The journey to digital excellence

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Making the journey to digital excellence

What defines a successful school? Professor Pamela Sammons, writing in late 2007, identified the processes found in effective schools. As in the above image, these elements can be summarised in five areas – but what is the best way to deliver them? 

In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the key areas for schools to ensure that they are using digital technology to best effect to help them along their journey to digital excellence.

Professional leadership

The vision, values and direction of a school, and building relationships inside and outside the school community are key dimensions of successful school leadership. These are delivered through:

• A defined vision and purpose, fostering the right growth mindset through a strong, inclusive ethos.
• A clear strategy, aligning Learning, Teaching & Parental experiences across the entire school, from classroom to beyond the classroom.
• Ongoing measurement of impact and success of this strategy, with opportunities for reflection and evolution on a regular basis.

Teaching practice

Successful schools promote effective professional teacher development and engender a culture of evidence-based classroom practice. Areas of focus will often include:

• Collaboration and innovation in the management of resources, reducing the time spent on admin and liberating teachers to focus on the craft of teaching.
• A recognition of the importance of ongoing teacher development through CPD and sharing of best practice.
• An enquiring and research-based attitude towards pedagogy, understanding the importance of the partnership between teacher and student.

Learning experience

Equipping students to engage and take ownership of their learning is positively correlated with academic achievement.  Leading schools will demonstrate:

• The ability to deliver continuity and stability of the learning experience, facilitating student progress and success, both at home and in the classroom.
• High levels of student engagement, with students empowered to take ownership and control of their learning.
• Ongoing tracking of student experience, with both teachers and students using this information to evaluate outcomes and inform strategies for success.

Parents and the wider community

High performing schools build strong partnerships between the school, families and wider community. Schools can better enable this through:

• Clear and ongoing parental visibility of the learning process through strategies such as continuous reporting and ongoing communications.
• Empowering parents with a platform for their voices to be heard, giving the school a better understanding of the parent experience and allowing them to use this to inform school strategy.
• Regular communications between school and home on the wider school experience, making parents feel a part of the greater school community and giving them a sense of ownership and belonging.

Resources and infrastructure

For a school to deliver on its vision, resources and infrastructure need to be joined-up and form a single ecosystem. A successful digital infrastructure will consider:

• What systems does the school need in order to manage the day to day activities of school life, and how these are integrated to provide one single ecosystem for users.
• How these systems can be accessed easily by different stakeholders and what degree of support and training is required to get the most out of them.
• How does the school measure the impact of different systems on their users and understand what role they play in delivering the overall vision for the school.

If you’re not sure where you are on your journey to digital excellence, or want to make sure your plans are heading in the right direction, you can download this guide for top tips or take 5 minutes to complete the digital diagnostic tool. You will receive a personalised report within minutes giving you the information you need to inform your strategy.