It was a real privilege to be asked to present a session on the future of AI within schools at the Coventry Schools conference last week. Thank you Alison York and Ollie Burnett for the invitation.

My session aimed to create conversation and understand the massive potential and possibilities when it comes to technology and AI. The main takeaway from the session is that, between schools/MATs, suppliers and support teams, we should all strive to make the most of utilising the latest technology and staying ahead of the AI curve.

1. As Schools and MATs understand their needs they need to push for solutions to meet their pain points, no need to worry about the limitations of technology, that’s for the suppliers to solve.

2. Suppliers understand the technology and should offer up solutions which showcase ‘the art of the possible’, this includes reducing friction to utilising their solutions.

3. Support Teams are important as part of this relationship to continue to work in partnership with schools and MATs, ensuring they get the most out of their current solutions and advise on changing needs.

What do you think? Is AI on the agenda for your school or business?

Our final #FinnemoreFireside of this academic year is with Chris Kirk of CJK Associates. Chris’ work is varied and he and his team support the mission of education by providing strategy, business planning, organisation design, operations, procurement and shared service advice to education organisations.

Chris works extensively with multi-academy trusts on vision, strategy, operating models and governance/finance reviews, so our Q&A session focuses on MATs and their needs, and what this means for suppliers – both now and in the future.

It’s a really insightful discussion and we cover topics including:

• Fostering social responsibility in schools and achieving aspirations through clarity
• How schools can contribute to society
• Finding your mission: understanding and showcasing your unique capabilities
• Unlocking the power of professional networks: how Trusts can make a difference
• The challenge of ensuring adequate support for high-need pupils
• Establishing a culture of consistency: How do you ensure a similar mission statement in new schools/academies?
• The future of school groupings and the natural drift towards ten
• When MATs stand firm and refuse to uphold the Regional Commissioner’s agenda
• What is Collaborative Alignment? Achieving aspirations through group collaboration
• The challenges facing schools as the educational environments change

We’d love to hear your feedback and comments below. Enjoy!

Our first #FinnemoreFireside of 2023 is with Catherine Tallis, Director of Business Services at HFL Education.

HFL Education (formerly Herts for Learning) is a national provider of school improvement and business support services, training and resources.  As long-standing providers of MIS support to their schools, this Q&A discussed in detail the ways in which support teams must adapt as the MIS market continues to evolve. Being a SIMS-only support team, as was usually once the case, is now a risky strategy for any team wanting to remain in business in the coming years.

It’s a fascinating chat and, amongst other things, Nick and Catherine discuss:

• The precarious state of school finances and the impact that has on decisions, and the huge amount of pressure on schools as they are taking on more as services around them are cut to the bone (e.g. CAMHS, social care, etc.)
• How academisation and changes to the way schools licence MIS have led to the sector completely changing, and how HFL Education have adapted into a multi-MIS support team to help their schools
• What will happen to teams who aren’t able to adapt quickly, and how the conversation needs to shift away from software support to whole school strategic support
• The challenges around understanding overheads as a business where teams are still part of an LA
• The democratisation of data, and how HFL Education supports meaningful school improvement through the effective use of data
• Schools are great at curriculum change but not always so great at change across other systems, and this is something support teams can help with
• HFL Education’s vision and plans for the next five years
• What Catherine would like to see from the market and from suppliers

We’d love to hear your feedback; what would you like to learn from support team leaders?

How successful has the government’s 10-year school rebuilding programme been?  There are 100 school rebuilding projects currently underway, with a third set of 61 schools announced in July, so:

❓ Has it created an effective digital infrastructure?

❓What would/should the direction of government policy on school building and refurbishment under new political leadership?

❓What effect has it had, if any, on pedagogy?

With questions such as these, how do you assess the ongoing rollout and implementation? We’re pleased to be involved in the Westminster Forum Projects ‘Next steps for school buildings in England’ online conference tomorrow where delegates will do just that!

I’ll be speaking on understanding and maximising the benefits of improved facilities on educational outcomes.

The speakers and delegates will also look at issues around support for schools that have not been accepted onto the programme; how can their needs be met?

Chaired by former Minister for Schools & Learners, Rt Hon Lord Knight of Weymouth, there are some great keynote sessions from Jane Balderstone and Rory Kennedy from the Department for Education; Robert Gould, Partner at Barker Associates, and Associate Director Matt Robertson of LocatED. The conference will examine the future of school buildings and the development of the schools estate in England – including improvement of estate quality, the school buildings market, and maximising the benefits of improved facilities.

The agenda looks at:

• improving the quality of the schools estate in England – key priorities moving forward – effective digital infrastructure – developing facilities fit for the long term
• the school rebuilding programme – policy priorities – rollout – lessons learnt so far
• the current school buildings market – strategies for land acquisition
• environmental sustainability and energy efficiency – school buildings for the future – role in contributing to net-zero – cost of running school buildings amid rising energy prices
• benefits of improved facilities – impact on educational outcomes – teaching quality – maximising community use

More info and booking details can be found here.

It should be a thought-provoking day with lots of opportunities for discussion, we’re looking forward to it 😊

How good are you at predicting the future? This image has resurfaced as the article was written 110 years ago and talks about climate issues linked to coal – amazing foresight! What it doesn’t get quite right is the timeline; it says “the effect may be considerable in a few centuries” when actually we’re at a crisis point already.

How often do businesses fall into the trap of thinking a problem is somewhere out there on the horizon when it’s really about to smack them in the face?

I work with the edtech industry and there are quite a few examples I can think of:

👉 The need to access all teaching, learning and school management technology from outside of the school came into VERY sharp focus in the face of lockdowns – lots of people were caught out.

👉 With the academisation agenda, the way schools make decisions and purchase solutions has been turned on its head which has had a major effect on some company business models that probably thought they were safe (the school MIS market in particular).

👉 Free and ‘freemium’ solutions have changed what schools are willing to pay for, you need to find ways to add extra value or risk being ditched altogether.

Here’s what can you do to future-proof your edtech business:

• Listen to your customers
• Encourage employees to speak up – find out what your workforce wants
• Challenge every assumption
• Embrace imperfection
• Iterate, don’t reinvent – be agile
• Be willing to grow
• Test out new marketing strategies
• Harness the power of tech

I’ll talk more about each of these in future blogs, but we also cover all of these in detail within our coaching programme.

How are you future-proofing your education business?

Where do you see the next innovations in education coming from?

The next in our series of Business Leader Q&A sessions is with Stephen Bilboe, Sales & Marketing Director at WCBS.

Founded in 1984, WCBS specialises in providing integrated management systems to Independent & International schools across three main areas: Admissions, MIS & Finance.  They’ve recently invested heavily in delivering next generation, cloud native systems that use the latest technology to achieve a much better user experience for Independent and International Schools.  This culminated in the launch of HUBmis in October 2020.

Stephen and I chatted about WCBS and the many changes happening in the MIS sector, including:

• Your focus is very much within the Independent and international schools market, do you see yourself ever moving into the maintained market?
• What makes you different from other Independent MIS solutions?
  Have you found the Covid situation has impacted your business, do you see yourselves working differently going forward?
• As an MIS business, what is going to be important to you over the next 2-3 years to continue to grow?
• What’s next for WCBS?

How important is human contact?

When lockdown happened back in March, like many other businesses, our business lost all in-person contact with the outside world (and it was hard!).

But as humans we all want to deal with other humans; it’s so important to have a real face and a real person behind your solutions.

It’s for that reason we set up online chats with various people in our industry to talk trends, try to make future predictions in a changing world, and generally shoot the breeze. We’ve been sharing the recordings and the response has been great, I think everyone wants to get to know the faces behind the companies too!

So thank you James Weatherill, Richard Harley, Ali Guryel, Winston Poyton and Barry Anns for giving us an insight into the school MIS market which has seen some big changes this year.

Thanks to Mark Tadman, Guthrie Denniston and Martin Baker for talking to us about all the things you do alongside the MIS solutions and the ways in which you help schools.

And finally thank you Phil Neal, Joshua Perry and Graham Reed for your views and ideas on what might happen next and the big trends in edtech.

Nick and I have thoroughly enjoyed making the series, here’s to many more in 2021!

Are you and your edtech partners ready for the next generation of technology?

I’m looking forward to presenting a session on this subject at the virtual GESS Dubai later this month. Not quite the same as being there in the sunshine, but I’m excited all the same!

If you look around at the world and at how industry is using technology, education is behind the curve. This has a major impact on children in preparing them for adulthood, not just regarding how they manage what technology throws at them but, more importantly, are they curious to see how technology can benefit them and the world around them.

The goal of my presentation is for leaders in schools and the education market to push suppliers to use the latest technology and drive innovation.  Look forward to seeing you there!

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GESS is a two-day EdTech-focused event for leading educators who directly influence purchasing, owners of schools or those influencers who direct school strategy and training in the EdTech sphere.  You can register to see my presentation and listen to many other great speakers here.

#GESSDubai #GESSEdtech

Over the summer holidays, Nick caught up with Scholarpack CEO, Richard Harley, for the next in our series of Q&As with edtech business leaders.

Scholarpack is the only MIS created specifically for primary schools. In this interview, Nick and Rich discuss why creating a unique MIS to meet the specific needs of primary schools has worked so well, and how the MIS educations sector might change in the future.

We’ve split it into three parts to make it easy to digest.  Enjoy!