“An educational Joe Wicks.” The Telegraph
ABOUT
Mr Bates is an award winning primary school teacher, actor, clown and presenter from Oxfordshire, now residing in Surrey.
Mr Bates Creates (previously known as The Shed School) began in 2020 when the world stopped for COVID 19. Mr Bates converted his garden shed into TV studio where he streamed live English and Maths lessons to support children stuck at home with no access to an education.
For his efforts during this difficult time, Mr Bates obtained a number of recognitions including Cuprinols Shed of the Year, Pearson National Teaching Awards, The Independents Happy List and the Telegraph's Lockdown Hero Award nomination.
His endeavours where recorded the Sir Tom Moore Foundation's book "100 Reasons to Hope", a publication by penguin publishing that celebrates the efforts of people who supported the nation during the globe pandemic.
MR BATES CREATES has now a global brand that supports Key Stage 1 & 2 learning by making the curriculum accessible, creative and fun!
Where it all started...
(Metro interview 2020)
During the world wide COVID pandemic of 2020 from the cosy comfort of his shed, Ashley Bates live streamed English and maths classes for children aged between five to eight years old.
At first, Ashley had just 10 students. Just a few weeks later, he had over 6,000!
Mr Bates said ‘When lockdown happened, he thought about the jobs he needed to do around his flat,’
He started cleaning out my shed when a family from next door walked past. They stopped him and asked if he could help them teach their children as they knew he was a teacher, which he said he would go away and think about. It was like a lightbulb moment for him.
He walked away from the conversation and walked straight back into his unused shed. He suddenly thought he could help but want to help as many families as possible across the country.
Thanks to the powers of technology, it allowed Mr Bates to teach children across the globe from his shed straight to their front rooms.
Shed School students joined in from New York, Italy, Egypt and Australia all sending in their work in to look over and share with the little shed community.
The Shed School is a platform where the children can feel like they belong to something and it also give them some structure where they can see a familiar face every day that isn’t their mum or dad. And learn some cool stuff too.
