tootoot

Tootoot is a pupil voice and safeguarding software product for schools, colleges, universities, apprenticeship providers and other youth settings. Pupils log in via a browser or the iOS/Android apps and send confidential messages about concerns — friendship problems, bullying and cyberbullying, mental health, issues at home or serious safeguarding disclosures — directly to designated staff. Staff manage the messages through an inbox, can reply and ask follow-up questions without learning who reported, and can reveal a reporter's identity where a disclosure meets the school's safeguarding threshold; permission for reveals is controlled by the school and every reveal is logged.

Beyond two-way pupil reporting, the platform includes digital incident recording for staff, pupil mental health and wellbeing surveys, pupil chronologies, case assignment and audit trails, and real-time dashboards and reports for senior leadership teams and governors covering trends, hotspots and monitoring of vulnerable pupil groups. Parents can also be invited by the school to report concerns one-to-one to designated staff, without visibility of their child's or other parents' reports; schools can disable parental access. Tootoot is positioned to sit alongside a school's existing safeguarding record-keeping system, adding the pupil-reporting layer rather than replacing case management.

The product has been extended beyond education: tootoot sport launched in 2017, working with clubs including Wigan Warriors and Rochdale AFC, and a tootoot workplace version aimed at workplace harassment was in pilot phase as of January 2018.

Founding story

CEO Michael Brennan conceived the idea after persistent bullying in his own childhood: anti-bullying helplines eased his situation but could not feed back to his school, so problems went unresolved. Identifying the absence of a digital tool that closed that feedback loop despite widespread pupil access to mobile devices, he joined with co-founder and CTO Kieran Innes, who led app development. The founders state they started tootoot in 2014 to make it easier for children and young people to speak up about anything making them unhappy or unsafe; a 2018 company release refers to the venture's inception in 2013.

Business model

Software-as-a-service sold on subscription to schools and other education providers, with training, launch resources and unlimited email support included in the subscription.

Flat annual per-school pricing rather than per-pupil charging, listed on the company website at £400 for primary schools and £500 for secondary schools.

Traction

The company reports over 500,000 children and young people given a voice, use by more than 15,000 teachers and over 20,000 tootoot admins, and support for pupils in more than 25 countries. Milestones include its first school (Berwick Academy) in 2014, 10,000 pupils in 2016, 20,000 pupils and a first Pupil Voice Week with over 150,000 participants in 2017, 10,000 cases logged in 2018, a 2019 partnership with the Junior Premier League covering 10,000 young footballers, and a 2022 Pupil Voice Week with over a quarter of a million pupils registered. As of January 2018 the company reported over 600 schools and 270,000 pupils. Reported outcomes include a 50% reduction in bullying and cyberbullying incidents, 20% higher pupil confidence to speak up, a 17% increase in pupils feeling safe at school and 66% greater staff confidence responding to concerns; the software was independently evaluated as part of a Department for Education-funded programme.

Latest developments

The company marked ten years of operation in 2024, held its largest Pupil Voice Week in 2022, and renewed its Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications in 2026. Current positioning emphasises deployment within days via MIS syncing and flat per-school pricing of £400 (primary) and £500 (secondary).