Bett review: Academy chain shows how AI has improved staff wellbeing and supports student learning

Slide from: ‘Leading Innovation and AI from the classroom to the central trust team’

During day one of Bett, which is taking place this week in London, Sir Mark Grundy, CEO of Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust, Lady Kirsty Grundy, Primary Director and STP Principal and Aled Ballard, COO discussed how their trust in Birmingham places technology at the heart of everything in their talk ‘Leading Innovation and AI from the classroom to the central trust team’.

The three discussed what has made their trust so successful when implementing tech. “Sticking with one major piece of architecture is key,” said Sir Mark Gundy. “All schools are different but remain consistent in their use of technology.” 

Ballard explained how they use EdTech in schools to do all the heavy lifting. For example, they use Microsoft Power BI to bring everything in-house, with predictive AI playing a huge role in how the trust is run, from student data to building management. 

Lady Kirsty Gundy told the audience, “If you want to bring about systematic change in terms of technology, it is about systematic, mundane use”, making it clear that the technology must be embedded for all staff, from site management to support staff to teachers.”

She reiterated a central theme of the session - Senior Leadership Teams have to be selective about what goes into their tech toolkits. 

Ofsted also got a mention. Historically, Ofsted has not always been onboard with technology being placed at the heart of the classroom. Lady Kirsy Gundy acknowledged, “Sometimes Ofsted don’t quite get tech, but our Ofsted team [from most recent inspection] were brilliant. They absolutely got it.”

She went on to share that across the trust, technology is used throughout key stages, all the way from Early Years; however, she was clear that it “doesn’t mean sitting plugged into a laptop.” 

In order to ensure technology is implemented well, the trust provides CPD for staff, including support staff. 

The trust has developed its E3L(Excite Explore, Excel) curriculum, which Hodder Education has franchised. The curriculum supports hybrid learning, parental engagement and a parent dashboard. 

Part of this is what Sir Mark Gundy calls the Trust’s ‘Immersive Rooms’, containing eight projectors blended to create one image, floor-to-ceiling coverage with 180-degree views, a 7.1 surround sound system and perhaps most impressively, a professional multi-scent delivery system containing over 400 scents. 

He stated about the rooms, “If you can’t take the kids to Pompeii, bring Pompeii to the kids.”

Staff wellbeing was heavily referred to throughout, with AI being used to reduce teacher workload in various ways, including all teaching and support staff being trained to use generative AI such as Chat GPT to adapt existing resources to scaffold and make specific for key individuals. The trust also uses AI to make key images integral to the learning in seconds. 

The crowd seemed most excited by the trust’s recent trials into using AI to reduce assessment workload. They found the end-of-year assessments in KS3 took over an hour to mark but revealed to gasps from the crowds that they had reduced the number to an astonishing three minutes and forty seconds. The assessments were moved to Microsoft Word before being run through generative AI and gap analysis software. All individual assessments were reviewed to check for inconsistencies and errors as part of the trial. Two hundred papers were looked over, and zero mistakes were found. 

In a line that will resonate with most school leaders, Sir Mark Gundy made clear that AI wasn’t seen as a fad in schools, stating about the assessment trial, “That’s how we want to use A.I., to kill the work pressure applied to staff.”