EdTech Demonstrator Programme

In October 2020, Britannia Education Trust was selected as one of the 42 National EdTech Demonstrator schools. Funded by the DfE, our role was to provide bespoke peer-to-peer support to other schools focused on raising standards through the enhanced use of technology. 

Phase One - Oct 20 - Mar 21

During the initial phase of the programme, the support we offered to schools was primarily focused on remote learning. We supported 38 schools and led over 60 bespoke virtual training sessions based on the EdTech tools that schools wanted to implement in their remote teaching such as Google Classroom, Jamboard, Forms, Flipgrid, and many more. We also provided in-depth bootcamp training for schools who wanted some of their teaching staff to become Google Certified Educators, which involved 6-hours of training and a voucher for the online Google exam. We spent time with senior leaders, listening to their concerns and supporting them to come up with solutions on a range of issues such as how to conduct virtual parents’ evenings or how to measure the interaction of students at home. Each school was different and we worked hard to ensure we could offer support in any way that was useful for the school.

Phase Two - Apr 21 - Mar 22

During the next phase of the programme, as schools were beginning to 'get back to normal', our focus shifted to supporting schools to develop their long term digital strategy in order to make the most of the new hardware and tech skills gained during the pandemic, now that students were back in the classroom. Supporting over 40 schools for up to 30 hours each across the year, this involved lots more staff training (over 80 hours), strategy meetings (over 100 hours), mentoring individuals or small groups (over 100 hours), and creating automated processes at schools that would reduce workload (over 60 hours). 

Impact

Schools have been very appreciative of our support and quotes from senior leaders and teachers can be found below:

David Fitzsimmons, Assistant Head, Newbury Park Primary School:

"The support and training provided by Luke / Britannia Ed has enabled our use of Google Workspace to improve teaching and learning; improve efficiency when working collaboratively and improve our digital literacy in a very short period of time. Bespoke training has enabled staff to develop their confidence with tech and we are now in a position where staff are being trained as Google Educators."

Julie Eyres, Head of School, Monken Hadley Primary

"For Monken Hadley, working with Britannia Trust to develop further the EdTech in our school has been very successful. It is personalised and adapted to meet the requirements of our school. Our support from Luke is flexible and practical, ensuring a bespoke program is being developed for us. The teachers are completely engaged, embracing each step of our digital journey - only possible with this support."

 

Stacey Man, Senior Leader, Holy Trinity Primary

"I cannot recommend signing up to the EdTech programme enough. It is hard to know how signing up will benefit your school until you actually join the program, but it is specifically tailored to wherever your school may be on their journey with the use of technology. Britannia have supported me with anything I have needed, no matter how big or small including supporting staff’s professional development."

Woodlands Primary School (after Teacher Training)

"This training was fantastic and I really enjoyed exploring the Google tools more. The skills learnt will hopefully help reduce workload... so thanks for that!"

Carpenters Primary School (after Teacher Training)

"The Google Forms and Jamboard training was very useful and revolutionised the way I did remote learning - thanks Luke! The Google Sites video was also great - I didn't even know they existed!"