BESA CORNER


This month, in our ongoing feature highlighting the work of members of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, we hear about finding the right broadband from THE GOOD SHEPHERD TRUST; and SCHOOLONLINE discuss student engagement and how their platform can help.


Centralising MAT broadband services reduces time and resource when procuring good value, high quality services


The Good Shepherd Trust’s COO Louisa Mason describes her journey to centralise the Trust’s broadband services with Internet Service Provider Schools Broadband, sharing advice with trusts planning on doing the same.


The Good Shepherd Trust has nearly 5000 pupils across 16 schools within the Diocese of Guildford. They are part-way through a major connectivity upgrade programme to future- proof all operations.


Strategic benefits of centralising broadband services The primary reason for centralising is to reduce time and resource involved in procuring good value, high quality services. The Trust reached a point in maturity where we needed a single managed service provider across all schools to achieve this. It removes the pain of procurement from our individual schools improving both efficiency and service. If all 16 schools obtain separate quotes from different companies, the nature and size of contract values run into several hundreds of £000s. That size of contract needs to be managed at a senior central level.


Choosing the right provider


As COO, I’m contacted a lot by telecoms companies, but for this we needed a specialist schools’ provider like Schools Broadband, experienced in working with multi academy trusts. We needed someone who understands different connectivity types, Wide Area Networks, safeguarding, web filtering and cybersecurity within schools. Schools Broadband is listed on The Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO) OJEU compliant framework which made accessing their service a lot easier as we carried out a Direct Award through YPO. Advice to other MATs


Collating technical information about existing broadband services from 16 different schools was challenging. It takes a lot of time and chasing though Schools Broadband provided a spreadsheet of required information which was very helpful. We discovered many of our schools didn’t know what type of connection, speed, or security service they received, so be prepared to deal with people unfamiliar with this specialist knowledge and vocabulary. The benefits of one contract for all schools Having one supplier and one contract to manage makes a big difference. It saves our school staff valuable time when sourcing a best value service. We now have a trusted go-to, broadband provider for our schools, which provides some of the best filtering and security in the industry.


Qualities to look for in a specialist MAT broadband provider? • Choose a provider who understands safeguarding context around broadband. Schools Broadband provide very good support and training around their web filtering and meet regularly with our Designated Safeguarding Leads ensuring they understand the filtering and safeguarding reports. Their service provides out of the box reports, Prevent Duty, and Safeguarding Alerts, and we know when all our schools are connected, each one of them will be DfE safeguarding compliant. • Choose a provider who is prepared to speak your language and one who will listen to you. Schools Broadband place great emphasis on their staff speaking the customer’s language. • Make sure your provider is accessible. Monthly project meetings with Schools Broadband track progress and if I phone, I know I will get an answer. The Schools Broadband customer service level and quality of service has been excellent which counts for a lot. • Ask for a delivery plan. Understand what different stages are involved, what they will look like and what information is needed at each stage. Know who is responsible for what, as part of your project plan.


Talk to Schools Broadband


Schools Broadband is a specialist Internet Service Provider to Multi Academy Trusts


providing fast, secure connectivity, Wide Area Networks, cloud-hosted web filtering and cybersecurity


u01133 222 333 uinfo@schoolsbroadband.co.uk uwww.schoolsbroadband.co.uk


14 www.education-today.co.uk


Increasing engagement to raise attainment


As educators and practitioners, we understand there is little doubt that the more engaged a student is in their learning, the higher their attainment is likely to be. What is engagement?


Research (Stovall 2003) defines engagement in three areas: • Behavioural engagement – this is shown


through positive behaviour and a willingness to engage in learning • Emotional engagement – learners value what they do and enjoy the process of learning • Cognitive engagement – this is shown by the effort a learner puts into the process of learning


What is the impact of a lack of engagement?


Disengaged students are more likely to spend significant time off task and their frustration with their lack of success can lead to behaviour patterns that can then have a further impact on their participation in learning. Several studies detail that students with positive emotions have increased participation in their learning (Ladd et al. 2000; Li et al. 2010; Skinner et al. 2008). It has also been noted that positive emotions contribute to positive behaviour and also to positive learning (Aspinwall, 1998). How can we impact positively on engagement? Task design


By ensuring that tasks are varied and pitched at the appropriate level, teachers can help to keep children motivated and on task. Effective task design comes through a good knowledge of the ability levels of the children in the class.


Using a variety of tasks is also key in keeping children motivated. If possible, bring the interests of the children into their learning and also the interests of the teacher. Using a variety of activities can keep learning fresh and surprising and more likely to match the different learning styles present in every classroom.


Encourage independence


Giving children some level of choice in their learning can encourage them to be more willing to invest time and therefore be more engaged. Assigning children some element of control over their learning journey by choosing the activity or the method can inspire them to see their learning as a more positive experience.


Explore different resources


Quizzes can be an alternative to assessments and can also be a way to reduce anxiety and increase engagement. Many children are fearful of assessments, even when we try to disguise them as quizzes, so sometimes a quiz can yield some useful assessment data while preventing children from putting up barriers to learning.


Digital technology that allows children to speak or type can remove the barrier of writing that can stifle children’s ideas. There are children in our classrooms who struggle with feedback and perceive it as judgement, however, feedback from a piece of software is often perceived as being without judgement and children are willing to repeat a digital activity more than they might a paper-based one. Summary


Increasing engagement is vital in securing high levels of attainment. The impact of engagement on children’s willingness to learn is vital, not only for those individual children but for the class as a whole. SchoolOnline’s high-quality content can help. Our searchable content can be assigned to an individual or to groups of learners, ensuring that the tasks match the ability levels of the learner. Booster quizzes allow for overlearning and repeated practice to increase fluency and ensure that skills are embedded.


Children who have used the platform express how it increased their confidence and self-esteem which encouraged them to keep trying. This has resulted in some dramatic improvements, and teachers have seen children who have rarely engaged over long periods, suddenly become more motivated by using the SchoolOnline platform. uwww.schoolonline.co.uk/classroom


November 2022


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