Should you be building hybrid into your school mix?
Proof-of-concept hybrid school design produced by Jestico+Whiles
What is Hybrid Schooling?
Hybrid schooling has three components: face to face teaching, remote teaching usually using a video conferencing tool, and individualised study on a personalised learning platform. Thus, hybrid education is more about the ways in which schools interact with students, than it is about location. It is quite possible for a student to be in school for the whole week and be taught using the hybrid model; with part of the day being taught in a class with a teacher, part of the day in a remote lesson; and part of the day working on a learning platform.
Hybrid Schooling v Online Schools and ‘Home Learning’
Hybrid schooling differs from ‘Online Schooling’ and from the periods of ‘Home Learning’ during Covid or in the recent Middle East conflict, in that students are required to be in school for part of the week. This is important because this provides time for human interaction and the socialisation that come from that. However, the beauty of hybrid education is that it provides the flexibility for students to work remotely for some of the week, if desired. In many ways, it is the best of both worlds.
Models of hybrid schooling vary as to the amount of time that students are required to spend in the bricks-and-mortar school environment. The Dukes Education Hybrid schools in London and Cambridge require students to attend one day a week, which provides time both for socialisation and to work on practical subjects, such as sport, science, art and drama. Other models have students in the week for three out of five days.
Hybrid Schooling and Flexible Working
Hybrid Schools also open up the opportunity to provide the option of flexible working for teachers, either with part of the work force working full-time remotely; or for in-person teachers to spend some of their week working from home.
Traditional teaching models do not provide much flexibility. Teachers are required to work set hours in the week and have little or no flexibility as to when they can take their holidays. These are significant barriers to young people joining the profession and for people returning to teaching.
The Politics of Online Schooling and Remote Teaching
To date progress in the UK towards the value of online schooling has been slow. The UK Government launched the online education accreditation scheme (OEAS) publishing a series of standards in January 2023. Sophia High School, Minerva Virtual Academy [MVA] and Kings InterHigh have all subsequently received DfE Accreditation. However, this scheme does not cater for a hybrid option. Stumbling blocks to wider adoption are revolve around concerns about school attendance and push-back from the teaching unions. Teaching staff at a school in Lancashire went on strike in December 2025 when Star Academies engaged a remote teacher living in Devon to teach Y9 to Y11 students mathematics (BBC Report 03/12/2025).
The UAE has been more open to hybrid education. Indeed, in January, when the federal mandate was introduced that required all private schools are required to end their studies no later than 11:30am, the KHDA in Dubai opened up the possibility of schools offering remote learning for years Y7 and above on Friday mornings:
Interestingly, to my knowledge, no school in Dubai chose to take up this option.
Six ways you can build hybrid into your school mix:
1. Building hybrid into your school mix – Upskill your remote teaching capability by embracing developments in remote teaching pedagogy
Remote Teaching Pedagogy is at a formative stage, but online schools are at the forefront of the developments in online pedagogy. The way in which online schools conduct remote teaching is a far cry from what most families experienced during Covid.
Indeed it is increasingly being recognised that teaching remotely requires a different set of skills from what is required in a bricks-and-mortar classroom. The University of Derby is even offering a Post Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching.
The Online Schools use sophisticated learning platforms, such as BigBlueButton, that allow teachers to combine content delivery, to run polls and to establish and manage break-out rooms. They also have communication tools that allow teachers to check in on individual students, as well as to communicate with the class.
Further developments are coming down the line. Campus-XR, a VR start-up, is developing an immersive lab that will allow students to conduct all of the their GCSE science experiments through VR. Virtual reality gives remote students the opportunity to get (virtual) hands-on experience without significant cost of maintaining and staffing a school lab. If we can train our eye surgeons to perform operations in VR, why can’t our GCSE students learn their practical skills in VR?
Remote teaching pedagogy is still work in progress, but there is much that mainstream schools and groups can learn from what they are doing.
2. Building Hybrid into your school mix – Staffing shortage subjects
Given the growing shortage of specialist teachers in some subjects, it would make sense for schools to move a portion of their sixth form teaching to remote teachers working with students who log into lessons while in school. All the indications are that there is no shortage of highly qualified teachers who want
3. Building Hybrid into your school mix – Reducing international school staffing costs
The rising costs international expat packages makes engaging a proportion of your specialist teaching staff on remote teaching contracts a very attractive proposition.
4. Building Hybrid into your school mix – Outsourcing Low Uptake Subjects
Sadly, most schools have a number of GCSE, A-level and IBDP subjects, often Classics and modern languages, where current student uptake means that these subjects represent a significant cost to the school.
In these circumstances, one way that schools can reduce costs without reducing their curriculum offering, is to move those low-uptake subjects online. There are now a range of external providers, both online schools or tutoring agencies providing B2B services, who not only will provide remote teaching within the school timetable for the whole course, but will also write reports into the school’s MIS and participate in parent-teacher meetings.
Furthermore, offering online teaching is a cost-effective way in which schools can expand their curriculum offering, say by offering Italian, Russian in addition to the traditional French, Spanish and German.
Indeed, the British School Muscat in September 2025 introduced Psychology A-level delivered remotely. This option proved popular with parents and students alike, and the school was able to introduce the subject without having to engage a part-time teacher on an international expat package.
5. Building Hybrid into your school mix – Providing Medium-term Absence Cover
One of the greatest challenges that schools face is providing cover when teachers are absent. One way in which schools might build hybrid into their school mix is to build a relationship with online providers who can step in for the short term to provide expertise to cover a mid-year maternity or long-term sick absence.
6. Building Hybrid into your school mix – Flex your school into the hybrid market
Finally, the ultimate way to build hybrid into your school mix is to flex your current school into offering a parallel hybrid curriculum.
It is far easier for bricks-and-mortar schools to flex into hybrid than it is for online schools to do so. Online schools have business models that are predicated on a low-or-no physical assets.
Conversely, traditional schools already have physical assets so flexing into hybrid requires significantly less capital investment. It would be relatively easy for schools, particularly international schools, to offer a limited hybrid curriculum with students coming into school for part of the week. This model has been pioneered by The Dukes Education Hybrid which is attached to their bricks-and-mortar school in London.
And so . . .
It can be argued that schools perform three important functions in our society. First, they provide childcare so that parents can go to work. Second, they provide opportunities for children and young people to develop socialisation skills. And third, they are places where children and young people acquire knowledge and understanding. Traditionally schools have been designed around classrooms and academics. The advances in technology and pedagogy mean that academics can be delivered in a range of new ways This allows for a whole rethink of what schools are. Hybrid schools can be designed - both in terms of physical environment and how they apportion time – around the most human of activities, socialisation. And that is a very exciting prospect.