When it comes to record-keeping and safeguarding across a multi-academy trust (MAT), information can get lost in the day-to-day. Here, safeguarding lead Rebecca McGuinn discusses the solution that fixed this issue for Ebor Academy Trust in Yorkshire:

The new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that are coming into force this May are a very hot topic in edtech right now. There is still a lot of confusion around what schools need to do to be prepared for these changes.

I am very proud to work at Wheatley Park School, a school where ‘everyone learning’ comes first, a school where everyone is caring, and a school that is incredibly proud to be the only Secondary school in Oxfordshire with a 1:1 policy. Every member of our school community, both students and staff has their own Chromebook, that they use in lessons and at home, when appropriate to do so.

Many will know Kate Jones for her popular classroom resources, or from her being a member of the original TMHistoryIcons team. Having known Kate for a while, we wanted to share her story of being an expat school leader, having traded in North Wales for the United Arab Emirates...

In the autumn term of 2015, headteacher Jenny Taylor ran a new, two-week initiative at her school, Horfield Church Of England Primary in Bristol. A trial of literacy platform ReadingWise saw major improvements for the 10 pupils involved; so much so that the school now runs three intervention groups of ten pupils daily, helping them to reach many struggling readers.

At a recent webinar on ‘Practical Insight on the GDPR for schools’, Arena’s Neil Maude shared some of the most relevant features of the new data protection regulation for schools, the potential impacts, and next steps. This was followed with a survey to understand the state of play for education on individual schools’ journeys towards the May 2018 deadline, which has elicited some interesting insights. For example:

How best to go about creating the ideal school group? Peter Rubery is the executive principal/CEO of The Fallibroome Multi-Academy Trust in Macclesfield, Cheshire. We spoke with Peter to find out exactly how education can thrive through an MAT.

Being a school leader can be stressful - this is probably stating the obvious, especially given the time of year. In the Innovate My School Guide 2017/18, four authors from different backgrounds discuss various aspects of school leadership. Here are their thoughts on wellbeing.

Over the years, several studies have revealed the benefit - even necessity - of spending time outdoors and when the great outdoors is combined with education, it can have vast benefits. Learning outside can help provide a holistic approach towards learning with immense academic, social and emotional benefits for students. Although most children go on school trips several times a year, they don’t often get the opportunity to enjoy nature as part of their school day, which means they could be missing out on opportunities to excel both academically and socially.

We pose this question to Lynne Taylor, cofounder of data protection specialists GDPRiS: