1.0 What do the findings from the original report look like 1 year later?
1.1 Inspection and Peer Review Outcomes
1 2 Attainment
1.3 Special Educational Needs
1 4 Accessibility
1.5 Children with English as an Additional Language (EAL)
1 6 Artificial Intelligence
1.7 Schools new to LEO
1 8 1 Shawley Primary
1.8.2 Hurst Park Primary
1 8 3 West Ashtead Primary
2.0 How scalable and sustainable is LEO’s PedTech approach?
“How often, as an adult, do you spend 30 minutes handwriting something in 2024?
We’re all working digitally because we know it’s more efficient, we can get help and support instantly, it allows us to edit and improve and share what we do with real purpose.
So why would we want to actively prevent children from learning the skills that we all know we depend on as adults?”
Teacher, LEO Academy Trust
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2019, LEO Academy Trust embarked upon a journey of digital transformation, investing significant time, money and human energy into an ambitious new future. Every member of staff and every child in Key Stage 2, was given their own Chromebook and every child in Early Years and Key Stage 1 was introduced to on-demand access to an iPad or Chromebook to support their learning. For the price of £12 per child, per month, LEO implemented a transformational approach to teaching and learning across a trust that now includes approximately 5,00 children and 600 staff across 9 schools.
In December 2023, Changing Learning, Changing Lives: What happens when EdTech becomes PedTech was published, containing 185 pages of findings setting out the journey and impact across LEO Academy Trust of this approach.
Today’s report offers a contemporary updatesharing highlights from the next chapter in LEO’s journey, revisiting key sustainability measures, unpicking the scalability of LEO’s approach, and how the team have approached contemporary technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In section 1, key findings include that,
The attainment of children at LEO schools continues to outperform national averages, with the outperformance gap continuing to grow each year, despite trust growth including schools with previous low attainment rates
The number of children on the Special Educational Needs (SEN) register requiring additional interventions (with associated costs) at LEO is decreasing year on year, despite higher levels of need coming into the schools - reflecting high quality holistic and inclusive educational provision. This is in stark contrast to national trends which have the opposite trajectory
There are significant time savings being experienced by teaching, leadership and professional services roles across LEO as a result of Gemini (Generative AI) training being provided for all staff across the trust In many cases, these time savings are making a direct contribution to staff wellbeing and workload (linked to retention), and cost savings
Leadership across the trust have wisely prioritised whole-staff and student awareness raising about Artificial Intelligence (AI) - recognising data that shows more than 18% of Key Stage 2 children are already using Generative AI outside of school, and the ethical considerations that this raises (particularly in terms of safeguarding as well as informed consent and appropriate use).
Schools joining LEO Academy Trust are benefitting from rapid, positive and sustainable school improvement as a result of the strategic foundations laid by the founding schools within the trust New schools are seeing equivalent benefits within 1 year that more established schools took 3 years to make
Significantly higher numbers of children across LEO use core accessibility features (e.g. dictate,
INTRODUCTION
In December 2023, an independent research review was published which surfaced the impact of the PedTech approach across LEO Academy Trust The 185-page report surfaced extensive findings ranging from: increases to attainment and progress in learning, increased attendance and staff retention, decreased behaviour incidents and specialist intervention requirements, alongside cost savings, lessons learned, and the narrative 5-year timeline leading up to these notable improvements .
Over the following 12 months, the LEO Academy Trust opened their doors to those who wanted to find out more, offering a range of Discovery Days which welcomed 376 teachers and leaders from 192 different schools and trusts Alongside welcoming colleagues from across the UK, Europe and Asia, the LEO team have also been providing outreach and partnership with other trusts and schools to provide strategic and operational support, EdTech suppliers to guide training and product development, and policy shapers (e.g. ministerial visits and cabinet roundtable attendance). Across these conversations there have been a range of common themes, including discussion about funding, scalability, sustainability, future vision, trust growth and community development
There has been particular interest in the way that LEO’s approach provides sustainable high quality learning for contemporary classrooms which nationally, include: rising levels of special educational needs, different forms of disadvantage and multiple and changing languages other than English –common contemporary challenges facing most schools
With these themes in mind, this lighter touch review sought to ask some core questions 1 year on from the original research:
What do the findings from the original report look like 1 year later? 1.
How do LEO schools approach new and emerging technologies such as AI? 2
What does this mean for schools joining LEO? 3
How scalable and sustainable is LEO’s PedTech approach? 4
The data collated as part of this review includes 23 classroom observations, 12 focus groups and 21 research interviews (with leaders, teachers, teaching assistants, finance and administrative staff), 6 surveys (distributed to leaders, teachers, teaching assistant, parents & families, EY/KS1 children and KS2 children), and approximately 65 documents (including policies, school improvement plans, inspection and accountability reports, planning and training materials). 1
1 Aubrey-Smith, F , (2023) Changing Learning, Changing Lives: What happens when EdTech becomes PedTech? An independent review of the provision at LEO Academy Trust London 2 Section 5 - https://leoacademytrust co uk/pedtechimpactreport
1.0 WHAT DO THE FINDINGS FROM THE ORIGINAL REPORT LOOK LIKE ONE YEAR LATER?
The original Changing Learning, Changing Lives report was published in December 2023, and contained a large number of findings drawn from data collated in the period September 2022 to August 2023 . The scope of this December 2024 update is not to repeat that significant study but to provide a more high level update As set out above, a number of specific datasets have therefore been used to (a) provide visibility on trends seen over time, and (b) surface insights in relation to contemporary considerations and arising themes
Contextually, it is important to note that 3 schools have joined LEO Academy Trust since 2023 (Shawley Community Primary, Hurst Park Primary and West Ashtead Primary) Specific themes relating to these schools are set out in Section 1 7 of this report as well as contributing to overall thematic findings
With any strategy or organisation that demonstrates fast paced improvement or impact, it is important to take a critical lens to the continuity of provision and sustainability of offer Sometimes, schools or trusts which create headlines for rapid turnaround or exceptionally high outcomes lose their momentum, or find that successes were tied to specific leaders, cohorts or strategies which had not been appropriately managed through sustainability strategies or succession planning.
Whilst this is a consideration that is ongoing (and beyond the scope of this report), there are a number of proxies that can be used to consider the continuity and sustainability of the LEO approach, as set out below:
External Inspection and Quality Assurance Reviews
Attainment Outcomes
Special Educational Needs progression
1.1 INSPECTION AND PEER REVIEW OUTCOMES
Each year, schools within LEO Academy Trust undertake Challenge Partner Quality Assurance Reviews (QAR) as part of their outward facing, professional approach to external review and challenge. These sit alongside statutory Ofsted inspections as part of a broader programme of constructive challenge and external quality assurance. Given LEO’s international reputation as a pathfinding group of schools in relation to the high impact use of digital technology, it is not surprising that these reports often include statements such as,
“The trust is well established and has been at the forefront of research and development for the use of technology in schools… Use of technology has enabled equality of opportunity… Pupils have ownership and responsibility for their own learning” Cheam Park Farm Primary, Challenge Partners QAR
The combination of these reviews provides an overarching summary of the holistic provision and journey by each school as summarised below .
(2019)
(2019) Leading (2022) Cheam Common Junior 2015 Inadequate (2014) Good (2018) Outstanding (2024 )
Cheam Fields Primary 2016
(2019) Outstanding (2020, 2024)
(2019) Leading (2022)
(2022) Brookfield Primary
(2017) Good (2019) Outstanding (2024 )
(2014)
(2020)
(2022)
(2021)
4. Each school website contains links to both recent Ofsted and recent Challenge Partner QAR reports in
5 The February 2024 inspection was a Section 8 (ungraded) inspection but explicitly identifies the school as likely to be graded outstanding in its next Section 5 inspection
6 The October 2024 inspection was a Section 8 (ungraded) inspection but explicitly identifies the school as likely to be graded outstanding in its next Section 5 inspection.
Shawley Community Primary 2022
Hurst Park Primary 2023
West Ashted Primary 2023
Requires Improvement (2019) Good (2024) Effective (2022)
(2023)
(2024)
(2023)
Requires Improvement (2019) Effective (2024)
Sitting alongside this data, LEO Academy Trust regularly host visitors from a broad range of schools, contexts, countries and backgrounds Some of these visits offer ‘Discovery Days’ which enable other groups of schools and interested parties (including policy shapers, researchers and suppliers alongside forward thinking teachers and leaders) to visit one of the LEO schools better understand the many ingredients that underpin LEO’s success stories . The Discovery Days include time in classrooms, hearing from children and staff, alongside presentations which set out LEO’s journey and lessons learned Notably, all LEO schools - including its newest additions - take turns at hosting these visits, which demonstrates the widespread embedding of LEO’s pedagogy-first approach to digital. Visitors from other schools and trusts across the country report these experiences as highly impactful in shaping their own strategic thinking - providing much needed system leadership in this space Similarly, through focus groups and research interviews conducted as part of this review, LEO staff benefit from the questions and challenge that these external visitors bring to their own thinking and future planning
1.2 ATTAINMENT
Within the existing accountability and political system, end of key stage attainment in English and maths is widely used as a measure of success for schools Whilst most schools (including LEO schools) aspire to contribute a great deal more than just reading, writing and maths skills to children’s lives, it is nevertheless helpful to understand the impact on these headline measures when considering educational provision.
Based on end of year data over the last 4 years, aggregated data across LEO Academy Trust continues to outperform national averages. Significantly, the gap between children attending LEO schools and children nationally, continues to grow.
7 Around 400 people from 192 different schools and trusts in the last 12 months
8 https://www leoacademytrust co uk/2801/pedtech-impact-reportwith the latest dates available at https://drive google com/file/d/12cGQoYM F2t5luQyWRbD7Oyp7CDxsyY/view
9 Detail of which is also available at https://www.leoacademytrust.co.uk/2801/pedtech-impact-report
Figure 1: End of Key Stage 2 outcomes for Reading, Writing and Maths combined at age related expectations
In light of the visual illustration seen through Figure 1 it is particularly important to consider the sample sizes and characteristics represented by each dataset. Specifically, that the number of children represented by the LEO dataset, and the specific characteristics of this number of children have altered disproportionately in comparison to the National dataset as a result of 3 underperforming schools joining LEO Whilst national figures have remained broadly consistent in terms of school prior performance characteristics, LEO now represents 9 schools (3 of which were not yet thriving when they joined the trust just over a year ago) - whereas previous data represented 7 higher performing schools.
In other words, the outperformance and growing gap have continued despite a proportionally lower aggregated prior attainment dataset within the LEO cohorts. In particular, all 3 of the schools newest to LEO (Shawley, Hurst Park and West Ashtead) have SEN levels between 3-5% above national averages. If the dataset was adjusted to reflect these variables, the gap and outperformance measures would be even greater.
In light of current policy, it is particularly noteworthy that in terms of progress, the outperformance of disadvantaged children at LEO in writing is nearly 6 times that of the national average (2.9 compared to 0.4), with reading and maths on similar trajectories . In relation to end of Key Stage 2 age related expectations across reading, writing and maths combined, disadvantaged children across LEO are outperforming the national average by more than 6% (72% compared to 66%) 10 11
10. https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/multi-academy-trust/15878/leo-academy-trust? tab=primary&accordionstate=0 - note that the benchmarks relate to 2023 data as 2024 is not yet published 11 as above
One of the findings in the original Changing Learning Changing Lives report set out a hypothesis that there may be a positive correlation between the format used for the process of learning and the format used when children are assessed in relation to that same aspect of learning. For example, where children are using high levels of digital tools to learn and practice their multiplication recall, and then assessed on that multiplication knowledge digitally, their knowledge is higher (Section 6 2 1) Notably, there was a direct correlation between the amount of time that a school had been part of LEO, and the % of children achieving higher multiplication checks (MTC) scores For example, Hurst Park, who became part of LEO in 2022, saw a significant increase in MTC results, from 24% of children attaining 20 or more out of 25 marks (i.e. above the national average) in 2022, increasing to 72% in 2023 and 89% in 2024. Similarly, West Ashtead saw an increase from 2023 to 2024 of 31% more children achieving 20+/25 marks (from 54% to 85%) In both of these schools, the children are outperforming national averages by more than 50%
Through a combination of probing the datasets outlined above, and focus groups with both LEO’s established and new schools, the interplay between digital and assessment is important to address. Findings suggest that when digital tools are used strategically to support everyday normal ways of working, both progress and attainment - particularly for disadvantaged children and those with SEN - are raised With Ofqual, JCQ, Pearson and AQA all pro-actively considering the implications of increasing the use of digital within national assessments, LEO’s practice and outcomes are of particular note . 12 13
10 https://www compare-school-performance service gov uk/multiacademy-trust/15878/leo-academy-trust?tab=primary&accordionstate=0 - note that the benchmarks relate to 2023 data as 2024 is not yet published 11 as above
12 https://explore-education-statistics service gov uk/findstatistics/multiplication-tables-check-attainment/2023-24 13. e.g. https://www.aqa.org.uk/digital-exams and https://www pearson com/international-schools/onscreenassessment html
1.3 SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS
The original Changing Learning, Changing Lives report set out compelling evidence of the impact of a pedagogy-first approach to digital on children with potential or diagnosed Special Educational Needs (SEN). This aligns with reporting by Ofsted and Challenge Partners. Notably, visitors to the trust routinely comment on how difficult it is to identify children with SEN in LEO classrooms as a result of a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach , graduated provision and consistent high quality teaching and learning It is helpful therefore to probe this further one year on
In 2024, nationally, we are seeing an increase in the volume and level of needs coming into mainstream classrooms, particularly in relation to Speech and Language, Autism, and Social, Emotional and Mental Health As the principal of Cheam Park Farm explained,
“We now have more additional needs in a single year group than we used to have across the whole school”.
As a consequence, this is placing significant pressure on school budgets (to provide targeted interventions and support programmes), and on classroom teachers (to meet varying and high levels of student need as part of everyday classroom practice) Across the country, both of these issues are contributing to teacher workload and school financial sustainability with consequent implications on staff satisfaction and staff retention for both teachers and leaders .
One of the striking findings in the original research was that despite higher levels of need coming into LEO classrooms the number of children on the Special Educational Needs (SEN) register was decreasing . This trend continues.
As seen in Figure 2, data comparing LEO’s SEN register figures (in blue) and those seen nationally (in brown) identify a stark contrast All schools represented in this graph are experiencing comparable levels of rising need coming into their schools However, whilst the number and cost of interventions is rising nationally, the opposite is happening at LEO.
Figure 2: Comparing LEO average to National average - the number of children registered with SEN, in proportion to the total number of children registered on roll.
By unpacking interview and survey data from leaders, teachers, teaching assistants, children and families, there appear to be two key influences affecting this finding
The first influence is that LEO have a diligent and robust approach to graduated provision – making a clear distinction between support that can be provided in the classroom as part of high quality teaching and learning, and support that requires specific interventions that take a child out of their normal classroom environment or routine This graduated provision incorporates a wide range of mechanisms for supporting children, ranging from physical environment and resourcing, routines and expectations, management of cognitive load, self-regulation and emotional wellbeing strategies, and adaptive teaching to name just a few.
18 REFERENCE to graduated provision framework – e g Southampton’s one? Where did LEO’s come from?
“Before a child goes onto the SEN register, teachers are expected to demonstrate quality first teaching is in place for that child. If the child still isn’t meeting their potential then we have a discussion between the teacher, parents and child about what their specific explicit needs are By identifying those together, we can then look at what provision might help address those needs and what that might look like both at school and at home This level of detail, combined with the child having a 1:1 Chromebooks that is going back and forth between home and school, means that we can be really creative with interventions, support and family engagement. It might be videos, daily communications through SeeSaw, teaching the child and their family to use a particular accessibility tool - whatever it is, we work on it together”
SEN lead, Hurst Park Primary School
The second influence is that every child at LEO has a broad intervention programme at their fingertips every day, as a result of two important interdependent elements:
1 each child having their own Chromebook – but notably, a device that the child perceives as theirs (rather than trolley based) and that they can transport between home and school, and that
b.
a the device is consistently charged, reliably connected to the internet, and remotely maintained (i.e. automated updates), and, that both children and staff are competent and familiar with using this provision every day (i e there has been explicit teaching and learning of digital skills for all stakeholders)
Importantly, in addition,
2.a classroom culture where the provision outlined above is seen as equitable for all children and not just assigned to specific children on a deficit (SEND) model basis (which tends to further ostracise children who already feel ‘othered’, and
a where a Chromebook is a basic learning tool not a novelty or used as a reward – with its use being solely to support and enhance learning – not to entertain, babysit or reward, and
b that digital tools are introduced early, with simple but high impact tools prioritised (e.g. talk to text, screen reader), so that learners have immediate, positive, impactful, experiences
c. that using digital tools are seen as part of everyday practice – not dependent upon gatekeepers, timetabling or permissions, and,
d that simple digital tools are used frequently, with teachers explicitly reminding children of what may help them in every lesson – so that children develop healthy metacognitive habits of choosing the right tool, at the right time, for the right task.
e. This everyday, high quality, consistent graduated provision has a notable impact on children who would traditionally have required additional support (e g differentiated scaffolding, bespoke modelling), and those who would have been likely to then require ‘catch up ’ style intervention programmes (often depending on the capacity of an additional teacher or teaching assistant).
“The academy receives regular, relevant and high quality support from the Trust, which has helped to lead to its rapid improvement and progress An example of this is the embedding of the digital strategy within a short period of time. The use of digital technology has clearly enabled children with SEND to have greater access and a sense of accomplishment.”
Hurst Park Primary, Challenge Partners Review, Spring 2024
Across LEO, there are countless examples of impact where children are using digital tools to overcome barriers and remove false ceilings from their learning experiences. At established LEO schools, most children are now in their fourth year of having a 1:1 Chromebook and so the high quality, accessible and inclusive every day classroom provision is just ‘normal’ to them. This is reflected in the falling number of children on the SEN register, and high levels of attainment by children with SEN and/or an EHCP
However, in schools newer to LEO, the contrast is somewhat easier to see because children have only had their Chromebook since the school joined LEO, and are therefore more able to talk about their personal journeys before and after that change (see Section 1 8)
Case Study - dignity and an inclusive mindset
A year 5 child with ADHD spoke about the way that their teacher facilitated creative and dignified approaches to the feedback and editing cycle for a piece of writing:
“We have been working on this [piece of writing] and yesterday we added this [animated character] so it sounds like it’s the fox saying what I wrote. I like doing it that way because then when we share our work with the class no-one knows whose work it is and you can just think about how to improve the work instead of what other people will think about what you can do or what you can’t do”. Year 5 child
“For this child, the idea of reading their work aloud in class is a huge barrier, and being the focus of attention would create massive anxiety which would trigger disruptive behaviours Children like that can often end up isolated in their class because either people don’t want to risk triggering behaviours, or because other children don’t want to work with them. That has a direct impact on their work because they don’t get to talk about their learning with peers –which puts them at a disadvantage If we can take those barriers away just by being a bit more creative about the task design, then it makes a big difference for that vulnerable child but actually, the benefit helps everyone What we ’ re doing is shifting the attention away from the children’s abilities and anxieties, and back onto the learning itself – which should be the focus of the lesson anyway. It’s a far more inclusive approach and makes sure that everyone can make progress, not just the confident children ” Teacher
Case Study - overcoming the legacy of learned dependency
“This child was new to the school 3 months ago He had a really difficult time in his last school He had been misbehaving a lot and getting into trouble, and then after a lot of intervention learned to keep his head down and stay out of trouble. The problem for him was that in staying out of trouble what he was actually doing was just learning to become compliant and quiet. He learned to become dependent on explicit instruction for even the tiniest of things In his previous school he learned that if you sit quietly then no one will expect much of you His strategy was don’t ask for help and if you get stuck, keep quiet until the end of the lesson. When he came to us his writing level was about 5 years lower than his age.
There is a child similar to X in every class in every school It will be a child who struggles and is working below age related expectations who may not necessarily have particular special educational needs. These are not the children who are disruptive. They are not the children who put their hand up to ask for help, they’re not the child asking peers for support, and they’re not the child who is copying someone else’s working to produce the written outcomes at the end of lesson They are the child who has learned to sit facing the front, looking like they are listening to the teacher, but probably only hearing every third word They are the child that won’t get on with an independent task because they’ll sit there looking at a blank page or a scaffold, feeling totally overwhelmed and unsure about where to start. These children will have been present when the teacher was talking about sentence stems, worked examples, resource banks, word lists, etc but this child won’t have remembered that They have this barrier of feeling completely overwhelmed – their working memory only holding one thing at a time. They want to comply but find themselves unable to do so because they cannot remember the instructions, they cannot remember where the help is, or how to access support, and they nod when they are asked if they know what they are doing. There are children like this in every single classroom – with their needs often overlooked, simply because they are compliant and avoid attention
For these children, a ‘ one stop shop’ can transform their experience Somewhere where they can see or hear or re-watch teacher instructions and then link directly to all the support and scaffold that they might need – so all that they have to to is remember to go to that one consistent place – whatever the subject, teacher, lesson or day of the week
This kind of provision is often offered to ASD children’s through the forms of visual timetables and workstations where tasks are broken down yet this kind of support is useful to so many other children. But from a teacher’s perspective, individual visual timetables and task breakdown can become unsustainable in terms of resourcing. So simply shifting to designing lessons around that one stop shop concept (e g a Google Classroom Assignment or a ThingLink), can provide a teacher with a structure and make it scalable – benefitting all children
Even after 3 months of being here, this form of support is making a significant difference for X because it’s totally changed his perception of himself in relation to the classroom. He’s not helpless. He’s able to access what he needs one step at a time. But importantly, it’s consistent and sustainable for us all”
Year 6 teacher
Case Study - valuing the process of learning over a polished artefact
“As soon as this child joined us we discovered that they had a belief that messy work automatically meant substandard work. In their previous school they had been explicitly taught that if written work wasn’t presented neatly then they were below age related expectations As a result, this child - on the SEN register with dyslexic tendencies - had learned to value presentation over editing This had resulted in a false ceiling on what they could achieve in terms of quality content because of where they were prioritising their concentration and effort. This created a very poor learner identity – with a belief that they couldn’t achieve the same outcomes as their peers – which in turn created a huge motivational barrier which slowed down engagement, progress and attainment It didn’t need to be that way
19
Straight away we introduced them to on-screen ways of working , with talk-to-text supporting the child in getting their ideas down and then learning time directed into upgrading vocabulary, checking grammar – their time spent editing and improving work rather than every single task being limited by an archaic quest for ‘neat handwriting’ Very quickly the child saw what they were really capable of when they were given the freedom to focus on content. On screen, the work in front of them always looked great which was a huge motivator, but importantly, they could edit and amend the content continuously without disrupting that. As they were doing this on a Google Doc, we had a robust evidence trail of the drafting, editing and final work through Version History – an integral part of assessment for learning, alongside that high quality, final polished piece work But most importantly, the child felt good about themselves and that made a huge difference to their effort, progress and final outcomes so the cycle was an upward one rather than downward – totally changing their learner identity and trajectory.”
Key Stage 2 teacher
“Children with SEN can see that their work is as important as everyone else’s work Everyone is being valued so they are more inclined to have a go. Before, lower attaining children would have been working on a different task or different sheet and that completely affects how they feel about themselves and their learning, but now that’s a thing of the past”
SEN lead, Hurst Park Primary
At LEO, there is a hierarchical set of variables that are consistently in place in order for children (with or without SEN) to be able to use digital tools in a way that is positive, impactful, and sustainable in everyday classroom provision
A foundational layer is the provision of a digital device (e.g. Chromebook) that is consistently charged, reliable, in good working order, and familiar to the children. Equally important is a carefully chosen, evidence informed, digital package (e g tools ) which complements and enhances specific teaching and learning strategies This combination ensures that digital usage is reliable, relevant, purposeful, and consistent - core ingredients that are required for children and adults to be willing to invest their time and energy.
The presence of a digital device and digital package in itself will not make an impact on learning Children need to have been taught explicitly where to find the tools on that device, how to use the tools on their specific device, and what to do when something goes slightly wrong (e.g. minor technical troubleshooting). At LEO, it is notable that this does not necessarily need to be the classroom teacher, but could be someone else in the classroom (e.g. a pupil digital leader, or an LSA) who is able to provide low level troubleshooting. A comprehensive approach to leadership at all levels is integral to this (see Section 2)
These layers provide the tools and the support for everyday simple uses of digital tools to support learning. These firm foundations then allow a teacher to create a classroom environment that explicitly encourages children to choose the right tools, for the right task, at the right time during their learning. This often comes through explicit explanation (e g the teacher reminding children that the use of Immersive Reader with their headphones on to hear back their written work may help them to better identify missing punctuation) This approach encourages children’s metacognition - they have permission to choose the tools that they feel are most helpful to them, based upon the specific learning focus or need at that moment in time
“Our teachers and parents and other adults all use digital tools so it makes sense that we learn them too It makes me feel more responsible and more in charge of my own learning because I’m not always waiting for an adult to be able to do stuff ” Year 5 child, West Ashtead Primary
One of the consequences of the approach outlined above is that it creates capacity within the classroom For example, if a child has to request permission to use a tool or feature and be granted permission by the teacher, this might take around 30 seconds of teacher time per child . Even if only 5 children in a classroom make a request, the simple act of granting permission equates to 5% of the teacher’s time available within a typical lesson - time which could be better spent on targeted intervention Autonomous access for children is key to creating capacity for teachers within lessons - where it is most needed
Schools - such as those at LEO - who genuinely seek to nurture independent and lifelong learners, pro-actively identify ways to reduce children’s dependence upon their classroom teacher This emerges from explicit teaching about how to use appropriate and purposeful tools, consistent whole class reminders about what may be useful and when, and inclusive language that ensures that all children see provision as socially acceptable, rather than linked to deficit models .
““Pupils
with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) achieve well because their learning is adapted well Staff have the required knowledge and expertise to do this with precision ”
Ofsted, Cheam Fields, 2024
1.4 ACCESSIBILITY
Nationwide, in most classrooms, accessibility tools are often not utilised Despite most digital devices having a broad range of accessibility features available, these are often not considered for learner use unless a specific learning barrier has been formally diagnosed and a structured intervention plan put in place. Such approaches encourage piecemeal training for both teachers and children, often increasing associated costs and capacity demands. However, at LEO, there appears to be a direct link between the scale and frequency of accessibility feature use and the impact on progression in learning as a result of a very different approach
To put some context to this, 856 children across LEO’s 3 newest schools were surveyed in order to understand the breadth and depth of their use of accessibility tools 1 year after joining the trust. It is relevant to note that each of these three schools have higher than national SEN and EHCP figures
21 Calculated based on teacher’s attention to the individual child, listening to their request and justification, and the teacher then offering a brief response - potentially with a set of parameters attached to it (which is how a typical response is framed when children are required to ask permission before doing something in a classroom environment)
22 See Section 6 1 3 of Changing Learning, Changing Lives for fuller detail
The following findings emerged:
79% of children across KS2 use screen magnification for everyday activities (range across schools 77%-88%, no correlation with year group/age), despite only 0.1% of mainstream children having a registered visual impairment .
45% of children across KS2 use screen overlays or screen contrast adjustments (range across schools 25%-60%, no correlation with year group/age)
42% of children across KS2 use a screen mask to reduce cognitive overload of materials (range across schools 29%-53%, particular high in Year 4 which is a year known for post-pandemic focus issues, and highest in the school with the highest level of SEN - Shawley Primary) - despite only 2.6% of mainstream children having SEN that indicates this as necessary .
40% of children across KS2 use a Screenreader (range 25-45% across year groups, reducing with age, despite LEO outperforming national average attainment at EXS and GDS for reading 77% of children across KS2 use digital dictionaries (text or picture) (range 61%-88% across year groups – no correlation with age), correlating with significantly higher writing attainment at EXS and GDS than national averages
26% of children use dictate / voice to text on a daily basis (range 17%-29%, no age pattern, with the highest use in schools newest to LEO by 15% ), despite children with dyslexic tendencies being in low single figures (which in non LEO schools is often associated with dictation features as part of their provision)
82% of children across KS2 use annotation and highlighting tools (range 72%-90%, - no correlation with age) - corresponding with very high levels of reading comprehension, SPAG and writing attainment outcomes across age groups
48% of children across KS2 use auto-predict to support typing (range 27%-76%, rising with age, with West Ashtead (who saw 46% GDS in Writing in KS2 in 2024), inversely nearly double the usage seen by Hurst Park who saw 28% GDS in 2024)
Case Study
“For many children, when they read their own work back they read what they intended to write rather than what they actually have on the page – so they don’t always spot the grammar or punctuation errors We find that using the screen reader helps children remove this barrier as they can hear the impact of the missing comma or whatever it might be But they are not dependent on the capacity of the teacher or the reading or SPAG skills of another child which would have been the traditional ways of tackling this”
25. Comparing Hurst Park, West Ashtead and Shawley to Cheam Park Farm
26 This may be correlation rather than causation - further investigation is required to draw conclusions
1.5 CHILDREN WITH ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE (EAL)
LEO Academy Trust has nearly double the national average number of children who speak English as an additional language (41% at LEO, 22% nationally) However, these children outperform national averages by 24% Utilising interview and survey data with leaders, teachers, teaching assistants, parents (n=73) and children (n=210), it appears that this is significantly influenced by: translation tools being utilised for static materials, auto-translate being used for teaching and learning within class, accessibility of resources being made available to children to re-watch/re-read, and anywhere/anytime access to materials through children’s Chromebooks going home such that families are able to support children’s learning around school hours Notably, 17% of children across KS2 use translation tools through their Chromebook on a daily basis (range 10-26%, correlating broadly with school variance around EAL, but with no correlation with year group/age).
For example, leaders at Hurst Park spoke about children arriving new to the school with little or no English, yet able to communicate immediately with peers and staff through device based autotranslation Teachers have been able to photograph pages and translate the text in those images quickly using Google translate, and SeeSaw’s translation features have enabled home-school communications to be immediately accessible to both parents and teaching staff - ensuring holistic support for children LEO’s approach to whole-family support for children with EAL is exemplarywith digital provision (Chromebooks going home and SeeSaw/Google Classroom access) being utilised to provide parents with resources such as Read Write Inc videos to support English language learning for both children and their families. The emphasis being on supporting greater community integration as well as the children’s education - resulting in sustainable and meaningful home/school partnerships
As a year 3 child explained, “We get to learn more because we can use the same tools at home and we know how to use them so we can use time at home to learn too, not just time at school”
LEO’s deliberate approach to sending children’s 1:1 Chromebooks home with them each day ensures that support for learning is not constrained to 8:45am-3:30pm Monday to Friday, bringing equity to home environments, and deliberately embedded message about holistic planning and support for children’s learning.
1.6 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Reflecting a trust-wide culture for innovation, leaders across LEO have been proactive in their approach to AI Specifically, to the potential benefits that it offers, alongside the many provocations raised by the permeating presence of Artificial Intelligence in contemporary society For example, taking a leading role in shaping a system leadership guidance framework , and a pathfinding study in partnership with Google and Public First .
When Generative AI became widely available in 2022 , leaders explored a number of tools (e g ChatGPT), and chose to utilise Google’s Gemini because of LEOs existing embedded use of the Google ecosystem. As one leader explained, “It’s so much quicker, easier and more impactful because it’s all in one system - so it can seamlessly use existing docs, slides and so on. When we trialled other things (e.g. ChatGPT) - we had to hop between systems in order to make use of different inputs and then you don’t see the same kind of efficiencies because you ’ re faffing between tabs and windows ”
As a trust, 450/682 staff have had an INSET day specifically devoted to AI and the use of Gemini. In addition, all staff were offered Google Gemini Education Plus training, with 191 staff then applying for one of the 75 available places Training places were distributed to ensure a healthy mix of roles (e g leader, teacher, teaching assistant, lunchtime staff, finance and HR staff, administrators, pastoral staff, premises staff etc), gender, age, background, experience, working styles and current responsibilities. Due to the level of interest, all staff have also been provided with access to recordings of the virtual training sessions .
Staff and children across LEO have benefitted from awareness raising and guidance, ensuring that all stakeholders are informed and able to make conscious and informed decisions about when, where and how to use AI appropriately, and how to mitigate against the risks that AI presents. This whole community approach is vital because of the permeating presence of AI across the wider lives of all stakeholders . For example, in November 2024, Key Stage 2 children across LEO were surveyed and asked about their use of AI with results reflecting that 18% of children in Key Stage 2 are using AI in some form outside of school (n=856) This data corresponds with research elsewhere which indicates that Generation Alpha (i.e. primary school aged children), are using AI more than many adults realise, and that it is often a contemporary mechanism to: seek out help (e.g. when stuck with homework, or interested in a particular topic or leisure interest); engage with creative ideas (e g prompt-based image, music or video creation); or for personalised experiences (e g individualised pathways through curriculum apps, personalised versions of generic materials, or bespoke models) Interestingly, when analysed on a school by school basis, around 11% of Key Stage 2 children at established LEO schools and around 30% at new LEO schools report using AIsuggesting a greater curiosity amongst children in schools newer to the trust .
28 https://www leoacademytrust co uk/3275/shape-of-the-future-how-education-system-leaders-can-respond-to-theprovocations-of-artificial-intelligence
29 https://www publicfirst co uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/AI-and-the-Public-Sector final pdf
30 initially via ChatGPT and then later via Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot
31 https://docs google com/spreadsheets/d/1DVfEyuR2BAxX2PoYS7y6E-hiWNnokYYztlTRnveR3U8/edit? gid=1026439148#gid=1026439148
32 E g https://drive google com/file/d/15FEXl1 pLQ-6 a0HT 8kYqU5hEDLDqxU/view and https://docs google com/presentation/d/1lwCa5X1-SqBOl39 5YEmu1TfPwA-a-SWLlfQl-LOhOI/preview? slide=id g307cf44f811 1 118
33 e g https://www forbes com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/12/16/the-10-bestexamples-of-how-ai-is-already-used-in-our-everyday-life/
34 This suggestion is speculative and should be further investigated
A series of research interviews and focus groups with staff across Hurst Park, West Ashtead, Shawley and Cheam Park Farm, surfaced a range of ways that AI is being used impactfully. The lists below are not exhaustive, but represent a sample of current uses which are used by multiple employees across multiple year groups and multiple schools within LEO on a daily, weekly or termly basis as at November 2024
Teachers prompting Gemini to:
Create exemplar content for children to use as a WAGOLL (what a good one looks like)based on existing high quality texts, but simplified, and including specific features (e g Direct Speech), key vocabulary, specific structure and personalising content to a child or class topic, - with teachers reporting 2 hour weekly tasks taking approximately 10 minutes
Create images based on particular topic content - with teachers reporting 1 hour resourcing taking 5 minutes, and more relevant imagery being used in class
Create display resources based on the slides from a lesson - captions, labels, images, texts - with teachers reporting 2 hour tasks taking approximately 5 minutes
Create multiple choice questions to add into Kahoot - reducing a 30 minute task to 10 minutes
Drafting school reports, based on specific guidance from LEO’s AI policies - reducing the replicable elements and focusing teacher time on personalised content
Creating Star of the Week certificate narrative - using the LEO Explorer characteristics [document] to write up a summary of the child’s achievements with consistent vocabularycreating more meaning for the child themselves, and enabling peers to see how specific behaviours align with specific values during the presentations
Creating the sentences for weekly spelling tests - using the list of words that we are working on - saving 30 minutes each week
Draft targets for children - utilising curriculum planning, prior attainment (anonymised) statements and defining tone and voice - redirecting time from drafting to refining/personalising final targets.
“I create WAGOLLS using Gemini because it means that the WAGOLL is specific to the objectives we are learning about in our class, in this lesson, but it doesn’t require huge amounts of extra resourcing or time”
Teacher, Year 4, Shawley Primary
Middle Leaders prompting Gemini to:
Create a series of lessons on a whole school topic (e g History of Epsom Derby - local event) - making it possible for all year groups to take part in a bespoke whole school themed event but without placing additional workload on teachers to resource it
Summarise monitoring findings for NLC meetings by collating key points from slides, lesson plans, children’s work photos, teacher samples - reducing a ½ day task down to 15 minutes
Draft professional articles for publication based on slides - collating materials, crediting sources, pulling together related links and summarising within a given word count - making it possible for the teacher to share expertise (this teacher referred to their wish to publish, but it being logistically not possible given their wider workload, with Gemini overcoming that barrier for them)
“It takes the panic away If I can’t find a good resource I can just quickly make one on Gemini instead. You can tailor it for the specific children in front of you through your prompts. Resourcing used to cause us huge anxiety because of the time and usually still not quite finding what you ’ re looking for. But that anxiety has gone now ”
Teacher focus group
Teaching Assistants prompting Gemini to:
Create highly personalised speech and language tasks for children to do at home with families - with parents reporting much higher engagement with their child’s S&L activity as a result of the personalisation
Convert photos of handwritten notes (from training sessions) to text and then summarising notes into key points - saving time and making key points more accessible for future reference
Specific highly targeted interventions (e g intervention on letter sound ‘ a ’ , using child’s particular interests to provide examples and resources) - reducing time spent searching for resources, and freeing up TA time to provide additional interaction directly with the child
“AI has been an absolute game changer. I save hours and hours of time because I would have deliberated over things a lot previously, changing it about 30 times and asking 4 people to read to sense-check it Now I prompt AI to start me off, then I tweak it, and then the office check It’s taking 15 minutes now to do something that took half a day before Importantly, it means I now have more time to spend with children - I have time do that because I’m not being bogged down by the time consuming admin tasks”
Senior Leader, West Ashtead Primary
Senior Leaders prompting Gemini to:
Draft funding applications - reducing a 1 day task for a 4 person working group down to 90 minutes with 2 people (and resulting in an 82% scoring on the funding application and a £50,000 grant being awarded).
Convert meeting notes and transcripts into summary reports (e g staff meetings / briefings)
- reducing 1-2 hour tasks to 5 minutes, and allowing for the redeployment of administrative staff
Draft action plans, risk assessments, policies, documents, training outlines and presentations
- typically reducing ½ day tasks to 20 minutes
Creating a bespoke story and associated assembly slides based on a pastoral need and familiar story (perhaps as a result of a lunchtime/playground issue) - reducing a 2 hour task to 10 minutes, and enabling highly personalised assembly messages specific to current school issues
Composing responses to emails or letters from parents - reducing a task that can take an hour (due to careful wording, linking to policies or documents), down to 10 minutes. With some leaders receiving an average of 20-30 messages a day from parents across their school, this can add up to a significant workload reduction
Creating a policy-informed response to absence requests (particularly when policies are updated or amended) - with a reply specific to school policy and parental contextreducing a 20 minute task to 5 minutes, and ensuring robust justification which reduces likelihood of appeal requests
Collate and summarise a range of pasted text (e g notes from staff, school social media posts) into a newsletter - reducing 2 hour weekly tasks to 10 minutes
Setting up automated drop down menus and formula based actions in spreadsheetsreducing dependence upon specialist staff for one off or small scale actions
“It revolutionises who we need to have involved with things and how we use our time because we can prioritise our time on the value we add as professionals. It frees up brain space - that’s the key thing - it allows you to fit in tasks that you need to do but which you might not necessarily want to spend loads of time doing ”
Senior Leader
Administrators prompting Gemini to:
Write up handwritten notes or convert photos of notes to text, and then summarisereducing 1 hour tasks to 5 minutes
Convert Twitter feed posts into short paragraphs, and then collate into a newsletter or summary - reducing a 1 hour task to 5 minutes and enabling more responsive communications
Create marketing materials such as flyers, or social media posts - without needing specialist marketing skills and expertise - improving the style and impact of materials
In a focus group with teachers and leaders which took place 6 weeks after initial Gemini training, one colleague summarised the difference, “If you took Gemini away now you’d have a huge amount more work I couldn’t be without Gemini now. I use it every single day. It makes such a difference to my time and to what I can do as a result.”
The uses outlined above indirectly support children’s learning through the resourcing and planning of classroom activity, the redirection of staff time and the quality of materials being produced by an already busy workforce There are also ways in which uses of AI have supported children directly at LEO For example, alongside the use of ‘ wrapper apps ’ (which use AI as part of curriculum software or applications) - such as Century, teachers also spoke about,
Converting children’s descriptive writing into images - so that children can see the visual impact of the presence or omission of different types of vocabulary and sentence structure
Using OlexAI to mark photographs of children’s work, and provide personalised individual feedback (current pilot) - so that teachers can then add value to feedback rather than reproducing generic comments
Using Conker to create comprehension questions based on uploaded text - with questions then pasted into a Google Form to allow for digital and/or automated marking and feedback
This list is not exhaustive, but is notably more cautious - reflecting the age, needs and appropriateness of tools used directly with children.
Across roles and schools, the reaction to the introduction, training and use of Gemini has been resoundingly positive Staff commonly referred to the significant time savings that they had experienced as a result of using Gemini to complete tasks (as outlined above) However, two additional benefits also emerged. First, that the use of Gemini was often enabling staff to overcome ‘blank page syndrome’ with creative or logistically complex tasks by providing an initial draft set of words (e.g. for a risk assessment, letter or report). Staff often spoke about this reducing anxiety associated with particular tasks - contributing positively to their overall wellbeing In addition, administrative and management staff spoke about the reassurance that using Gemini gave them - in terms of correct spelling, punctuation and grammar when writing in particular genres or formats Many leaders and administrators spoke about the consequent positive impact on professional confidence and satisfaction alongside significant time savings - collectively making a significant improvement to their overall wellbeing, and contributing to staff retention
“At first I was worried I would lose my identity - my personal stamp on things that I create - you know, my way of writing sentences But actually, I feel like a better version of me (I have an English degree, but it’s a better version what I could do) You tell it the tone - you tell it the manners - so you ’ re in control all the time by what you put in your prompts”
Teacher
“When we started - it was a conscious effort “Oh, I could ask AI” - but now because we ’ ve all had training and we ’ re all using it and we all know we can do it - it’s so much easier, simpler, we ’ re all happy and confident to use it”
Teacher and Middle Leadership AI focus group
1.7 SCHOOLS NEW TO LEO
There is a noticeable pattern across schools newest to LEO (Shawley, Hurst Park and West Ashtead) in that there is a high pace of positive change (see Sections 1.7.1-1.7.3 below for school specific detail) Key ingredients and themes that span across schools are summarised in Section 2
Broadly, LEO’s newest schools are benefitting from the pathfinding of its founding schools and as a result moving from awareness raising to embedded effective ways of working very quickly (as seen in FIgure 3).
Figure 3: Pace of change in relation to LEO’s pedagogy-first approach to digital, by school, based on when they joined LEO Academy Trust.
In comparison to established LEO schools, the newer schools often have a greater emphasis on whole-school change or introduction - which may be a simple reflection of the scale of required change (e.g. where rapid whole school improvement is necessary), or size of school (e.g. a one form entry school may often encourage whole-school initiatives in order to provide staff with direct support).
The most established and high performing LEO schools often delegate responsibility for change or innovation to middle leaders and classroom teachers - with this perceived as low risk due to the established embeddedness of high quality provision. However, the pace of change or innovation can consequently be slower as a result (i.e. during Autumn 2024, digital innovation examples cited by staff across both established and new schools at LEO were broadly comparable).
The scope of this light-touch report does not extend to reporting on the full breadth and depth of activities experienced by children and adults across LEO’s newest schools (see Challenge Partners QAR reports for summaries). However, a synthesis of 22 classroom visits, 12 focus groups (including with children, teachers, TAs, administrative and support staff), and 8 research interviews with school leaders, surfaced a number of findings that,
Digitised ways of working have been positively embraced, with rapid impact seen (broadly speaking, the newer the school to LEO, the shorter the period between adoption and impact)
Teachers conceptualise digital as a core teaching and learning tool, with typical use across Hurst Park, West Ashtead and Shawley after a year, mirroring typical use across more established LEO schools
LEO’s aim of providing equity of provision for all children across the trust, can be seen through:
All children having access to a 1:1 Chromebook (often touchscreen) - providing a launchpad for access, dignity, autonomy, independence, creativity and responsibility as core features of learning
All children being empowered to use a wide range of accessibility features as part of everyday classroom practice - facilitating fully inclusive classrooms that remove barriers to learning
All children experiencing the use of digitally enabled impactful teaching and learning (e.g. through the use of NearPod, LbQ, SeeSaw, Now Press Play, Mote etc) - enabling high quality teaching strategies (e g adaptive teaching, retrieval practice, vocabulary development, oracy)
All staff having access to shared planning and resourcing through trust wide Google Drive access - enabling greater professional collaboration and support
All staff having the opportunity to use Gemini AI to support their workload, productivity and creativity - redirecting their capacity to interacting with children and improving professional satisfaction
Child tili i th i Ch b k b d th h l d t
( f
1.8.1 SHAWLEY PRIMARY
Shawley Primary became part of LEO in 2022, having experienced a range of challenges including a Requires Improvement inspection outcome in 2019 The scope of this report does not extend to capturing the full journey of Shawley over the last 3 years but it is perhaps most succinctly articulated through a Challenge Partners Quality Assurance review Leading judgement (2024) , and that in 2024, Shawley’s end of key stage two outcomes were 11% above national (RWM combined) for age related expectations (72% compared to 61%) and 10% above national average for RWM combined at greater depth (18% compared to 8%) Year 1 phonics were 6% above national average (85% compared to 79%) and EYFS GLD was 6% above national average (73% compared to 67%) In all headline measures, Shawley also performed above the Local Authority average . This is particularly striking given that the proportion of children at Shawley with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities (SEND), including those with EHCPs, is well above the national average, and the proportion of children considered to be disadvantaged is similarly above the national average
The scope of this report is to look specifically at the use of digital as part of Shawley’s overarching journey, and a combination of classroom visits, focus groups and research interviews with Shawley staff helps to surface key themes. These are perhaps best articulated by an Early Career Teacher, who summarised that;
“I’ve learned to teach at LEO Not just process children through the curriculum I know what every child is able to do and I can move every child in my class on That wouldn’t be possible without the 1:1 Chromebooks because realistically how would you actually do that with 1 teacher and 30 children?” ECT, Shawley Primary
and a more experienced colleague who elaborated that,
“The biggest difference is that having Chromebooks allows children to choose what help they need whilst they’re learning. If they need to look back at a WAGOLL or use a wordbank or sentence stems, or have some grammar options, or translate a word they don’t’ understand in English – it’s just all there straight away They don’t have to walk across the classroom and disrupt other children, or get into a mess of photocopied sheets on their table, or wait for the teacher to get round to them So they use their time more effectively and we get a lot more done as a result ” Teacher, Shawley Primary
35 https://www shawleyprimaryacademy co uk/40/performance
36 https://www compare-schoolperformance service gov uk/school/148882/shawley-community-primaryacademy/primary
It is noticeable at Shawley that many of the uses of children’s Chromebooks align with the types of uses and the findings from the original Changing Learning, Changing Lives report (e.g. Section 6). As set out in Section 2 of this current report, the process of schools joining LEO opens up a fast-track approach which brings new schools up to speed very efficiently and ensures that comparable high impact outcomes are quickly achieved From a combination of survey data, leadership and teacher interviews, focus groups and classroom observations, it appears that Shawley have reached a similar level of embedding digital into everyday practice after approximately 18 months (comparable to LEO’s original founding schools who took approximately 3 years to reach a similar level of embedded practice) This is most likely due to the systems and processes created by those founding schools as a result of exploration, trials, learning from mistakes and experimentation That investment of time, energy and finance by established, stable, high performing schools, has enabled the rapid improvement and impact seen by more vulnerable schools. Consequently, significantly more children are benefitting from high quality educational provision - delivering on LEO’s underpinning moral imperative of bringing about greater equity and inclusion through excellence and opportunity
“As a trust we are all learning together all the time because no matter what stage we are each at, we are still all continually learning. Feeling part of a small school community and a bigger trust family makes the world of difference - we have the best of both worlds” Principal, Shawley Primary
1.8.2 HURST PARK PRIMARY
Hurst Park Primary became part of LEO Academy Trust in 2023, following a turbulent period both in terms of finances and leadership, and with an intake including higher than average SEND (particularly around SEMH and Sp&L) and EAL. One year later, standards have already been positively impacted , with Reading, Writing and Maths in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 being increased by between 5-10% higher
Hurst Park’s journey towards a fully embedded pedagogy-first approach to digital has been remarkable. In a period of just over one year, children from Year 1-6 have benefitted from immersion into a new, more contemporary classroom provision Led by strong teachers and a vision about technology supporting equity for children, the use of Chromebooks just over a year after Hurst Park joined LEO is now broadly comparable with other schools across the trust As leaders explained, the support from across LEO created a team of people who understood the vision, as well as providing visibility on how to get there, and practical support across subjects, leadership and operations.
37. https://hurst-park.co.uk/23/performance
38 https://docs google com/spreadsheets/d/1UcSubE8YGh9hovwQs07T2OLqQ6pO6gtY1Jp0arG0 Rs/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Challenge Partners Quality Assurance Review in Spring 2024, summarised that, “The academy has successfully gone through a period of rapid change and improvement as a result of leaders’ relentless commitment and focus, with strong support from the Trust Leaders’ small-steps approach has been effective in taking staff with them on this journey… The academy receives regular, relevant and high quality support from the Trust, which has helped to lead to its rapid improvement and progress… Their impact is reflected in the high quality of outcomes for pupils. ”
The mechanisms for this rapid transformation are set out in Section 2 of this report, with Hurst Park notably benefitting from the pathfinding of more established LEO schools. As a consequence, Hurst Park’s provision has reached an embeddedness within one year that equates broadly to a level that took pathfinding schools about 3 years. Typical uses include widespread use of accessibility features (see Section 1 4), and support for children with EAL (see Section 1 5)
Hurst Park leaders used phrases such as ‘fasttracking progress ’ when they spoke about joining LEO, with particular emphasis on infrastructure being pre-identified and therefore immediately actionable, along with immediate access to centralised resources and planning to support school and class specific interventions and adaptations As one of the senior leaders summarised, “That’s what we do at LEO We collaborate, we work together, and we focus on how we can collectively get the best outcomes for all children - across all our schools”
Despite the relatively short period of time using 1:1 Chromebook provision across the school, there are a number of elements of innovation seen at Hurst Park that mirror other established schools For example, the use of Google Practice Sets alongside LbQ have been introduced in order to surface greater real-time formative assessment data to support responsive teaching
This use has allowed teachers to create capacity within the classroom as a result of automated marking, but also capture insights about how many attempts it takes for children to get a correct arithmetic answer, and whether they required intervention (e g a hint) in order to get there. With Elmbridge cited as having particularly high numbers of children with mental health difficulties, it had been noted that children would opt out of difficult questions or tasks historically, or become distressed if they could not answer a question However, through the use of LbQ and Practice Sets - which provide a no opt-out process but allow for discrete use of hints and tips and multiple attempts, teachers reported a noticeable improvement to children’s resilience and perseverance
39. https://hurst-park.co.uk/24/ofsted
Other forms of innovation at Hurst Park include recorded weekly staff briefings so that all members of staff are able to watch back (particularly ensuring that LSAs can be included), and the use of audio story boxes (e.g. YOTO) to help children who don’t experience reading at home to access the recommended 5 stories a day in early years - building up their vocabulary and imagination This screen-free use of digital sits alongside a range of other support (e g SORA for digital access to books, magazines and audio), but reassures families that our digital provision is not always about screen use.
Home engagement has been a particular focus at Hurst Park with many communications being digitised to improve efficacy of both sending and receiving information In addition, SeeSaw has been utilised across Early Years to share transition videos (e g so that children can have a virtual tour of the school over the summer holidays as a reminder about what their new classroom looks like, where their peg, toilet and drink will be etc). Teachers have also explicitly taught children to use SeeSaw to capture examples of their learning - giving children greater responsibility for selfevaluation and metacognition, supported by teacher validation and triangulation
In addition, administrative staff reporting significant time savings and increased response rates as a result of the introduction of Google Forms for parental feedback, shared Google Docs for staff to co-create newsletters and letters, and Cloud based working allowing for version history rather than multiple versions of documents
As one member of staff at Hurst Park Primary School explained, “I work with all the different year groups so I see most children at some point. At first I was really worried about it [digital provision]. I thought the children would be constantly on computers and they’d all need their eyes testing because they would be on the screen all the time, and what about handwriting It really worried me But now I can really see the impact, and it’s all across the school for all the children I wouldn’t want to be without it now Before, the children wouldn’t want to put their hands up but now they are all working and the teacher can see where every child is at and just go to them. They feel like their learning matters. So they work harder. I’ve even noticed it makes a difference to handwriting because one of my children had awful handwriting but her content was really good so she started using voice to text and that meant she could get all her ideas down and edit them into something really good Then she was willing to work harder at the handwriting part because she had something to celebrate. But before, the handwriting was holding back the great content. It’s a totally different attitude now. ”
1.8.3 WEST ASHTEAD PRIMARY
West Ashtead became part of LEO in Summer 2023 after an extended period of turbulence which resulted in academy conversion As part of a journey to unleash the potential of the school community, the leadership team at West Ashtead focused on the role of digital to support high quality teaching and learning, and a holistic approach to inclusion and SEND provision. Combining these two elements allowed all staff to precisely focus on pedagogical strategies which had been trialled and evaluated by established LEO schools - immediately drawing on the expertise of leaders (who had worked in other LEO schools), and the infrastructure and resourcing already available through the trust The consequences have been remarkable
One year later, a Challenge Partners Quality Assurance Review summarised the rapid improvement as,
“The impact of technology on teaching and learning is already being seen Technology is integral to the provision Leaders know how its use is designed to enable all pupils progress well through the curriculum Pupils are empowered motivated to learn Inclusion is a real strength The atmosphere has improved… everyone is more positive and motivated ”
Notably, end of key stage outcomes at West Ashtead in 2024 have been impacted, with 13% more children achieving expected standards across reading, writing and maths combined than national average (74% compared to 61%), and 13% more children achieving greater depth than the national average (21% compared to 8%).
A small but highly impactful range of tools from LEO’s digital package were adopted at West Ashtead in order to target specific school improvement priorities For example, the use of accessibility features in order to provide fully inclusive classrooms for all children, the use of NearPod and Century to support rapid recall and adaptive teaching, the use of PolyPad to support mathematical reasoning, the use of Kaligo and Letter Join (on touchscreen Chromebooks) to provide formative feedback on specific handwriting movements, Mote to provide targeted individual feedback to children, and the use of SeeSaw to support home/school engagement Notably, West Ashtead’s use of Now Press Play awarded them Flagship School status in October 2024 - reflecting the provision of high impact immersive experiences.
This changed learner identity reflects the way in which the LEO approach affects classroom dynamics - creating capacity for both teacher and learner to be more effective and impactful specific to their needs and priorities at that moment in time This is likely to go some way towards explaining the consistent outperformance and increasing gap between LEO schools and national attainment averages
“We have moved from being an ‘academy’ to being a ‘centre of learning’”
Principal of West Ashtead
2.0 HOW SCALABLE AND SUSTAINABLE IS LEO’S PEDTECH APPROACH?
42
The original impact report detailed a comprehensive journey by LEO over five years . This journey resulted in significant positive impact as evidenced through a range of metrics as well as through narrative However, any form of impact is ultimately dependent upon human beings – whether through their teaching or learning, leadership and decision making, financial operations or stakeholder perceptions Schools are fluid places with new cohorts of children each year, staff career progression and strategic partnerships all affecting the variables at play. Scale and sustainability is therefore as much about codifying and embedding internal practices as it is about growth and system leadership
In order to respond to this question, a range of data has been sought through this 1 year review, including onboarding experiences of 3 schools who have recently joined LEO, staff new to the trust and those who have led school improvement, early career teachers and their mentors, children and families who are new to the trust, executive and central leadership, and feedback from visitors working in both similar and contrasting contexts (see Introduction to this report for full details)
There are a number of core findings which have emerged, which suggest that there are 8 key levers for scalable and sustainable impact that have been put into place by LEO. It is likely that these levers can be transferable to other groups of schools who are similarly committed to this highimpact, contemporary form of educational provision
42. see Section 5.1 - https://www.leoacademytrust.co.uk/pedtechimpactreport
1 Appointing and supporting a full-time executive leader of digital – importantly, demarcating this as a strategic leadership role not an IT leadership role Vitally, that this leadership is undertaken by someone whose expertise is rooted in teaching and learning, has a passion for digital (but is not an IT specialist), is highly skilled in collaborative working and has a deliberate focus on supporting the learning of both children and professionals (rather than ‘implementing’ projects, solutions or strategies) At LEO, this executive leader leads the learning of a number of different forms of internal digital system leadership (as set out below) All schools across the trust have strong bonds with this leader, with each school identifying how much, how often and what form of support they would like each term and year as well as benefitting from overarching centralised strategic leadership. Schools joining the trust benefit from being able to request a large amount of time for onboarding and improvement support, with more established schools shifting towards embedding and sustaining impactful ways of working The subtleties and perceptions associated with this role are integral to how leaders and teachers across the trust conceptualise the role, purpose and intentions of digital ways of working.
2 Embedding matrix trust leadership of digital – every single leader across the trust is tasked with incorporating digital into their strategic thinking This includes middle, senior, central and executive leaders alongside pupil and community/partnership leaders. The responsibility is shared both in spirit (e.g. messaging), and in practice (e.g. through job descriptions, training and support). Notably, at LEO this goes far beyond all leaders using digital tools as part of their own productivity (e.g. creating and sharing documents, communication, remote meetings, recommending tools etc) Instead, the executive leader for digital works closely with other executive leads and directors to identify exactly where and how digital tools can support and enhance existing and future strategy for their specific function. For example, where digital tools can be used to enhance priority improvements in maths or English (Subject Directors), where digitised ways of working can support professional learning (Director of CPD & ITE), how digital can enhance work within the trust people strategy (COO, Director of HR) and so forth This approach means that all leaders utilise and communicate digital ways of working as solutions to current challenges and processes through their everyday leadership work – building additional capacity and cohesion to the approach. It further empowers groups of school and central leaders both individually and through working groups and professional learning networks (e g Principals, Executive Headteachers, Directors of School Improvement, Subject leads, Safeguarding, SEND/Inclusion leads, Attendance, Behaviour and mental health/wellbeing leads), to see strategic planning and digital working as genuinely intertwined rather than parallel conversations. This mindset and approach waterfalls down such that senior and middle leaders, teachers and other professional services staff then also see digital working and everyday actions as interwoven. There is a consistent message – that digital is one of a portfolio of tools that the trust expects to be used purposefully, as part of everyday provision by all stakeholders It is important here to emphasise the subtle difference between digital ways of working (defined and anchored by each leader based on their remit), rather than using digital across the trust (defined and anchored by systems, tools and IT projects).
3.Appointed and supported school based champions – these are adults who provide a localised version of the executive digital leadership role outlined above. These are usually class-based middle or senior leaders with expertise in both contemporary classroom reality as well as a holistic view on school improvement (i e leadership of staff learning, home/school partnership working etc) The champions see their role as shaping the whole trust, via the contributions of each individual school and are focused on high level operational support (i e sharing effective practice, training and awareness raising, encouraging innovation, and championing the importance of staff working towards their own professional digital certification). A separate, named colleague, oversees IT technical support in conjunction with a managed service provider, ensuring that champions focus on teaching, learning, leadership, and family/community engagement Vitally, this network of champions share responsibility for maintaining and growing this trust-wide peer support – sustaining the champion network, providing distributed leadership and empowering an increasing number and range of colleagues over time.
“The people who are leading are Teaching and Learning experts who happen to use Digital, rather than Digital experts who happen to be good at teaching and learning”
Vice Principal, Shawley Primary
4 Appointing and supporting class based young leaders – with 2-3 children in each classroom, selfnominating and/or applying for the junior leadership position but changing each year (in order to build capacity over time) These children receive high quality and explicit training similar to staff on the small number of tools in active classroom use - elevating their skills as well as their confidence and esteem. This training, led by the executive digital leader and/or school champions, ensures that every classroom has a small group of people beyond the teacher who can troubleshoot, support or innovate with digital tools at any given time This builds vital capacity and confidence into every classroom - removing dependency upon any individual teacher’s time, health and timetabled teaching responsibilities.
“I learned how to use a stylus to help me use Polypad in maths last year from my Digital Leader A lot of the things I’ve learned about the Chromebook have been from him”
Hamish, Year 4, Shawley Primary
“One of our children last year struggled emotionally, but their confidence was boosted by being a digital leader in their class - and was part of the team presented with an award at BETT in 2024”
Leader, Hurst Park Primary
5 A small, but strategically chosen, digital package – based around one shared ecosystem (Google), 1:1 Chromebooks available on-demand for all children, leaders, teachers, and teaching assistants , with core teaching tools (e.g. NearPod, LbQ, Lyfta, Now Press Play, SeeSaw), and core learning tools (Read & Write, Orbit Note, Accessibility, Mote). In addition, centralised leadership and support ensures that planning, management and maintenance of digital and premises infrastructure, connectivity, data security, safeguarding and IT technical support is removed from individual schools - freeing up valuable capacity and expertise to focus on leadership, teaching and learning and community/family engagement.
Additional digital tools are explored and considered at appropriate points, but only adopted if they add tangible value to pedagogy, productivity or accessibility (e g ThingLink, Polypad) This relatively small suite of tools is then used in depth, embedded into everyday practice, and sustained over time – making best use of time, training, and financial investment
“We have prioritised tools that support the teaching and learning strategies that evidence shows make a positive, dignified impact on children’s learning. We have been able to work closely with colleagues across LEO to understand exactly what this looks like in context of our shared vision and values, shared infrastructure and consistency of provision We haven’t had to do all the thinking on our own so we have been able to hit the ground running and make an impact really quickly”
Principal, Hurst Park Primary
Importantly, the digital package is underpinned by the LEO Digital Progression Framework - which sets out core skills for each year group, term by term. This progression framework ensures that children understand all of the tools and features available within their Chromebook and Digital Package. This incremental introduction of tools builds up an age and stage appropriate toolkit for teachers to then utilise with each year group and across each key stage - opening up a world of opportunities for everyday teaching and learning practice Importantly, the digital progression framework sets out the tools and features that are available to children and adults at LEO - and mirrors the training and support provided for staff and leaders (as set out in points 1-5 above).
43 https://sites google com/leoacademytrust co uk/digitalpackage/home
44 All teachers, leaders and desk based staff are provided with their own Chromebook All other staff (including TAs/LSAs, wraparound staff, ELSA, cover supervisors, premises etc) are able to request a banked Chromebook and training should they require it at any point in timeproviding equity for both children and the professional workforce
45 https://docs google com/document/d/1bjwSYzLj2Q D9K7j0U0 r6jXgszh Pe5po8DnWKSuRlQ/edit?tab=t.0
“The youngest children get used to having a Chromebook, and then that becomes their normal experience so we can build on that In Year 3 they start learning about things like Nearpod and LbQ [because of our Progression Framework] so when they go up to the next class you can confidently assume that they have these skills and what you plan in your lessons just makes use of that as a starting point That frees you up to focus on quality teaching and learning across the curriculum rather than constantly teaching new digital skills in order to use digital tools, and when you do focus on digital skills you are adding incrementally to what they are already confident with rather than constantly learning more and more different things. There is a cumulative impact because children and adults are all building on what they’ve done before so you get maximum benefit in terms of how these things are actually used in practice.”
Key Stage 2 Teacher, Shawley Primary
6 Ongoing research, evaluation and sharing – these key professional behaviours are embedded in the choice and use of both digital and non digital tools and strategies, the structures and processes used by leaders (e.g. Growing Great People ), and the language used across the trust community (education, business, partners, families, children and adults). Whilst phrased in varying ways according to audience and context, these professional behaviours encourage openness (e.g. leaders and teachers openly and systematically sharing planning, resources, examples of effective practice, troubleshooting, solidarity and support) Leaders share leadership resources, teaching staff share teaching and learning resources, and professional services staff (e g finance, administration) share operational resources. This results in both a sense of whole-trust community, alongside on-demand access to ways of working that are informed by evidence and localised in context. In short, it means that schools or staff new to the LEO fast-track their thinking and see accelerated rates of improvements and impact as a result Staff unanimously highlight the impact that this has on skills and confidence building, early success creating momentum, swift school improvement, and consequent collective efficacy in driving and embedding further school improvement and innovation.
“We are a small school so we can all do things ‘together’ which makes whole school change much easier – we learn together, do together, grow together, share together and support each other But around us, supporting us, we have a much bigger family through LEO so we ’ re not on our own – we have access to experts, resources, support – all the things we need to help us do what we need to do”
Vice Principal, Shawley Primary
7 Enabling Learning as a cultural mindset – leadership and language across LEO very deliberately position all staff as contributing towards the learning of both children and adults The roles and strategies above have been deployed with clear briefs that leaders are not just responsible for their own subject, school or function, but expected to pro-actively seek out opportunities to provide practical support for the whole trust This embedding of collective responsibility creates a mindset which avoids siloed thinking or working, and leverages the leadership and capacity of all those involved Whilst subtle, it makes a transformational difference about how digital is perceived by children and adults alike.
8.Solution oriented long term financial planning underpins the success of the seven levers above. This is partly about strategic decisions made (e.g. GAG pooling, leasing negotiations, phased investment in infrastructure), and partly about seeing those investments in context of the human beings who operationalise leadership decisions For example, teachers across LEO have access to shared lesson planning and resourcing with most teachers working in year group teams that span across multiple schools - supporting retention, and in turn reducing recruitment costs. Similarly, the decision to invest in Gemini Education Plus licenses has resulted in operational savings, increased income and staff redeployment (see Section 1.6). Chromebook and Google Cloud provision along with staff digital confidence makes these opportunities possible, accessible and sustainable Consequently, all staff roles benefit from regular, purposeful interactions with like-minded colleagues every week where the needs are supported, so that energies can be directly focused on the needs of children in classrooms.
“We are a one form entry school so previously staff wouldn’t have the opportunity to work with other teachers in the same year group Having access to planning for same year groups, going to NLC meetings, and having exposure to what other schools in LEO have used gives staff a high quality starting point and a crucial network of support”
Senior Leader, West Ashtead Primary
As these ways of working are embedded, many aspects of teacher workload are reduced (e g resourcing). Staff wellbeing is consequently improved through both practical benefits (time savings), and professional benefits (e.g. consistent access to relevant expertise and a community of support). An unintended consequence of this has been a significant contribution to staff satisfaction , thus staff retention and consequently, recruitment cost savings and redeployment of professional expertise across the trust
“One of my teachers thought about going to work in another school so that they would get a breadth of experience as they work towards headship. But after she went to visit she came back and said it would be like going back to the dark ages The teachers were having to do all the planning on their own, children didn’t have access to digital tools to support them so learning was slow The teachers and children were sort of being left to figure everything out on their own She said it was just such an inefficient way for a school to be working and everyone there was exhausted”.
LEO Principal
2.1 FUTURE DIRECTION
When thinking about scale and sustainability of LEO’s approach to supporting learning, it is helpful to consider the vision that underpins all of LEO’s work - primarily that everyone (child, adult, staff and community) is viewed as a learner with the potential to learn, and similarly, that everyone is viewed as having the potential to support the learning of others This belief is lived out in practice through strategic leadership and decision making as well as through operational activities and choices Vitally, this converts aspirational ideology (often cited by schools) into tangible and impactful practice (less common to see in action).
This embedded mindset - which stems from the CEO’s approach to trust leadership - is at the heart of the successes seen across LEO’s schools, partnerships and systems because it ensures a consistent forward-facing, solution-oriented mindset
Growth, might therefore be thought of through at least 4 lenses: (1) number of schools, (2) extending impact for young people beyond Year 6, (3) diversification of income, and (4) system leadership This scope of this report does not stretch to addressing each of these However, there is one theme which emerged through the focus groups, research interviews and surveys of parents, leaders and teaching staff within the process of collating this report which relates to children’s life experiences beyond Year 6/LEO.
47 20% higher than national averages (based on Edurio benchmarking data)
48 Findings from Section 6 6 4 of the original report have been similarly sustained
49. Approximately £10,000 per year – see original report.
Children at LEO begin their digital journey gently within Early Years, building up skills cumulatively over time so that they are able to benefit from digitally enhanced learning and teaching in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. The deliberate cumulative approach to building digital skills , alongside the consistent practice that children experience in their everyday lives at LEO create a high level of digitally literate young people - as reflected by the exemplary level of Google Digital Badges achieved
However, when these digitally skilled learners leave LEO and continue their education in other schools - either geographically moving to primary education away from LEO’s catchment areas, or into one of the many feeder secondary schools, a new kind of friction is introduced because very few schools locally, regionally, nationally or internationally have such embedded, consistent, sophisticated and sustained digital provision.
This introduces a number of challenges whereby, upon arrival at a non-digitally minded school, children moving from LEO become disadvantaged Narrative from parents and families with older siblings, and staff who have been contacted by former LEO pupils reported a range of distressing implications to this, including tangible examples where,
Some children with SEN having to become dependent upon an adult because they are no longer provided with access to an on-demand digital toolkit that allows them to be independent
Some children becoming highly anxious because they are forced to answer learning questions in front of teenage peers (e g cold calling, hands-up responses) - often resulting in consequent disruptive behaviours (also associated with reduced attendance)
Some children with English as an additional language falling behind because they have no way of translating teacher instruction into their own language, and so have to become dependent on teacher capacity for intervention or additional resource provision
Some children becoming highly frustrated and disengaged with their new school’s curriculum and provision - where Key Stage 3 lessons often duplicate skills and knowledge that children at LEO have already secured and embedded in Key Stage 2 (with Key Stage 3 computing often containing significant repetition of what LEO children then consider to be low level skills)
Teachers in schools using systems other than Google (e g schools who use Microsoft), often assume that children do not have the digital skills to use their tools, rather than recognising that a tool may have one name or location in one system and another name or location in another system - reflecting an application familiarity gap rather than a digital skills gap.
50. Described in the original report in Section 5 3
51 Equivalent to a MAT approximately 10 times as large as LEO - Section 5 3
There is a slightly ‘chicken and egg ’ cycle currently impacting schools in relation to the adoption of digital, as the costs of investing in infrastructure, devices, connectivity, training and support, are not perceived as a priority largely because the accountability system pivots round assessments which are still largely non-digital However, those leading national discussions about the future of assessment and the role of digital within it, are cautious about changing that system when there are so many schools who do not yet have appropriate infrastructure, devices, connectivity, training and support to be able to mobilise digital assessments at scale. Forward thinking schools and trusts such as LEO who have chosen to invest in both children and their workforce by providing a fully supported digital ecosystem will be at a distinct advantage once the likely future changes to assessment systems come into play This is in part because the infrastructure, devices, connectivity, training and support will already be in place But it will also be in part because those ways of working will be familiar and embedded to the children and staff already, resulting in very little additional workload burden. This is likely to contrast with other schools nationwide who will need to implement new systems and procedures, alongside new ways of working on timescales likely to coincide with implementing new national curricula (i e consequences of the current National Curriculum and Assessment review )52
Named in 2024 as one of the Top 5 Visionary Women in Education, Dr Fiona Aubrey-Smith is a teacher, leader and academic with a passion for people and pedagogy As Founder of PedTech and Director of One Life Learning, Fiona works closely with schools and trusts, professional learning providers and EdTech companies – championing a pedagogy-first mindset and a greater focus on the realities of contemporary education. She is also an Associate Lecturer, PhD supervisor and Consultant Researcher at a number of universities, and sits on the board of a number of multi academy and charitable trusts.
Fiona is co-author of the globally best-selling book From EdTech to PedTech: Changing the way we think about digital technology, and in 2024, Fiona was granted Freedom of the City of London in recognition of her commitment to the education profession.
