Carousel Learning names Andrew Berwick as Managing Director as Joshua Perry steps back from role

Andrew Berwick takes on Managing Director role at Carousel Learning as co-founder Joshua Perry steps back from day-to-day operations while remaining involved in the business.

Andrew Berwick, Managing Director, Carousel Learning

Carousel Learning has appointed Andrew Berwick as Managing Director, with co-founder Joshua Perry stepping back from day-to-day leadership after six years running the business alongside Smartgrade.

Carousel Learning focuses on retrieval practice and teacher professional development, while Smartgrade provides standardized assessment tools for schools. Perry remains involved in Carousel Learning in a background role, while continuing his work at Smartgrade.

The update was shared via LinkedIn posts from both Perry and Berwick, outlining a change in day-to-day leadership at the company.

Leadership transition at Carousel Learning

Joshua Perry said the decision reflects the demands of running two businesses: “For the past 6 years I've been running two businesses: Carousel Learning and Smartgrade. As I've said to many people, candidly, it has often felt like "one too many companies".”

He added: “So I'm delighted - delighted I tell you - to be taking a step back at Carousel, while Andrew Berwick comes in as Managing Director. My role at Smartgrade is unchanged.”

Perry confirmed he will remain involved in Carousel Learning: “I'm now really looking forward to supporting him as he guides Carousel on its next phase of growth. (I'm still very much involved to be clear, just moving to a background role.)”

Andrew Berwick takes on Managing Director role

Andrew Berwick joins Carousel Learning following leadership roles across education and youth organizations, including the Youth Endowment Fund and AllChild.

In his LinkedIn post, he said: “I am genuinely thrilled to share that on Monday I joined Carousel Learning as Managing Director.”

He outlined his decision to move into the EdTech sector after a period of exploration: “My goal? To find an education company that cares deeply about impact, is doing something about it, and has a shot at scaling its model to every school in the country.”

Berwick also described the company’s focus: “We do two things really well: enable teachers to set and run brilliant retrieval practice, and provide teacher CPD that actually works.”

He continued: “Retrieval practice is one of the few things that we can confidently say ‘works’ in education, and we’re making it as easy as possible; teacher CPD is one of the many things that unfortunately doesn’t work, and we’re fixing that.”