Cloud Design Box supported King’s Ely to roll out a Microsoft Teams and SharePoint-based intranet, helping the school communicate consistently, improve engagement and collaboration while securely storing, managing and accessing resources.
About
King’s Ely is a leading co-educational boarding and day school in Cambridgeshire, UK. King’s can trace its origins from at least 970 AD, making it one of the oldest schools in the country. Today, the school educates around 1,150 students aged between 2 and 18, with around 200 boarders.
Challenge
King’s Ely required a central hub for its curriculum, administration, and teaching and learning resources. Moving from a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, the school needed support with a phased changeover to minimise disruption to pupils in its pre-prep, prep, senior and international school.
Solution
A central hub
Cloud Design Box created a central hub, bringing together the school’s teaching and learning apps, resources and communications channels together with a secure, central online portal.
“Thanks to Cloud Design Box, we’re only two clicks away to get to our Class Teams and Notebooks.” – Mark Hawes, Director of ICT Systems at King’s Ely School and Head of Computing at King’s Ely Senior.
Syncing with MIS
Everything syncs with the school’s Management Information System (MIS), meaning all staff and student accounts and access to classes stays up to date.
“This term, there has been some set movement that has happened over the break. But when new students have arrived in different classes, the Class Teams are set up and up to date.” – Mark Hawes, Director of ICT Systems at King’s Ely School and Head of Computing at King’s Ely Senior.
Automation of curriculum resource areas
Cloud Design Box has helped King’s Ely automate and standardise curriculum resource areas by creating consistent resource area templates that can be used across departments.
“Our students know where they can find resources, whatever subject they’re in. Our colleagues have been able to produce some spectacular pages and it’s been very easy for our academic deputy to check on the resources.” – Mark Hawes, Director of ICT Systems at King’s Ely School and Head of Computing at King’s Ely Senior.
Impact
Cloud Design Box supported the school to implement a phased changeover from its old VLE to Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
“A changeover from one VLE to another really needs some good planning. Once you’ve got good planning in place, you know the transition will go smoothly – Cloud Design Box has helped us out.”
Key areas of impact for King’s Ely include:
- Students can now access everything they need to learn on their devices and know exactly where to go to find resources for each department.
- Student and staff accounts are synced with MIS data, so if changes are made to classes or sets, individuals always have access to the correct class resources.
- Each subject can personalise its own resource areas, using standardised templates that can be customised within certain limits.
- Academic deputies can easily monitor department resources as every resource area has a similar, consistent structure.
At Cloud Design Box, we help schools and trusts design smarter digital environments and get the most out of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
Want to learn how we can support you? Talk to our team today.
