The idea of offering financial incentives on a national scale for school examination achievement ("performance related pay for pupils") was formulated by 2 teachers from Rutland and backed by Totalise plc following their investment of in the idea. Examboost was launched on 11th April 2000 at St Michael's RC School, Bermondsey, UK followed by regional launches in the Midlands and Scotland. Totalise plc offered shares to all students taking public examinations in the UK (GCSE, A'level, AS level, Standard Grade, Scottish Highers and CSYS) - the higer their grades the more shares they got.

In its first 3 months, Examboost signed up students from 10% of all UK schools and received considerable media coverage including SKY, BBC, ITN, BBC Radio, The Times and the TES. Examboost now operates as a separate company following the collapse of Totalise after the dot com boom. The 2 original teachers (pictured below) are part-time Directors. They plan to relaunch the scheme in the near future with funding from other sponsors.

Dr David Lewis and Dr Martin Roberts, who developed the first ever National financial incentive scheme for student examination achievement whilst teaching at Uppingham School, Rutland. The DfEE expressed interest in the scheme.

Peter Gregory, CEO of AIM-listed Totalise plc said in a press release "We believe examboost is unique in the market and is one of the best ways of encouraging students to achieve the best grades they can. The benefit to Totalise is that we will achieve increased registration to our service and this will help to build the value of our company.....we also hope that this will encourage students at all levels to be more aware of shares and financial deals"

With over 1.3million new students eligible for incentives each year, there is scope for involvement of major companies who wish to associate their products with student achievement. Examboost Ltd. has the mechanism in place (including electronic registration and results verification) to distribute products or cash to students according to their examination grades in return for exposure of a product or some other form of commitment from students. Our first sponsor attracted high quality internet users - the average grades of A level students claiming their financial incentives was ABB and their UCAS points average would have placed them, as a group, above Eton College in the Times A level League Table. These new users clearly added value to the company as they are the high earners of the future and the sponsor received more media coverage following association with Examboost than it had previously done. We receive many enquiries and try to respond to them all. We are currently negotiating with several potential sponsors. If you are a potential sponsor please contact us with a brief outline of the level of interest and the product involved. Alternatively you can write to us at: Examboost Ltd., c/o 4 Queen St. Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9QR (UK)