Pivot works across primary, secondary, and tertiary education sectors in Australia and beyond, partnering with schools and systems to embed student voice in teaching practice.
Their platform is used by school leaders, teachers, and students to enable real-time feedback, guide professional learning, and track impact on wellbeing and learning outcomes. Pivot’s work spans:

• Individual classrooms through actionable teacher reports.
• Whole-school improvement via data-informed professional development.
• System-wide programs supporting evidence-based education strategy.

In schools, student voice is often unheard, feedback is collected but rarely timely, analysed, or acted upon.

Although students are central to the learning experience, their perspectives on teaching quality are rarely systematised or used to inform professional growth. Traditional feedback systems are slow, inconsistent, and often disconnected from classroom practice.

“There are a lot of surveys in schools, but what’s missing is timely insight that educators can use the very next day.”

Cleo Westhorpe (Pivot Co-founder)

Key challenges included:

• Delayed feedback that arrives months after teaching occurs.
• Data overload with little support for interpretation or use.
• Manual processes require weeks of effort to compile and analyse survey responses.
• Educator uncertainty around how to turn feedback into meaningful change.

Pivot developed a real-time student feedback platform that makes it simple for schools to collect, interpret, and act on insights from learners, while aligning to evidence-based teaching practices.

“We want to move from hunches and anecdotes to insight and action.”

Cleo Westhorpe (Pivot Co-founder)

Key Features:

• Curriculum-aligned survey tools based on the Australian Teaching Standards and global best practice (e.g. AITSL, HITS, VTLM).
• Instant feedback reports delivered to teachers and school leaders for timely reflection and action.
• Trend analysis tools to identify growth areas over time, both individually and school-wide.
• Student co-design features that support learners in interpreting the data and shaping next steps.

At its core, Pivot moves feedback from an afterthought to a real-time tool for continuous improvement, helping educators refine practice while engaging students as partners in learning.

“Feedback isn’t the end of the process — it’s the start of meaningful change in the classroom.”

Cleo Westhorpe (Pivot Co-founder)

Since 2018, Pivot has supported Victoria University Secondary College to build a culture of feedback-driven teaching.

The school’s goal:

• Improve professional teaching practice across the staff.
• Use student voice as a reliable measure of teaching quality.
• Support goal-setting and feedback literacy for both teachers and learners.

“Surprisingly or not, the reliability of data increased when we engaged kids in the conversation.”

James Dowie (VUSC)

Using Pivot data, the school identified a consistent weakness in student perceptions of goal-setting support. Instead of guessing, educators engaged students in interpreting the findings and co-designing strategies to improve. The process led to:

• Increased teacher attention to actionable feedback.
• More intentional student goal-setting after assessments.
• Stronger feedback loops that promoted student agency and clarity.

“Students care about the result — but if we want them to grow, we need to help them care about the feedback too.”

James Dowie (VUSC)

• • Real-time insight into classroom experience, no more six-month lags.
  • Reduced teacher workload, replacing manual surveys with instant reporting.
  • Elevated student voice, moving from tokenism to strategic input.
  • Targeted professional learning, backed by data, not guesswork.
  • Shift in school culture, from compliance-driven feedback to evidence-informed growth.

  Pivot’s platform turns student voice into a strategic asset. By combining timely data with teacher-friendly insights, Pivot empowers schools to create learning environments where feedback drives change, not just conversation.

Recorded at inform.ed Melbourne 2025