QA & Testing for UK EdTech — ICO AADC Built In

AADC Compliance Testing for EdTech

ICO Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC): 15 standards. QA testing for AADC: (1) age estimation testing — does the age gate correctly restrict under-18 access to adult features? (2) data minimisation testing — does the platform collect only data children need to use the service? (3) geolocation off by default — QA verifies geolocation consent is off by default for users who may be under 18. (4) high privacy settings by default — QA verifies new accounts have the most privacy-protective settings. (5) parental consent — for under-13 users, verifiable parental consent mechanism tested.

School MIS Integration Testing

UK school MIS systems: Bromcom, Arbor, Sims (legacy, migrating), iSAMS, and SchoolCloud. MIS API testing: student data import (new students, leavers, class changes), attendance data sync (SIMS attendance XML format), and timetable data (lesson schedule for learning platform personalisation). ClickMasters maintains test fixtures for all major UK MIS APIs — integration tests run against recorded MIS responses. Consent testing: parent and pupil consent records sync correctly from MIS to EdTech platform (consent flag accurately reflected in feature availability).

PSBAR Accessibility Testing for EdTech

PSBAR (Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations): applies to all EdTech used in publicly-funded schools. WCAG 2.1 AA mandatory. EdTech-specific accessibility challenges: (1) content with images (diagrams, charts, worksheets) — alt text required for all educational images. (2) video content — captions required (auto-captions from YouTube are insufficient — must be reviewed for accuracy). (3) interactive exercises (drag-and-drop, click-to-match) — keyboard-accessible alternatives required. (4) timed assessments — WCAG 2.1 AA: time limits must have a way to extend (important for pupils with additional support needs).

Performance Testing for EdTech Concurrent Access

School day peak: 09:00–09:15 — all classes start simultaneously, all students log in at once. EdTech performance testing: simulate 1,000 concurrent student logins (realistic school size) — target: p95 login time < 3 seconds. Load testing with k6: ramp-up profile (0 to 1,000 in 60 seconds — school bell pattern), steady state (1,000 concurrent for 30 minutes — lesson duration), and ramp-down. Common EdTech performance failure: database connection pool exhaustion — 1,000 simultaneous logins each opening a connection. Solution: PgBouncer connection pooling.

ICO AADC

UK GDPR

DfE standards

PSBAR WCAG 2.1 AA

School MIS APIs

Cyber Essentials