Inspired Education Group

How Inspired Strengthened Student Voice Across 90 International Schools

What does it take to listen meaningfully across a global education group?

With nearly 100,000 students and 119 schools across 27 countries, Inspired Education set out to understand what life feels like for students across their network.

About Inspired Education Group

In early 2025, the group launched a student voice initiative in 90 of their schools as a pilot to test a new approach. For James Day, Global Director of Operations, this meant turning a deeply held value into a daily leadership practice.

Inspired education group logo

Why Inspired needed a new approach to student voice

With a presence in 27 countries, Inspired’s diversity brings both opportunity and complexity. Schools operate in varied cultural and educational contexts, making it challenging to understand the student experience in a consistent, comparable way.

Although student voice had long been a priority, James acknowledged that without structured feedback, leaders often relied on assumptions. The group needed a clearer, evidence-based picture of students’ day-to-day realities – one that could inform decisions and support school improvement at scale.

To pilot this shift, Inspired worked closely with the Edurio team to create an “About School” survey for approximately 90 schools across the group. The survey explored key areas such as safeguarding, extracurricular provision, and the overall student experience. Students were asked how happy they were at school, how valued their opinions were, and what they believed could improve, offering a rich picture of school life from the student perspective.

James emphasised this was not just a logistical exercise. The team sought a way to integrate listening into the decision-making process for leadership across the group.

Partnering with Edurio: Adaptive listening

Inspired began working with Edurio in early 2025 to improve how student feedback was collected and used. 

The partnership focused on creating an inclusive survey experience:

Translated surveys

for non-English-speaking contexts

school surveys for staff icon

Dedicated lesson time

to ensure student participation

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Flexible scheduling

to fit local calendars and time zones

James described the onboarding experience as “seamless – excellent customer and product onboarding team.” What stood out most was how clear and useful the data became once the results were in.

What Inspired learnt: Challenging assumptions, validating strengths

The data uncovered both expected trends and previously unseen insights. It provided a more detailed view of student voice and highlighted patterns, which the team had not been able to see before.

The benchmarking features allowed Inspired to compare student experience across countries and regions. This helped them identify both common strengths and areas where support could be targeted more effectively, driving more equitable improvements across the network.

James confirmed that Inspired plans to repeat the process annually, citing the success and clarity this type of survey brought to school improvement efforts.

Reflections for other international school leaders

James offered several lessons that other school groups might take from Inspired’s experience:

  • Listening must go beyond surveying. What matters is how the insights are used.
  • Comparability matters, but so does context. Local adaptations made the survey more meaningful.
  • Data needs to start conversations, not just populate reports.

He also noted that Edurio helped provide “accurate data and responsive support,” which built trust and strengthened the relationship between leadership and the group’s students.

From Edurio: A shared commitment to listening well

Working with Inspired has shown us what’s possible when listening becomes part of leadership, not just a process. Their commitment to hearing students at scale and acting on what they say is something many school groups can learn from.

Ernest Jenavs, CEO and co-founder of Edurio

Ernest Jenavs

CEO and co-founder of Edurio

Closing thought: Student voice as a leadership practice

James described Edurio as “simple to use,” with “powerful benchmarking across schools” and “clear visualisations that make data accessible for all stakeholders.” He summed up Edurio’s impact in three words: “insightful, user-friendly, impactful.”

For Inspired, the process was not just a project, but a shift in practice. The team now sees listening to students as integral to leadership – not as an add-on, but as a core responsibility.

If you want real, actionable insight to drive school improvement, Edurio is the only choice. It is clear, efficient, and backed by a team that genuinely wants to help schools thrive.

Inspired Education Group logo

James Day

Global Director of Operations at Inspired Education Group