Effective communication is the backbone of successful growth for multi academy trusts. Clear communication helps ensure everyone is on the same page with your MAT’s vision, mission and goals, as well as supporting your trust to maintain consistency in standards, policies and practices across multiple schools.
Poor, unstructured communication in a trust can lead to important information getting overlooked and staff being overwhelmed due to news, updates and announcements reaching the wrong people at the wrong time.
The Cornerstone Academy Trust (TCAT) recognised a need for a more structured, navigable and streamlined way of communicating across their growing number of schools in Devon.
Always looking towards the future, TCAT’s motto is “Fortune Favours the Brave”, and this is unequivocally reflected in its forward-thinking approach to technology in education. Each school within TCAT holds the distinguished recognition of being a Microsoft Showcase school and the trust has an active and innovative use of Microsoft SharePoint, Teams and Learning Accelerators.
In this podcast, Cloud Design Box’s Darren Hemming and Steve Hill talk to TCAT’s Daisy Boyd — who is responsible for the maintenance of all the websites across the trust — about how they have used these digital tools not only enhance the teaching and learning experience but also streamline operations and communications across the trust.
“Regular updates and news were being consistently shared on SharePoint, but posts weren’t necessarily reaching the right people at the right time,” Daisy explains.
“Significant announcements from the CEO and other vital news were often overlooked due to the influx of posts from multiple contributors.”
While content managers were delighted with the amount of news and information being shared by colleagues, they recognised the need for more structure and a filter-friendly system to manage the flow of news.
The solution – a designated news hub in SharePoint
Cloud Design Box supported TCAT with the implementation of a News Hub in SharePoint, with distinct news sites relating to key roles, such as CEO, Head of Education, Head of Schools, and the Heads of Children’s Services and Safeguarding.
The separate news sites allow staff to quickly see where news items have come from, and staff can go to a specific news site if they need to focus on a particular topic.
News is now organised into helpful views. For example, all news posts are tagged with the current date and school term, which allows staff to find news articles that are most recent and relevant.
The impact – streamlined, trust-wide communication
TCAT’s new SharePoint News Hub has streamlined communication within the trust, ensuring everyone sees the most important updates and no longer loses them within a sea of unfilterable posts.
Staff can narrow down their search to get the information they need, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of communication.
On top of this, the trust is using other communication tools, such as Teams channels, Viva Engage (Yammer) and email to disseminate news where appropriate. However, the SharePoint news Hub is always at the main source of those communications.
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