Dyslexic children across the world benefit from Wiltshire innovation

A Westbury innovation is helping dyslexic children across the world – with a teaching device being hailed a UK export success.

Jack Churchill (pictured) and Toby Sutton founded teaching aid Scanning Pens in 2003. Their ReaderPen – which is just a little larger than a regular ink pen and can be easily handled by children – scans text and reads it aloud or via headphones.

Since 2015 the company, which is based at The Mansion, Heywood House, has received export support from the Department for International Trade, with exports now accounting for half of the company’s sales.

In fact between 2017 and 2019, sales have grown in America by 179 percent, in Canada by 295 percent, and in Australia by 316 percent. The US alone generates £2 million in revenue.

Jack, CEO and export champion for Scanning Pens, and himself dyslexic, said: ““There has been a surge of demand during the pandemic as non-human reader aids have become vital for children with special educational needs who have lost the support of classroom assistants.

“The UK education system is respected around the world and as well as teaching, we have cutting edge publishers and technology companies.

“The Department for International Trade was an obvious first step to help us export and give us connections in markets where we had none. There is huge scope to grow our international base with DIT’s support.”

Latest figures from The Department for Education show that total education exports and transnational education activity from the UK was estimated to be £21.4 billion in 2017, an increase of 7.2 percent since 2016.

Since 2010, the estimated value of education related exports has risen by 34.7 percent in current prices.

Not only have education exports been growing, but technology has also seen a boom, with Tech Nation’s Unlocking Global Tech report2 suggesting the UK contributed £23.3 billion in digital tech exports in 2019 – with the potential to grow this by more than £8 billion by 2025.

Paul Shand, head of trade for DIT in the South West said: “Scanning Pen’s achievements in these markets indicate the strong demand for innovative, British, high-quality ed-tech services.

“It is great to see them succeed and provide these invaluable tools during a time when access to vital learning resources has been limited.

“Trade will play an important role in getting our economy back on track and Scanning Pens are a great example of how companies can look to lucrative overseas markets to boost their sales while creating more jobs.”