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BRITISH EDUCATIONAL SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION (BESA)


The power of partnership


Dr MARTIN SAUNDERS, Co-Founder & CEO, EdShed, explains how the company’s products were developed.


The motto for Y Combinator, the birthplace accelerator of at-scale edtech products including ClassDojo, Clever, and Codecademy, is “Make something people want”. The easiest way to make sure you are making something people want is to make something you want yourself. Rob, my co-founder, and I are teachers (ex- teachers really), and I have a background in tech, so we


were in the lucky position that we were able to be our own guinea pigs. When I built out the first version of our spelling games, I was a supply teacher for a Year 4/5 class in a Midlands village school. Initially, I focused on building a game that would engage my pupils, provide them with the practise they needed, and give me insights into learning gaps within the class as well as individual needs.


Rob was spending a lot of time on the road, visiting different primary schools across the UK and further afield, delivering professional development training days for teachers, which meant he was very directly plugged into the different contexts and consequent needs that, with tweaks, our product could better address.


At the start, Rob’s feedback from his time on the road, coupled with the feedback I was getting from my own class and the early customer support calls I would take as I worked fewer days per week on supply teaching and more days on our fledgling product, gave me invaluable insights into what was working and what aspects of our product needed changes and additions, helping propel our product towards scale pretty quickly.


We built the product so that it could scale because that is what I’d always done, but really, I was just trying to make something that helped my class. Even when trying to build a product for scalability, challenges arise with the variety of settings and devices your product is being used on. As we have added other product lines—phonics and mathematics, to be precise—and expanded into new territories, we have continued to rely on collaborating with primary schools to help refine and expand our offering. That comes in various forms. Rob and I are both involved at our children’s schools, as well as remaining in contact with former teaching colleagues and remaining active where the staffroom conversation has moved onto social media platforms. We have tended to hire former teachers or school staff, which helps feedback flow from customers via our support team to our tech team, allowing us to be nimble in updating and improving our products. Before teaching, I did a lot of work in and for tech start-ups as a software developer, making proof-of-concept products and working with start-ups or their investors. At the root of any good product is solving a problem for end users. There’s an adage: “You don’t sell a nail; you sell the means to fix something.” With EdTech products, it’s the same: you are making learning easier, faster, more effective, more enjoyable, cheaper, more measurable, and so on. Aside from the whizzy stuff, if you want a product to be successful, that is the yardstick you need to be using.


July/August 2023 LEADERSHIP WITH CHARLOTTE ROWLEY


The power of coaching


In her column on leadership this month, CHARLOTTE ROWLEY Deputy Headteacher at St Gregory’s Catholic Academy, looks at the benefits and lessons learned from professional coaching.


I became an Assistant Headteacher in 2018. It


was a great year personally for me - I had also just turned 30, finished my Masters and got married. A year full of excitement and adventures. I was bright-eyed, raring to go and ready to embrace the challenges of educational leadership.


Like anyone new in a role, I was perhaps a little naive and had a lot to learn, but surely as educationalists having a lot to learn is a positive and the essence of what we believe. If you are not developing your practice, how can we inspire others to be enthused by learning? None of us are the finished article and we should embrace welcoming new experiences and reflect on all of these career moments. It helps all of us to grow and better ourselves.


I have been lucky to have accessed various CPD courses throughout my career in teaching, which have been invaluable, but the most impactful CPD has been professional coaching. When I was given the opportunity to engage with professional coaching, alongside other middle leaders and the senior leadership team, I jumped at the chance. It really was life changing. It didn’t change me as a person, but it did allow me to reflect on my leadership style, as well as long-term aims, goals and ambitions. The most valuable lesson I learnt was that if you have dreams and aspirations, you MUST tell people these and share them, not in an arrogant sense and not to preach to people, but vocalise, spell it out … and for goodness’ sake, don’t listen to any ‘Imposter Syndrome Voice!’ It happens to so many of us, just press mute. The point about ‘just tell people’ was such a precious lesson for me and it helped me to achieve my career dreams through being more self-aware. I have always been confident and naturally am very positive, but coaching enhanced this confidence, making me realise that with the right tools we can achieve and overcome challenges. I made the move to primary leadership in 2021 and this really came about through coaching and being able to share my ambitions. It helped me to prepare for this change in leadership style and adjust accordingly.


The key positives I took from coaching


• Reflecting on my practice. My coach would send me a list of prompts and questions to think about before a session. This forced me to reflect on the everyday moments, which we often take for granted, as well as shaped the sessions, as often a key ‘theme’ would rise out of the reflections.


• Coaching made me appreciate how far I had come in a short space of time. We would revisit previous sessions and ‘scores’ and I found it interesting looking back at the things that used to trouble me in my early days as a new leader and how my resilience had grown.


• I was given clear actions and things to focus on after sessions, which I would then share in my next meeting. These included having courageous conversations, ways in which I would present to staff and how I improved my presence and public speaking as a leader.


• Networking. My coach put me in touch with new Headteachers and like- minded colleagues, which has been so beneficial.


• Focusing on work/life balance and ensuring that I am truly present – both in my role as a leader and at home.


• Most of all, I learned about the importance of searching inwardly and finding strength within myself as a leader.


I would always encourage others to try coaching if it’s something you are contemplating. It really is invaluable ‘you time’. In a world where wellbeing has been shattered a little, you won’t regret it!


www.education-today.co.uk 21


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