the fun activities. They just weren’t using her words.

My daughter’s weekly spelling list came home as another exercise to complete:

Read. Cover. Write. Repeat.

It was bland, and it felt like a chore.

She had a spelling exercise book filled with word searches and more enjoyable activities.

“I much prefer these word searches and fun activities.”

The problem was that the exercise book did not use the words she had actually been given to learn that week.

That became the idea behind Spellify: what if any spelling list could be turned into games and activities that made a child want to practise, while using repetition and variety to help the words stay with them?

Spellify has since grown into a much larger spelling experience covering the primary curriculum, memorable words, weekly school lists and practice over time.

Explore Spellify

Not knowing one place became a judgement about herself.

“Where’s Lisbon?”
“Portugal.”
“Is that in Spain?”
“I’m stupid. I don’t know where that country is.”

She was not stupid. She simply had not discovered it yet.

I did not want geography to feel like a test of everything a child should already know. I wanted the next unfamiliar country to feel like an invitation to explore.

That became WorldHop: one new country each day, discovered by spinning the globe and collected in a growing passport. A small, repeatable way for children to build their knowledge of the world without being made to feel behind for what they do not know yet.

Discover WorldHop

In both moments, the child was not the problem.

One experience made a gap in knowledge feel like a personal failure. The other made necessary practice feel like a chore, while the activities she actually enjoyed were disconnected from the words she needed to learn.

The answer was not to demand more effort from the child. It was to design a better experience around the learning.

That is where erniee began.

What children should be able to expect from us.

Learning designed around the child.

Children learn in different ways and need different kinds of support. We design for those differences, and we consider what a child is learning, the help they need and how the experience affects their confidence, attention and privacy.

Imagination with a purpose.

Stories, characters, play and rewards are there to help a child approach the learning and want to take part, not to distract from it.

Learning that connects.

Learning should make sense across school, home and the app, and carry on away from the screen through drawing, making, conversation and play.

Access that continues.

Core learning will remain free to access, without advertising or subscriptions. Complete downloadable learning resources will also be available free of charge.

Honest evidence.

We will be clear about what informs each decision, what has been implemented, what has been tested and what we still need to learn.

Good intentions are not enough.

Children’s learning and wellbeing deserve more than instinct. erniee’s products will draw on established research, specialist knowledge and testing with children, families and teachers.

We will show what informs each decision, what has been implemented, what has been tested and what we still need to learn.

The people behind erniee

erniee brings together product design, behavioural thinking and psychology to create educational technology that supports children’s learning and wellbeing. We consider how children learn, what keeps them motivated and how technology can help without relying on pressure, comparison or attention traps.

Illustrated portrait of Martin Robertson opening his jacket on an erniee T-shirt, a blue cape behind him

Martin Robertson is the driving force behind erniee and leads its product strategy, design and development.

His approach draws on product design, behavioural science and behavioural economics. He considers how choices, feedback and motivation can help children engage with learning while protecting their confidence and independence.

Martin took WorldHop from an idea to a released educational app and has developed Spellify into an extensive working product spanning the primary spelling curriculum.

Illustrated portrait of Lara Myall, chin resting on her hand, among leaves

Lara Myall leads the psychology and research direction behind erniee.

She reviews erniee’s work through the lens of motivation, confidence, inclusion and psychological wellbeing. Her role is to challenge product mechanics, language, rewards and assumptions about how children and families experience technology.

Her work will also help erniee explore the wider relationship between children and technology, including how digital experiences affect attention and behaviour, and how children can move from using technology back into conversation, play and everyday life.

Specialist input.

Each programme will involve the educational, behavioural and subject specialists it needs. Their role will be clearly defined and may include reviewing curriculum content, classroom use, accessibility, behaviour and the claims erniee can responsibly make.

Technology partnership.

Product design and development will be delivered through a defined technology partnership. Each funded programme will have an agreed scope, budget, delivery plan, ownership structure and standard for completion.

Help shape what comes next.

erniee has one released product, an extensive working Spellify beta and a wider programme of educational products and resources to develop.

Back the work, join a pilot, contribute expertise, make an introduction or help more people discover the mission.

WorldHopLive

SpellifyWorking private beta

More products and resourcesPlanned

Children deserve educational technology designed around how they learn and how they feel.

The moments behind our first two products.

She wanted the fun activities. They just weren’t using her words.

Not knowing one place became a judgement about herself.

In both moments, the child was not the problem.

What exists now.

What we commit to now.

What we are working towards.