Double First Limited, now trading as ‘Engage’, was founded in 1987 to address a demand for specialist accounts and administration software for independent fee-paying schools in the UK. It then joined forces with a specialist school ICT provider at the turn of the Century. Working closely in the school environment and with the new owner’s backing, we recognised the need for schools to have a much more holistic approach to handling data to broaden understanding and optimise operations. This inspired us to launch our single platform, multi-faceted Engage school management information system.
More than £9m has since been reinvested in the development of Engage to become the most powerful and flexible school MIS solution in the marketplace for independent and international schools. We have pioneered several innovations, from rich data management tools to the workflow-oriented, highly customisable Daybook that has found infinite new applications in recent times, helping schools face lock-down, remote learning and welfare and back-to-school challenges.
At every step we have applied the feedback of schools to take Engage to the next level, keeping it in step with modern educational and real-world demands.
An exciting new chapter
Double First was acquired by Australia’s leading K-12 software company, Education Horizons in 2020, making us a closely integrated part of a leading ed-tech group serving more than 2200 schools and 3m users globally. In this new relationship, we are continuing to invest in Engage, contributing our expertise towards solutions of tomorrow and additionally offering a broad range of products from Education Horizons including leading LMS, SEQTA, and school asset management platform, AssetWhere, to enhance further remote learning, facilities management and collaborative multi-curricula management (including IB).
In the shifting sands of these times, Engage offers you a firm foundation for your school and a passion for holistically enhancing your ability to develop all pupils and students in your care. Education Horizon’s vision – Every day we help schools succeed – summarises our guiding light over the past 33 years and our absolute focus for those we serve, now and in the future.
Locally focused, globally adopted
We remain extremely focused on the UK independent school scene and are proud that our first-ever school customer continues today as an Engage user. For 15 years now we have also operated in key educational markets worldwide, with our achievements being recognised by a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2016.
Today we are a leader in providing global school and financial information management software to worldwide independent and international schools. With multi-lingual and multi-currency capabilities, helpful in any increasingly cosmopolitan school environment, and a single database platform flexible, innovative feature set and cloud hosting, Engage has been widely adopted in multiple jurisdictions across 60 countries and six continents. Much of our research, development and 21/6 support remains based in the UK. We also have wholly-owned offices in South Africa, embedded team members around the globe and the wide technology and educational experience of Education Horizons in Australia.
We recognise that to be effective, you need us to provide global knowledge and best practice but apply that with local expertise and passion for the great educational efforts of the individual schools that we serve, whether you are located just up the road from our locations or anywhere in the world.
