A complete technical and pedagogical specification — the AI systems powering personalisation, curriculum frameworks built for neurodivergent minds, and the safety architecture that underpins everything.
Section 1
Five distinct layers — each with a single responsibility. Inputs flow upward into models; outputs flow downward into experiences. No single model does everything. Specialisation enables safety, auditability, and performance.
Section 2
Every child has a continuously-updated model of how they learn. Not a diagnosis label — a precise, evolving map of this specific child at this specific moment. It updates after every session and informs every AI decision.
Child Model Schema · Live example · Session 847
What follows is a simplified example of what Bloom stores and continuously updates for a single child. Every field is derived from real session data — not set at onboarding and forgotten. By session 847, the model knows this child's optimal attention window, their regulation baseline, which modalities work for their profile, and even that Mondays are harder than other days. This is what "adaptive" actually means in practice — not a single difficulty slider, but a living portrait updated every session.
Section 3
Each module is independently deployable, testable, and auditable. They share the child model but operate independently — so a failure in one never cascades to others.
Section 4
The curriculum is not a content library with accessibility features bolted on. It is built from the ground up on six pedagogical frameworks — with neurodivergent cognition as the design target, not an afterthought.
UDL assumes variability is the norm. Designing for the edges creates a better experience for everyone. Bloom implements all three UDL principles at the curriculum architecture level — not as accessibility overlays applied after the fact.
Children move forward when they are ready — not when a schedule dictates. A child who hasn't mastered subtraction does not move to multiplication. But they are never made to feel behind — the framing is always "not yet," never "behind."
Every subject is taught through the lens of what the child already loves and does well. This is not superficial personalisation — it is structural. The child's identified strengths become the cognitive scaffold for everything new.
Cognitive overload is the enemy of learning — and neurodivergent children hit it faster and with fewer warning signs. Every piece of content is designed against a strict cognitive load budget. These are enforced constraints at the content authoring stage, not guidelines.
The forgetting curve is real — and spaced review matters for every child. The curriculum is a spiral, not a line. Content returns at precisely calculated intervals, woven invisibly into sessions so retrieval practice never feels like testing.
Bloom's design principle: a child should feel settled before academic work begins. Academic content never starts until the check-in confirms the child is ready. Some practitioners draw on polyvagal theory here, but it is contested, so Bloom treats this as a design choice to test, not settled science.
Section 5
Each subject is rebuilt from its learning objectives outward — not from its traditional teaching methods inward. The question is never "how do we teach maths?" but "how does this specific child come to understand mathematical thinking?"
Maths anxiety and low maths performance feed each other (Cambridge / Nuffield, 2019). Redesigned around conceptual understanding first, procedural fluency second — with visual-spatial as the default entry point.
Reading, writing, and comprehension treated as distinct skills. A child can excel at comprehension while still developing decoding — the subject is rebuilt around this separation.
Where many neurodivergent children find their superpower. Deep curiosity, pattern recognition, and obsessive interest align perfectly with science. Bloom leans into this deliberately.
Chronically taught in ways that disadvantage neurodivergent learners — essays, abstract timelines, large volumes of text. Bloom reimagines them through story, character, and place.
Not enrichment — the primary vehicle for many neurodivergent children to develop executive function, emotional regulation, and self-expression. Core curriculum at Bloom, not optional.
A Bloom-original subject existing in no national curriculum — and possibly the most important one. Children learn about their own minds: how they think, why they feel things, what neurodivergence means.
Not a taught subject in the traditional sense — a parent guidance and preparation framework for families with neurodivergent children aged 0–6. Supports the transition into formal learning by establishing the foundations Bloom builds on.
Section 6
Every 30 seconds, Bloom re-evaluates whether the current content, pacing, and approach is optimal for this child at this exact moment. This is not static personalisation — it is continuous adaptation with a real decision tree behind every choice.
| Adaptation action | Trigger | Speed | Child experience | Parent visible? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Difficulty reduction | 3 consecutive errors | <1s | Seamless — next item is simpler, no comment made to child | No · silent |
| Modality switch | Low engagement + 2 min elapsed | <2s | "Want to try a different way to look at this?" | No · logged |
| Break offer | Regulation score <50 | <1s | Gentle: "How about a quick break?" | No · logged |
| Subject change | Frustration signals on specific topic | <5s | "Let's come back to this later — want to try something else?" | Yes · digest |
| Session end recommendation | Sustained dysregulation >5 min | <10s | Warm close: "You've done something really hard today. That takes real courage." | Yes · with guide |
| Safeguarding escalation | Crisis signal detected | Immediate | Warm redirect to safe content — human review triggered in parallel | Yes · urgent |
Section 7
Neurodivergent children are disproportionately vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, and mental health crises. Our safeguarding system is the most important technical system in Bloom — and the one we are least willing to compromise on for any reason.
Suicidal ideation, self-harm statements, acute abuse disclosure, immediate danger language. Any match triggers the most urgent response path without exception.
Persistent distress language, emotional abuse indicators, neglect signals, repeated disclosures, escalating anxiety patterns across multiple sessions over time.
Persistent low mood, school anxiety beyond expected range, social isolation indicators, language suggesting peer difficulties or ongoing bullying.
Section 8
Chosen for reliability, privacy compliance, and the ability to keep child data sovereign. No vendor lock-in on critical paths. Open standards wherever possible. Every technology choice has a child safety rationale behind it.
Section 9 — Data Sovereignty & Containment
Child data stays inside Bloom from the first beta session. What changes across the phases is how capable the models become — not where the data goes. This section documents what is self-contained at each phase and the consent obligations that remain.
What never leaves Bloom — at any phase
How the Phase 1 tutor handles conversations — and the consent obligation
What legitimately stays external — at all phases