Innovate My School - Ideas, Practices & Personal Insights

Using ICT to reduce school operating costs

“With frozen school budgets and the media reporting that headteachers are contacting parents with concerns on balancing the books, school finances are again in the spotlight. This impacts all areas of school life, including technology spend - Promenthean reports that the average spend by secondary schools on technology fell 7% last year and primaries were also spending 4% less. At RM Education we work with almost 8,000 schools, helping them put the right ...

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Connecting you with leading influencers, innovators, and inspiration

From subject leaders to teaching assistants, business managers to headteachers, everyone in the education sector is constantly having to perform a balancing act; providing the best possible learning experiences, while managing workloads, with limited time and resources - and making the right procurement decisions.

Things to consider while planning an innovation budget for your school

We all agree that education is the primary necessity of our society. Educated people invent new technologies to achieve more comfort in their daily routines, however, both are dependent on each other. I believe that literate people innovate more and more while technology helps to produce well-educated citizens.

KidGuard Resources on Technology & Online Safety

A set of tools for keeping your family safe online and teaching your children how to become better digital citizens. KidGuard’s mission is to educate and bring awareness to parents about what they need to know about online safety for their children. Here’s a list of guides all about protecting children while using the internet and technology, a great read for parents and educators alike.

Breaking down barriers to coding

Whilst we know that the skills associated with computational thinking are vital for today’s children to flourish in the 21st Century workplace, the practicalities of teaching coding during school hours can sometimes be perceived as a challenge. There is often a misconception that incorporating workshops and lessons that will instill the important skills associated with computational thinking will take a lot of work. But, with simple techniques, we know ...

Why the education sector must address security in the rush to digitise

Last year huge investment was made in the education industry, with almost two-thirds (64%) of education employees reporting investment in digital technologies. This, according to government statistics, equates to more than £900m.

How to Use Chatbots in Education

A chatbot is an "artificial intelligence (AI) program that simulates interactive human conversation by using key pre-calculated user phrases and auditory or text-based signals" (technopedia.com). Businesses throughout the United Kingdom and elsewhere are rapidly adopting chatbots to support their business. Vodafone, the well known phone company, has a chatbot to help people learn about which phone plans best fit their needs, for example. But what about using chatbots ...

Curriculum-Led Financial Planning: An Innovative Solution for a Time of Challenging Budgets

The vast majority of school leaders will be familiar with the balancing act of reducing costs while still ensuring that we provide the highest possible quality of education to our students. In the 20 years I have spent working in the education sector – first as a teacher and then as a headteacher, before becoming the Chief Executive of the Thinking Schools Academy Trust – this challenge has been a key focus for ...

Tackling the mental health challenge in schools

In recent years we’ve seen a positive shift in attitudes towards mental health. It’s being talked about by everyone from the royal family to Justin Bieber: little by little, the taboo is being broken.

How would you define a brilliant teacher?

I am guessing many of us remember at least one teacher who really stood out from the others, someone who has made a real impact on our lives. I am often tempted to define a brilliant teacher as one who passes the thirty year test: when you catch up with them thirty years later, you want to go up and talk to them, because they made such a difference to ...

Music and creativity back in the Ofsted spotlight

Ofsted is currently consulting on its proposed new inspection framework – the draft was published on 16th January with the consultation running until 5th April. The draft framework includes some strong indications that music and creativity will be firmly back on the radar of Ofsted inspectors from September this year. If schools want to achieve Good or Outstanding ratings, they are going to have to teach the full curriculum, right ...

How Fenwick Primary Added Value to the Reading Experience

When expectations are growing but budgets are falling, you have to be confident that how you spend that budget has a strong impact in the classroom, and is therefore really great value for money.

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