Digital transformation at Eaton Primary School

Eaton Primary is smaller than the average-sized school in rural Cheshire.

In 2019, the school was put into ‘Special Measures’ by OFSTED having previously been an Outstanding school. This website sets out the story of how a school transformed to at least a ‘Good’ school over 3 years, and one in which 100% of parents are satisfied. We’ll explore how industry partners, namely BT and Microsoft, supported the transition and what a difference EdTech has made to enable improved outcomes for pupils.

Some of the comments in the 2019 OFSTED Inspection Report are summarised below for context:

The leadership of the school is weak
The management of safeguarding is ineffective
Weak assessment practice means that teachers do not match work to the pupils’ abilities
Poorly organised curriculum
Subject leaders have not had opportunities to develop their skills
Teachers were left demoralised by a lack of direction from leaders
Pupils’ comprehension skills in reading are weak
The quality of pupils’ writing is poor
SEND pupils do not make the progress that they should

These are progress scores from 2019, taken from the DfE’s school performance data service (find out more here):

Data source – https://www.find-school-performance-data.service.gov.uk/school/111047/eaton-primary-school/primary/results-over-time?accordionstate=3

The transformation programme begins

The 3-year School Development Plan

A change to digital was needed, and reflected in the SDP

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The Technology

The school was digitally upgraded

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The Change

And they shared best practice with another school

Find out more

The school recognised the need for change and set out an SDP which was ambitious, put teaching at the core and which bought together a community of industry-led support.

The school became a case study for the DfE to showcase how the use of technology can raise standards of teaching, learning and assessment in an underachieving primary school. In order to provide hardware, software and resources for outstanding teaching, the school partnered with BT, Hewlett Packard (HP), Microsoft and GLUU. These companies provided expertise and know-how to create a sustainable framework for improvement as well as a tailored programme of CPD for teaching staff.

“What we’ve seen really is that we have a packaged Solution. It’s a managed service, and that’s made it extremely easy for a leadership team to do their job day-to-day without interruption.”

Sean Gardner, Founder at GLUU

Eaton Primary School recognised the need to pivot around digital to accelerate improvement, and the school collaborated with industry leaders to deliver the transformation within a structured, sustainable framework. Leadership also appointed a dedicated Digital Champion within the school to lead on the digital strand of the SDP, and to interface with external partners to build shared practice. The partners included:

BT – upgraded the school to superfast BTNet to enable an appropriate UX for pupils

HP – through it’s HP for Education initiatives ensured that each child in Key Stage 2 had access to laptops. In Key Stage 1, laptops are available to the children to use in addition to IPads.

Microsoft – O365 deployment and training, including the deployment of a proven Sharepoint instance built by Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust to help reduce teacher workload and improve Governance

GLUU – the team bought together the disparate partner programmes into a sustainable programme which could be evidenced and shared with other schools.

“The children here use the technology in a way that gives them autonomy. It gives them a lot of independence and I think that’s something that they really value.”

Andy Davies, Executive Headteacher at Eaton Primary School

Working with Shireland Collegiate Academy (SCA) – a world leading EdTech school

SCA is a world leading EdTech school led by the pioneering Sir Mark Grundy
SCA is recognised by Microsoft as one of their leading global innovators
SCA has been Outstanding for 16+ years
There is an expectation from DfE and RD for Outstanding schools to share good practice
SCA is working alongside BT, Microsoft, GLUU, HP, Hodder, Cisco and Kooth to support ‘SMART School a BT-led Solution bringing proven school practices along with the enabling technologies to be ‘bagged up’ into easily accessible bundles

With the help of the SCA, Eaton Primary School launched a new learning platform for staff, pupils and Governors using Microsoft Sharepoint. To ensure the smooth operation of this learning platform, in addition to supporting staff with Education Technology (EdTech) based learning, GLUU supported the school by supporting the Digital Champion in the school to share and deploy best practice.

Where is Eaton Primary School now?

“The school’s innovative use of digital technology across the curriculum has enhanced the speed at which the school has improved outcomes.”

SchoolsPlus – commissioned OFSTED inspection 2022

In 2022, GLUU commissioned a full school inspection (mocksted) delivered by SchoolsPlus. The progress was significantly ahead of OFSTED expectations and digital was called out as a key enabler.

“The quality of education is good and pupils achieve well across all subjects, including in the core curriculum.”

What’s happening in the wider landscape?

“The COVID-19 pandemic showed the benefits of collaboration between education ministries, private companies, publishers, broadcasters, schools
and colleges and teaching unions, and it is important not to lose sight of the benefits that this offers.”

“Learning in isolation when you are delivering subjects means children don’t make those connections. Which is important to some extent, but what you want them to see are those links. Having an exciting theme to hang their hat on, to form deep learning, makes much more sense.”

Lady Kirsty Grundy, Principal of Shireland Technology Primary

“Our KS2 children all have their own laptop which they are used to using every day and it’s that regularity of use which has really built the confidence of the pupils in the use of the technology; it’s made it become habitual, it’s made it part of our culture, part of what we do, and we’re really grateful for HP for their support with that.”

Andy Davies, Executive Headteacher at Eaton Primary School

“As a leadership team, and indeed a principal, we are presented with a wealth of data on a daily basis. What eduu.school allows me to do is, it provides me with wealth of data on progress, attainment and wellbeing. All of that data is then surfaced into a table that makes it easily accessible for me.”

Dave Irish, Principal of Shireland Collegiate Academy

Screen showing numerous data gauges and coinciding information.

What’s next for Eaton?

“Overall, the impact over the last few years has been massive on this school and on this community.”

Andy Davies, Executive Headteacher at Eaton Primary School

Digital transformation at Eaton Primary School – enabled by Microsoft & BT