Daisy Education UK, a provider of education software to schools across the UK, has relocated to a new 5,565sq ft head office at Queen’s Park on Gateshead’s Team Valley Trading Estate.
The edtech company, formerly known as Reading Solutions, has grown significantly in recent years, supplying learning software to over 1,600 schools and employing 40 members of staff.
Underpinning this growth has been a recent expansion of the company’s offering to include maths software, as well as English development programmes, for its primary and secondary learners.
Over 200,000 now utilise the software distributed by Daisy Education each and every year and the introduction of the maths range in January is set to see the company issue more licences than ever before during the 25/26 academic year.
“We started out ten years ago at the Regus Gateshead on Team Valley and at the time, it was just me and our original founder, Michael Walker,” recalls managing director, Ian Fitzpatrick.
“It was a small room with only four desks, so it’s amazing to look down the road from our new office now and see just how far we’ve come.
“We’re now a team of 40 people working with over 1,600 schools across the UK, and we are showing no signs of slowing down.
“Over the next 12 months, we aim to continue innovating and working with our client schools to better improve the education their learners receive, as well as growing the new maths side of the business.
“It’s a really exciting time for everyone involved with the company and the new head office will be key to ensuring we are able to continue building on this success.”
The new office has provided Daisy Education with the space required for its growing team to work together under one roof, something Ian sees as being key to fostering the ‘cracking culture’ which has helped drive the company forward in recent years.
“We are an office-based team with an excellent culture and one of the things which really drives this is our commitment to collaborative working,” Ian said.
“We encourage everyone to get involved in discussions, which improves knowledge across the board and just creates such a positive atmosphere around the place.
“I love nothing more than coming in and hearing people speaking passionately about their work and the impact our products have and as we continue to grow, this new, larger office will be key to ensuring this continues to run throughout all levels of the business.”
Daisy Education has been supported throughout its expansion at Team Valley Trading Estate by estate owner, UK Land Estates.
UK Land Estates had previously occupied the office but agreed to vacate and relocate elsewhere in the building to help the company realise its ambitious growth plans.
Ian said: “UK Land Estates have always been excellent to work with, they’re just so amenable and very flexible. They’re a great team and we can’t thank them enough for all of their support over the years.”
David Gibbs, Property Director at UK Land Estates, said: “We are delighted to have been able to support Daisy Education’s expansion at Queen’s Park.
“We take real pride in understanding the needs of our customers and working with them to find solutions that meet their exact specifications, be it developing new sites or creating solutions from within our portfolio, and this is a prime example of that.
“By working closely with Ian and the team, we’ve been able to help them move to a new, larger office with little disruption to the business, allowing them to continue innovating and growing while remaining rooted here in the North East.
“They’re a fantastic success story for the region and we’re proud that they are located here on Team Valley.”