We’ve been privileged to speak with even more industry thought leaders this academic year as part of our #FinnemoreFireside chats, and the insight they provide us and our community is invaluable.

So thank you to Edtech NED, legislator, schools and education expert Jim Knight for your thoughts on the disconnect between the education and labour market, and the need for a school system which truly meets the needs of learners, communities and employers.

Thanks to Derek Hills from Ark for sharing your views on where you see AI fitting into technology budgets and the broader education landscape, and what the future of MIS might be.

Thank you Matt Woodruff for an insightful conversation about how technology can support more effective decision-making at all levels to improve outcomes and identify ways to be able to ‘do more, with less’ – more important than ever in today’s economic climate.

Thanks to Catherine Tallis of HFL Education, a long-standing provider of MIS support to schools, for discussing the ways in which support teams must adapt as the MIS market continues to evolve.

Thank you to Chris Kirk of CJK Associates Ltd for your insight into MAT’s needs in terms of vision, strategy, operating models and governance, and what this means for suppliers – both now and in the future.

And finally, we were delighted to welcome back Martin Baker of The Safeguarding Company for a follow-up chat about the lessons that can be learnt from the Child Q case. A challenging topic and we really appreciate you sharing your experience.

Nick and I have thoroughly enjoyed making the series and already have a great session ready to go in the new term from Lyndon Stickley and Sam Curtis at iplicit. Ollie Burnett from the school support team in Coventry will also be joining us to talk about all the valuable ways they support their schools, including helping them procure and migrate to their new MIS Bromcom as a group earlier this year. Watch this space!

Have a great summer break everyone 🌞

We’ve been privileged to speak with even more edtech and industry thought leaders throughout 2022 as part of our #FinnemoreFireside chats, and the insight they provide us and our community is invaluable.

So thank you Jonathan Coyles of EO Consulting for talking to us about how Trusts can become more energy-efficient, hit carbon targets, and save money at the same time.

Thanks to Mike Donoghue for giving us an insight into how MATs work and what is important to directors, leaders, governors, staff and learners.

It’s great to speak with entrepreneurs from across the edtech industry so thank you Lawrence Royston for getting involved and giving us your perspective.

Thank you to Stephen Bilboe for talking to us about changes across the international and independent education sector, and what the future might hold in terms of MIS.

Our chat with marketing and PR guru Cath Lane is essential listening for everyone who owns or leads an edtech business, thanks for the great advice.

Thank you to Andy Kent for talking to us about his focus on innovation and culture to help all levels of the education sector.

We welcomed Phil Neal back for a follow-up chat to discuss changes in the world of school management systems.

We spoke with Martin Baker of The Safeguarding Company about the lessons that can be learnt from the Child Q case.

And finally, we were delighted to speak with Matt Woodruff, Vice President of Analytics and AI at Community Brands UK, for an insightful conversation about data and machine learning.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed making the series and already have some great sessions ready to go in the new year including a discussion on school support with Catherine Tallis, Director Of Business Services at Herts for Learning Ltd – watch this space!

Have a great Christmas break, looking forward to sharing more with you all in 2023! 🎄

Best wishes from Sarah & Nick

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Before the summer I caught up with Martin Baker, Co-Founder and CEO of The Safeguarding Company. Martin is a former chief police officer whose 38-year career spanned five UK police forces, where he was responsible for all aspects of safeguarding and child protection and managed the risks posed by violent and sexual offenders living in the community. You can read more on Martin’s background here.

During the Q&A, Martin and I had an insightful conversation focused purely on the recent Child Q safeguarding incident. Some particularly interesting areas of discussion include:

• How the action taken with Child Q was disproportionate vs the potential suspicion
• Martin challenges the current way of thinking and what you should ask yourself before acting in a safeguarding incident
• We talk about the adultification of black and minority children, removing their innocence of age.
• How we may misinterpret ‘Fawn’ as acceptance
• The impact on Child Q and her family, and the damage it has done
• How intersectionality comes into play when discriminating against Child Q
• Why we cannot hide behind unconscious bias
• How we need to change the training and culture to ensure we never have another Child Q situation again

We’ve split it into two parts to make it easier to digest.

(TW: this conversation contains potentially distressing subject matter)

Additional reading

Following on from the #FinnemoreFireside chat, Martin has suggested that the following would be useful additional reading about some of the topics covered in this chat Guidance for safer working practice for those working with children and young people in education settings (February 2022).

Martin has also pointed out that, since the publication of the Child Q case practice review, the Department for Education has updated its guidance on searching, screening and confiscation in schools.  The revised guidance can be found here.

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!