It’s great to get out: the benefits of a Governor Awayday
Sarah Beaumont, Head of Governance at NPW – The Education Space, talks about governor development, cinematic showdowns, and being on a boat. Being invited to speak at a school governor awayday today was an absolute joy for two reasons: (1) it was one of the first physical events I had attended post-lockdown, and (2) it …
COVID – What’s really happening in schools
Throughout the pandemic, the DfE has been collecting data on COVID infections in schools and sharing this with local authorities. This data is reported directly by schools via the Department for Education’s daily education settings survey. It is not the primary source of data on infection, incidence, and COVID-19 cases overall but it continues to …
What is Web Accessibility and Why Does it Matter?
Web accessibility is the practice of making sure a website can be accessed and used by as many people as possible. Having a lovely website that showcases your school is essential these days and you should feel confident that anyone can visit and enjoy your website regardless of visual, motor, auditory, or cognitive ability. These …
How Important is Effective Messaging?
Can we learn anything from the Super League or Disney? You would have to have been living under a rock for the past 3 weeks not to have heard something about the Super League. With everyone and his dog chiming in to explain how terrible it would be for football. Even the Prime Minister …
Remote Learning: An End to Snow Days?
The pandemic has seen a fundamental change in the way education has been delivered in the UK for the past year. Whilst some schools or education establishments have delivered lessons remotely for some time, the mainstream education system was all about face-to-face lessons, with ratios ranging anywhere from 1 to 1 up to 1 to …
How Secure is Your School Website?
Website hacking is an issue for all websites, not just big corporations, banks and government departments. We often see articles in the media about hackers making targeted attacks on large companies and governments to steal money and information or for ideological reasons (known as hacktivism) but schools, individuals and small organisations are also at threat …
IT Security: Top tips
This Guest Editorial is by Jamie Charlton, Sales Director of Sharp Business Systems UK. As technology continues to advance, and as schools and students become increasingly more dependent on internet-ready devices, cybercrime is becoming more difficult to both deal with, and avoid. The Department for Education now specifies that school managers, governors, and head teachers …
Data Protection Update
There’s a growing awareness of the impact on individuals when personal information is used in a way that people wouldn’t reasonably expect and It’s been clear for some time that individuals don’t trust organisations with their personal information. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applied from May 2018 and brought into focus the ways in …
Is your school brand strong enough?
Modern Problems in a digital landscape Amongst the many challenges that schools face, one which has evolved significantly since digital advancements is the way in which prospective parents and employees engage with your school. Before we were able to swing open our laptops and ‘Google’ any organisation at the press of a button, parents and …
Are school leaders the best people to run their schools?
This editorial welcomes Chris James, from Alan Patient & Co, to talk us through some of the financial difficulties schools may face and how they - with a little help - can find stability during turbulent times. Chris is a Chartered Certified Accountant and has been fortunate enough to support many schools and governors over …