Teaching Smarter with Teams, Assignments and AI: What I Learned at the Resilience MAT Conference

Darren Hemming, CSO at Cloud Design Box, shares his thoughts from the day.

Mark Newman and me, excited about our sessions at the conference

I came away from the Resilience Multi Academy Trust conference feeling really elevated.

I had been asked to run sessions for teachers and to join the morning keynote, which set the tone for the whole day. What stayed with me most was that teachers across the trust weren’t asking how to get started with Microsoft 365. They were asking what they could improve next.

A keynote about small improvements

The day began with an inspiring keynote from Baroness Sue Campbell DBE, one of the most influential figures in British sport.

As Chair of UK Sport, she oversaw the development of the high-performance system behind the success of Team GB and ParalympicGB at London 2012. She later led women’s football at The FA, helping to transform participation and the elite game during a period that included the Lionesses winning Euro 2022. One of Sue’s themes was continual, incremental improvement. She talked about Formula One pit crews coaching one another to find improvements of fractions of a second.

That image stayed with me all day.

At Resilience MAT, I could almost picture the whole trust in the pit lane: teachers sharing good practice, IT keeping everything running, site teams solving practical problems, catering staff refuelling everyone, and someone changing the batteries in the smartboard clicker.

Everyone has a different job, but everyone contributes to the performance of the team.

It fitted perfectly with what the trust’s leaders had described: collective problem-solving, valuing every role, and having the confidence to make what might first seem impossible possible.

Teachers are already using the platform

Easy access to digital classrooms and resources

I ran three one-hour sessions on Teaching Smarter with Teams, Assignments and AI.

Each was different, shaped by colleagues from different schools and subjects, and by conversations spilling over from other sessions such as the workshop on Copilot and AI agents led by Mark Newman (Director of ICT and Data Intelligence).

This wasn’t about introducing technology from scratch. Teachers across the trust’s six schools already use our Class Teams, Assignments and centralised subject resources. The conversations were about what we could improve next.

Age-appropriate resource folders for students

Resilience Multi Academy Trust has worked with Cloud Design Box to create a stable digital platform that teachers now use across the curriculum. Read how the trust built that single platform on Microsoft 365.

Faculties sharing ideas and good practice across the trust

Using AI to create assignments and rubrics

We explored using AI to create assignments and rubrics, starting with curriculum standards and existing PowerPoints and PDFs rather than an empty prompt.

Curriculum standards tell AI how to make the assignments

Teachers can also attach an existing, centralised resource, so the assignment builds on material the department already trusts.

Attach centralised resources to refine the assignment

Bringing Teach activities back into Assignments

We then applied the same principle in Microsoft’s Teach tools, generating lesson plans, quizzes, flashcards, matching activities and gap-fill exercises before bringing those activities back into Assignments.

Use standards-driven AI to create quizzes and other activities

Different subjects, different priorities

I met teachers from MFL, Science, History, Maths, English, Performing Arts, Engineering, Art and RE.

Different subjects, different priorities and different ideas about which digital tools could make the biggest difference.

For MFL and Science, flashcards and matching exercises might be the most useful way to help learners consolidate terminology and key words. With English and History, the focus is more likely to be extended writing, and for Performing Arts and Art, our Student Work Folders provide a great place for learners to keep their project work, including larger videos, in a location that teachers can access at any time.

Secure individual project spaces for students

Showing students what great looks like

Across the curriculum, there was a strong connection with Sue’s keynote. She talked about aspiration and the importance of showing young people “what great looks like”.

That is exactly what a good rubric can do. It makes expectations visible to students while helping teachers assess work more consistently and efficiently.

Rubrics show learners what great looks like

Ambition for the future

The conversations often became more ambitious. Heads of Department were considering Copilot agents to help colleagues find resources.

Others were thinking about what AI might eventually make possible when analysing larger volumes of student work. Those ideas need careful testing, sensible planning and an understanding of cost.

But that was perhaps another echo of Sue’s message: big changes rarely arrive fully formed. You make the impossible possible through lots of thoughtful, incremental improvements.

Some of the most useful conversations happened between the formal sessions, over coffee or at lunch.

What the conference showed

The conference showed what a solid foundation makes possible.

Rather than asking how to get started, teachers were asking what they could improve.

What excites me is what comes next. With the confidence, curiosity and can-do attitude I saw at the conference, I suspect I’ll return later this academic year and find that some of those ambitious ideas are already being used in the wild.

If your trust is building towards the same kind of platform, find out how we support multi academy trusts to work as one organisation on Microsoft 365.

A personal note from the CEO meant a lot

If you’d like to see how Teams, Assignments and AI could work together in your trust, reach out to our team.

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