14 October 2026
Mid-September to 14 October
A simpler home screen
Your child’s home screen now starts with one simple question: “What shall we do today?”
- They can type anything, or snap a photo of their homework, and Fred takes them to the right place.
- Underneath are four doors: Homework, Learn, Quiz and Write. “Jump back in” picks up where they left off.
- A short tour shows them round the first time they sign in.
Fred helps your child think, not copy
- Every homework question sheet now starts with a choice: “I’ll have a go, then you check”, “Show me a similar one first” or “Let’s do it together, step by step”. Same idea at every age, from Year 3 to Year 11.
- “Show me a similar one first” works through a made-up example step by step, then hands their own question back.
- If your child shows their working, Fred checks each step and says plainly if one slipped, then lets them finish.
- If your child says “just tell me” or “I don’t know”, Fred won’t hand over the answer. He gives a hint, then a smaller step, then a similar example, and hands the question back.
- After a real attempt, if they’re still stuck, he offers stepping stones: the start of an answer, a gap to fill, or a choice of two or three. Your child still finishes it. Fred will also offer help when he can see they’re struggling, rather than waiting to be asked.
- Once the work is done, Fred can read your child’s answers back in one place, ready to copy out, and make any changes they’ve agreed to.
- If your child gives their own answer, he still says clearly whether it’s right. And if they’re upset or worried, that always comes before the schoolwork.
- Getting it right comes first. If Fred realises he’s said something wrong, he says so plainly in one sentence and puts it right, wherever your child is working with him, without giving away more of the answer.
- Written sums like 47 + 38 or 300 − 47 are worked out by the app itself, column by column, so Fred can’t drop a carry or mark a right step as wrong. Your child still does each step and gives the answer themselves.
Homework help is sharper
- Checking finished homework: photograph the completed sheet, or just type “can you check my answers”, and Fred goes through it question by question with a tick, a “look again” or a question mark. If he can’t read an answer on the photo, he asks rather than guesses.
- Sent page 2 halfway through? It joins the same session. Photos of notes are remembered for the rest of it too.
- A sheet typed out on one line (“1) … 2) … 3) …”) is now split into its questions.
- Fred reads diagrams in photos more accurately. If your child says their sheet says something different, he checks with them and goes with their sheet rather than argue.
- If a poem, passage or set of options wasn’t sent, Fred asks for it instead of making it up. He also says up front that he can’t hear phonics sounds or measure a printed picture.
- Essay and written questions: Fred explains what the question is really asking, plans with your child before any writing, then coaches a paragraph at a time in their own words. Comments, never a mark. Under Write, “Help with a question from school” takes the exact question their teacher set.
Talking to Fred
- Your child can talk to Fred instead of typing, wherever they chat with him. Voice input is off until you turn it on: you’ll see a note on your dashboard, or you can find it under Typing and voice in your child’s settings. It’s tap-to-talk: it only listens after your child taps the mic, and stops when they tap again or send. Audio is never stored, only the words it turns into. See our privacy notice.
- It stays off where the writing is the work: Writing Practice, written exam answers and essay drafts.
- If your child has dyslexia-friendly mode on, there’s a new Scribe help option in their settings. Your child gives their ideas, roughly, by voice or typing, and Fred will write them up as sentences in their own words, fixing spelling and punctuation but adding nothing of his own.
Quizzes and pictures
- When Fred sets a question, the answer is worked out separately while your child thinks, so he marks against a checked answer, not a guess. Facts in his replies are checked too, and if one was wrong he corrects it in his next message.
- Written answers are marked more fairly. A correct answer in your child’s own words keeps its marks.
- Multiple-choice options are now shuffled every time. (We found the right answer was B nearly half the time. Not any more.)
- Nearly 250 hand-checked diagrams for KS2 to KS4 maths and KS2 to KS3 science, from number lines to circuits and the digestive system.
- All 93 GCSE maths topics are in Quiz, and Year 10s can revise Year 11 topics ahead. Set your child’s exam board and English texts in their settings and practice questions follow suit.
New names, simpler screens
- “Test Your Knowledge” and “Check-ups” are now just Quiz. The version where your child writes their answers is called “In your own words”.
- The separate Step-by-Step mode has gone. It sometimes kicked in by accident from phrases like “show me how”. Fred still guides one step at a time. The tutor style that was called “Step by step” is now “Calm and guided”, and nothing else about it has changed.
- Streaks have gone too, so there’s no daily run to protect. Focus Mode’s break activity is now called Brain teaser.
- The Help pages (and the Help chat) have been rewritten to match how everything works now.
What you see as a parent
To keep Fred a private space for your child, the parent dashboard now shows what they worked on and how they did (subject, topic, time, marks, which writing criteria they met), not their written answers, reflections or photos. An option to see their written schoolwork is coming.
- Chats are named by type and subject, like “Ask Fred, Maths”, never by what your child typed. Stories show as “A story” with a word count unless your child shares one.
- Your child’s Stay Safe page tells them what you can and can’t see, in the same terms.
- Fred’s safety checks now cover more of what children type, including the topics they type into a quiz or a writing task, and the way he responds when a child shares a worry has been carefully reviewed.
Your account
- Pause a child instead of deleting them. A paused child can’t sign in and doesn’t count towards your bill, and everything is kept for when you resume.
- Credits: your family gets a monthly pot. You’ll get a heads-up if it’s running low, your child can ask you for more with one tap, and top-ups never expire. Your child never sees prices: if they ask Fred’s Help about credits, they’re told to ask you.
- The weekly email about your children’s week arrives on the day and at the time you choose, under Account, Notifications.
- Invite a friend is under Account. Friends who join through your link get 25% off their first six months, until 31 October.