Session List

We are honoured that Anna Artemyeva has chosen ScomisLive to showcase how Google is helping to solve arguably the greatest existential challenge humankind has ever faced – environmental sustainability.

Today’s students will spend their entire lives with environmental instability, seeking ways to make the world more sustainable. So it’s vital that technology giants like Google, and their most senior leaders, like Anna, are addressing sustainability alongside them.

Google has been carbon neutral since 2007 and has committed to operate entirely on carbon-free energy, everywhere, by 2030. Anna shows us how Google for Education shares this global commitment and brings it into the here and now, answering imperative questions such as “Why should schools and trusts think about their environmental impact?” “What is the role of technology in making schools “greener”?”

Anna is responsible for leading the implementation of Google’s sustainable practices in education and explores this key trend influencing education today and defining the educational experience of tomorrow.

Anna will round off this important keynote with the clear actions that education establishments can take right away to become more sustainable.

In this session you will find out about the approach Martin has taken to standardising how management information systems are managed, implemented, and supported across each school within the trust. Hear how this has helped to free up valuable staff time, enabled more effective and efficient working across schools and within the central trust team, and provided a robust approach to safeguarding and business continuity by placing SIMS in the cloud within a safe, secure, and resilient environment.

Crofty MAT is a group of nine schools serving the communities of Cambourne, Pool and Redruth in West Cornwall. Martin became IT Strategy Manager for the trust when his school, Roskear, joined Crofty in 2016.

The trust’s strategy of ‘working as one’ creates a culture of shared responsibility for all children in their schools. It also exemplifies how Scomis works most effectively – in lockstep with our customers. At the trust it means sharing resources to maximise opportunities, innovate and pursue equity for their learners. And with Scomis, it guides how and why they moved all their schools to cloud-based SIMS with Scomis’ Hosted Application Service.

We talk to Martin about the challenges first at Roskear and then at Crofty MAT and the considerations and benefits derived from moving to cloud-based SIMS and what the future holds.

You can also join a second session from Crofty at 14:30 on 16th March to hear how one of the schools within the trust is now building on the foundations Martin has put in place and establishing itself as an exemplar for solving challenging behaviour.

In this session we share insights into emerging trends and expectations that secondary schools in particular will need to be aware of following our attendance at the recent Westminster Education Forum Policy Conference “The future of assessment in England – moving forward from the pandemic, support for students of all abilities, and the use of technology.”

Craig Allen builds on the Forum’s outputs with value-added commentary based on his many years of working with schools to inform, shape and support successful assessment strategies and his expertise in the use of technology to aid pupil progress tracking, attainment, reporting and targeted interventions.

At Scomis we proactively invest in keeping up to date with the latest government thinking, policy and guidance. We also take time to listen to key thought leaders in education who help shape policy so that we can disseminate insights to support and guide you through the ever-changing educational landscape.

Key contributors to the Forum included
Dr Phillip Wright, Director General, The Joint Council for Qualifications
Roy Blatchford, Chair, ASCL Independent Commission into the ‘Forgotten Third’
Jill Duffy, Chief Executive Officer, OCR
Alistair McConville, Deputy Head, The King Alfred School, London; and Co-founder, Rethinking Assessment
Derek Richardson, Vice President and Senior Responsible Officer, Pearson

Craig condenses the output of a full day of content into 45-minutes of easy-to-absorb key insights, learnings, and highlights. Join this session to update yourself with the latest emerging thinking.

In common with other sectors, education finds itself urgently addressing recruitment, retention and continuous personal development as a result of multiple outside forces. Among these outside forces are the rapid adoption of EdTech, the generational shift towards the digital natives of Gen Z, mix-and-match portfolio careers, demand for flexible working, the regular inflow and outflow of talent in education, and the realities of online and blended learning.

Stephen leads ISBL, which facilitates, guides and reports on school business leadership excellence. He shares with us the vital impact of excellent professional development in building professional confidence. He’ll show how we can build the resilience that gives us the ability to face future challenges and developments. He’ll talk us through the education policy trajectory, the importance of the local context, how to identify risks through horizon scanning, mitigating risks and seizing opportunities, data insights on what employers are looking for, professional development options and professional confidence.

Ever realised you don’t know what you don’t know, but you know there’s something missing? That’s exactly where Jenny and Alex found themselves. Pencoys School is only a small primary school, but it has challenging children with complex needs. Jenny and Alex knew that there was a problem with behaviour and achievement but despite the size of the school, were struggling to pinpoint exactly where the problem lay.

As pastoral lead, Jenny knew what she wanted to know but was struggling to find the answers. This was largely due to the inconsistent way in which behaviour and achievement was recorded and a lack of knowledge of how the systems the school already had in place could hold the key to success.

In this session we will explore how, with help from Scomis, the school is taking the lead in reengineering its approach to behaviour and achievement so that effective, targeted intervention strategies can now be implemented. Come to this session to find out more about the approach they took, the benefits they are experiencing and how learnings and best practice are being cascaded and shared across all schools within the trust.

Pencoys is one of nine schools within Crofty MAT which serves the communities of Cambourne, Pool and Redruth in West Cornwall. By ‘working as one,’ the trust aims to create a culture of shared responsibility for all children in their schools. Sharing resources enables them to maximise opportunities, innovate and pursue equity for their learners.

Having moved all of their schools to cloud-based SIMS with the Scomis Hosted Application Service and Scomis MIS Support, this session explores the benefits from one school’s perspective of the trusts strategy for standardisation and builds on our earlier session ‘Working as one’ with Crofty MAT.

Join this session to find out what a fully ‘googled’ school looks and feels like. Gain inspiration from a school that has been a worldwide Google Reference School since 2015 and was one of the first schools to deploy G Suite for Education and Chromebooks in the UK. From more efficient administration to students who make their own websites to support classes, find out how Devonport High School for Boys (DHSB) has made incremental gains to become a more collaborative, effective and dynamic learning environment. Learn how the whole organisation has embedded G Suite for Education to increase productivity, efficiency and to transform learning.

Appointed as an EdTech Demonstrator school by the DfE in 2020, DHSB supports other schools to deliver high quality remote teaching and learning; to develop a digital strategy; to creatively overcome the barriers of accessibility; to use specific EdTech tools across the whole school and subject specific areas; improve staff workload; and enhance community engagement.

Devonport High School is a grammar school for boys aged 11-18. Their vision, whatever anyone’s role in the school or personal ambition, is that ‘Everyone Succeeds.’

The school provides a disciplined, caring environment in which students achieve levels of excellence that reflect their tremendous potential and the high expectations of them. Examination results and university entrance records are among the best in the country.

The EdTech Demonstrator Programme was developed by the Department for Education to ensure schools and colleges across England could access free, expert advice on educational technology. The programme launched shortly before the Covid19 pandemic enforced an extended period of remote teaching and learning in the Spring of 2020.

Now in its second year, the programme has evolved from crisis response to offer support to schools and colleges in developing digital strategies which make effective use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.

Phil takes the Google journey from Anna Artemyeva’s EdTech keynote into the classroom to show us the near future for Google’s classroom learning.

Phil has over 12 years classroom experience and in his current role has a responsibility for developing EdTech within schools. His experience as a teacher and as an advocate of EdTech, brings perspective and emphasis on real life examples. He’ll show us how EdTech supports and solves challenges with certain student cohorts, opens up possibilities for student-led learning with safe technology, and frees teacher time from administration to spend on the learning experience.

Getech is committed to providing solutions for the classroom and beyond which both helps educational establishments achieve their 1:1 targets whilst removing complexity when introducing new technology to the learning environment. Getech is a Google for Education Premier Partner who works closely with Scomis who is also a Google for Education Partner and together we help schools exploit Google technologies.

Many safeguarding and security challenges in schools can be solved by embracing digital technology. However, keeping abreast of these ever-evolving challenges can be extremely difficult and time-consuming. How often do you find that once you have addressed one potential threat another rears its ugly head? How can you check that what you have in place is robust and continues to be? Organisations such as SWGfL and Scomis are here to help.

Join this session to learn about the most current online safety and cyber security issues and threats typically experienced by schools and how they can be successfully addressed using technology. Also hear about the key issues for staff and students that are caused by ill thought-out use of technology. SWGfL online safety and security expert, Andrew will give you an insight into the associated risks and give you hints and tips about how these risks can be mitigated against.

SWGfL ensures everyone can benefit from technology free from harm. Forming one-third of the UK Safer Internet Centre, SWGfL experts advise schools, public bodies and industry on appropriate actions to take in regard to safeguarding and advancing positive online safety policies.

Andrew is an experienced educator with over 10 year’s primary experience and has held roles at all levels of school management in Essex and in Herefordshire. Since leaving teaching, Andrew has worked as the ICT Strategy Manager for a Welsh Local Authority, followed by a regional secondment to deliver training and to support ICT development in 400+ schools in South Wales. In his current role at SWGFL, Andrew fulfils a variety of functions: account manager for The Welsh Government, training delivery, resource development, information security support and advice, liaison with European and domestic partners and more. All of this remains focussed on the safeguarding of children online.

Andrew is passionate about the use of technology in schools and supporting children, young people and adults with online safety and data protection issues.

Jeramie has exceptionally strong EdTech credentials. She leads customer engagement for schools and is part of the education leadership team at Microsoft in the UK, and formerly at HP. She is passionate about improving learning outcomes for all students, helping them achieve their full potential no matter their background or situation. She is a driven leader with an authentic and strategic approach, committed to helping governments and schools deliver educational transformation. She is a STEM ambassador, a mentor for youth charity Urban Synergy, and a trustee at a large primary MAT in the southwest.

Jeramie’s keynote looks back to where we’ve come from and then forward to where Microsoft in education is going to take us. The pandemic has seen a rapid expansion in the use of technology to support remote learning, but EdTech was used long before Covid-19 appeared. Jeramie will look at how and why technology was being used before remote learning, how it’s changed, and look at some examples of how things might evolve in the coming years as we look towards a Hybrid Education future.

Come and hear James’s talk about how Arbor can make a difference to your school today, as well as what this means for schools in 5 year’s time. James is a governor of a mixed-phase MAT in London and spends his time thinking about how to eliminate unnecessary school admin and how you can create software that is intuitive, a joy to use and makes a lasting positive difference at all levels within education.

Find out what the future holds from Arbor’s perspective and join Hilary Aylesworth’s session this afternoon to hear how she is making James’s vision a reality.

Attend this session to gain an insight into how a trust can transform their use of MIS, find out about the lessons learnt, pick up tips on how best to roll out wholesale change, and hear about the key benefits of working collaboratively with a specialist MIS services provider.

Cornerstone Academy Trust switched their MIS to Arbor in April 2021. This forward-thinking trust embarked upon a journey of radical change, accomplished smoothly with the help of their trusted ICT partner, Scomis.

Join Jonathan Bishop (CEO & Executive Head Teacher of Cornerstone Academy Trust) and Michael Heard (Scomis Business Partner) as they step you through the trust’s vision for MIS, their consequent move to Arbor, and why it was imperative that the valued partnership the trust already had with Scomis transitioned with them. They’ll share with you the positive results that have been achieved within the trust since the move and their future key priorities.

If you are seeking inspiration about how to empower SEND students to take greater control of their own learning through exploiting EdTech, this session is for you. Come along and you’ll take away new strategies and hints and tips that you can implement immediately.

As a former classroom teacher of more than 12 years, Phil will draw on his experiences to share with us real-life examples and strategies of best practice that can transform accessibility for SEND students so that they can realise the benefits that greater independence brings.

Now in his current role as a Google Certified Trainer and Presenter at Getech, Phil is in a unique position where he can combine his knowledge of the challenges to be overcome by teachers and students with how effective use of EdTech can address them. In this session he will explore these challenges further, share top hints and tips from the most impactful schools he has worked with, and give you some practical advice about how accessibility features in Google for Education and Chromebooks can make a positive difference.

Getech is committed to providing solutions for the classroom and beyond which both helps educational establishments achieve their 1:1 targets whilst removing complexity when introducing new technology to the learning environment. Getech is a Google for Education Premier Partner who works closely with Scomis who is also a Google for Education Partner and together we help schools exploit Google technologies.

At Scomis, our purpose is to deliver innovative, high quality ICT services that make a difference and help our customers in schools and trusts nationally achieve their target outcomes.

Whether you are already a Scomis customer or are considering joining the Scomis family, join this session to find out more about us and how we might be able to help you.

Recognising and responding to what is important to our customers is what Scomis is all about. We will share with you some examples of the key challenges we can help you address and how we constantly challenge ourselves to improve so that we deliver the best possible customer experience. Ultimately, we’re here to support you with teaching and working together efficiently and effectively so that you can focus on your day job and reap the positive benefits of ICT.

Even if you think you already know us, do join this session as we can guarantee you will learn something you don’t already know!

Following on from Jeramie Sutton’s keynote, Lara’s session is a practical demonstration of how Microsoft’s future vision for EdTech is coming alive in the classroom, in the trust and school office. Lara focuses on how 365 supports student learning in the classroom. And on teacher workload, by using EdTech to create a more inclusive classroom with accelerated learning.

Before moving to Microsoft Lara was an enthusiastic inner city primary school teacher. Having previously worked in the tech sector, she developed a keen interest in using technology to support school life and move on learning.

She is passionate about improving the use of tech in the classroom to support teacher workload, whilst personalising the learning experience for each child. This journey has been accelerated by the pandemic, she is focused on helping teachers holistically embed computing resources in the classroom. Join this session to find out how.

Join Hilary as she talks through Arbor’s product vision and how this guides what they develop next in their MIS. Hilary will talk you through the exciting new features and products that Arbor will be launching in the future, leaving you with lots of interesting updates to share with your team at school. Hilary will also update you on the MIS improvements and releases you can expect to see this term in response to the expertise and advice received from schools, MATs, and partners.

Hilary Aylesworth is Head of Product at Arbor, the UK’s fastest-growing MIS. Hilary’s job is to deliver the vision that CEO James Weatherill outlined in his keynote and find pacey and high-quality ways to turn that vision into products to be used in schools and trusts.

Hilary is passionate about technology and education, formerly producing courses to teach coding and STEAM (‘Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths – breaking down traditional science versus art barriers), enabling students to conduct experiments, solve problems and design prototypes.

Two experts in their field discuss the importance and practice of harnessing these critical life skills. They’ll share their experiences and give you guidance about how to create a culture where self-care is embraced and embedded. They will discuss the role technology can play in enabling this.

Self-care is a key life skill that we all know we need to practice and embed into our daily routines, but how often do we practice what we preach? Self-care is so often overlooked, deprioritised due to more urgent and pressing day to day needs or put off for another day. After all we all have such incredibly busy lives.

To engender emotional and mental health and wellbeing we need to promote and teach self-care. It is proven that in turn this can lead to an optimal learning state and contribute to greater resilience in times of challenge. It can also more generally help us to better support those around us be this our families, the children we are responsible for in school, our colleagues in the workplace or anyone else we might interact with at work, at home or in the world at large.

Self-care is a pleasure and can be a lifesaver, join us to find out more.

The Cornerstone Multi-Academy Trust (TCAT) in Devon is a forward-looking, agile MAT where like-minded schools collaborate and develop in a local, supportive learning environment. TCAT is recognised nationally and internationally as being at the forefront of EdTech. In this session find out how the trust is evolving their teaching and learning delivery model even further in response to new opportunities following the pandemic. You’ll also find out how as a DfE EdTech Demonstrator Cornerstone can support you on your digital teaching and learning journey and how Scomis can help you achieve your vision.

The trust comprises four primary schools where pupils benefit from a broad and balanced curriculum, and where innovation is at the heart of teaching and learning. Its distinctive, extended curriculum opportunities provide a challenging learning environment that inspires children to achieve high standards and become life-long independent learners.

With strong partnerships locally, regionally, nationally, and globally, TCAT also provides teacher training, professional learning, leadership development and school-to-school support at both primary and secondary levels. As well as being a DfE EdTech Demonstrator, it is a Microsoft Training Academy, a DfE English Hub and a Science Learning Partnership and is also part of the West Country Computer Science Hub.

The effective management and utilisation of data for pupil progress and attainment tracking is a challenge that leaders will be able to identify with in all settings – from small primary schools through to large trusts. Join this session to learn about this key initiative, led by Iain Randall and supported by Scomis, to develop and implement a trust-wide policy on assessment. Find out about the importance of consistency to the trust to enable meaningful comparisons and identify and share best practice to benefit all, whilst at the same time preserving and building on strengths within each school.

St Christopher’s Trust began in 2013 and has now grown to eighteen church and community primary schools serving communities in Devon, Plymouth, and Torbay. At the core of the trust’s vision is the desire to celebrate the uniqueness of each school setting and enabling them to flourish. Whilst the trust ensures the very best provision for every pupil in every school by working in the background to support and challenge.

Iain talks about how he leads this initiative in a way that has developed local expertise and allowed schools to take ownership of the experience whilst delivering the outcomes the trust requires. He’ll talk about how Scomis has helped everyone throughout the trust get the most out of their systems. And he will share with you the lessons learnt and how to successfully deliver change to a realistic timeline through good communications and engagement.

You will leave the session with an insight into the collaboration that enabled this to happen, how using existing resources has enabled cost savings, how schools working together are stronger together and how the partnership with Scomis has made the impossible possible.

Improving digital experiences for learners and teachers is vital in preparing today’s students for a digital future. Come and learn about some of the work that is happening to make this easier for schools, and find out about the support, funding and services that can help your school or trust transform your students’ relationship with devices and digital learning opportunities.

During this session, Elizabeth will explore what is meant by digital inclusivity and digital poverty, why there is still an issue and how together we can boost digital inclusivity within schools.

For more than 20 years the Learning Foundation has been providing independent advice and guidance to schools on the best way to introduce 1:1 technology, where every child has their own device to use in class and at home.

Their vision is to enable all schools and students to engage with technology in a safe and secure way that genuinely enables them to enhance their teaching and learning and to impact on the appalling divide that has long stricken the UK where still too many children and young people are leaving school without their ambitions, dreams, abilities, and potential being fully realised or realisable.

Launched by the Learning Foundation in 2021, in partnership with the Institute of Engineering & Technology and Currys plc, the Digital Poverty Alliance is driving change in digital poverty with the ambition of ending digital poverty in the UK once and for all by 2030.

Digital poverty: The Facts – do you know that
• 25% of vulnerable children do not have access to a suitable device for learning?
• 50% of 12–15-year-olds have had a negative experience online?
• 70% of households earning less than £17.5k only have foundation digital skills?
• 82% of jobs advertised require digital skills?