In 2019, St Andrew’s Catholic College embarked on its Schoolbox journey with support from the Professional Services Team to roll out Schoolbox across the entire College from Prep to Year 12.
Prior to implementation, the goals and objectives of the College focused on creating a meaningful and engaging learning experience, with standardised practices and a common approach for teaching + learning.
For a full rundown of how the Schoolbox Professional Services Team guided the College through this process of change, checkout this interview with St Andrew’s Leader of Learning & Innovation, Kate Maccoll.
After successful completion of phase one of their Schoolbox journey, an ongoing relationship with St Andrew’s and Schoolbox began, with regular check-ins from the School Engagement Team to continuously support the College’s strategic direction.
Fast forward to 2022 where, on a recent visit to the College, we sat down with the St Andrew’s team who shared details of their continued success using Schoolbox and where they plan to head next.
Creating a consolidated and cohesive learning environment
Prior to implementing Schoolbox, St Andrew’s did not have a one-stop shop to meet all of their ed-tech requirements. This meant teachers often having to purchase products or create their own websites – resulting in an array of different technologies and systems being used.
Not surprisingly, having so many disparate and disconnected technologies in place resulted in an inconsistent and inefficient learning environment, creating a number of problems such as time lost on staff training, as well as 12.5% of learning time lost due to students having to navigate between different systems in different classes. St Andrew’s was, therefore, in need of a consolidated ed-tech stack – a system which would integrate and bring disparate systems together, creating a centralised place from which staff, students and parents could log in.
In the following video, the St Andrew’s team share the many benefits of using Schoolbox across the entire College. We are delighted to say that by creating this consistent experience for staff and students, time spent on staff training has been reduced AND all of the lost learning time has been recovered!
“Schoolbox allows us to provide a digital learning environment for our community — in our world where there are so many communication products, this has been an ability for us to merge and have a ‘one-stop shop’ for not only learning and teaching but for communication to our parents.” – Dr Sean Mangan, Former Principal at St Andrew’s Catholic College
Improving communication and engagement
Prior to Schoolbox, St Andrew’s parents were being inundated with messages, from a variety of different avenues. Parents were receiving so much information – that often wasn’t relevant to them – that it became white noise. This resulted in parents tuning out and missing important information.
“Before Schoolbox, we had parents receiving any number of messages in any number of ways and there was a huge outcry from the parents that they weren’t happy!” – Kate Maccoll, Leader of Learning & Innovation, St Andrew’s Catholic College
St Andrew’s was therefore in need of a simplified and consolidated solution, that would support communication and engagement with parents and the broader College community.
Fortunately, Schoolbox was able to help out again by providing a consolidated and centralised place from which parents could login and receive essential information. With the Schoolbox platform providing a simplified and effective approach to communication, St Andrew’s could target communications sent to parents, staff and students. And, as you will hear about in the video below, this ability to send targeted, timely and relevant information had a great impact on parent, staff and student engagement.
“Schoolbox allows us to send information to exactly the person that needs it, when they need it – so it’s not just targeted, but it’s timely!” – Kate Maccoll, Leader of Learning & Innovation, St Andrew’s Catholic College
The tale doesn’t end here!
With quite an impressive story to date, you may be wondering where St Andrew’s is looking to next and how might the use of ed-tech continue to support their goals?
We’re glad you asked! Next up, the College wants a systematic approach to the gathering of academic + reporting data, learning analytics, and evidence of learning. Plus, they want to do this in a way where all these different pieces of information are brought together through a single point of entry – with the same system used across the entire College. Oh, and they want the ability to consolidate this valuable data into their progressive feedback + reporting programme, so that useful insights and a comprehensive view of student progress can easily be seen.
Fortunately, Schoolbox is able to provide a solution, whereby evidence of learning and assessment data is consolidated in a single system. Why is this so great you ask? Well, with all these various data sources drawn together, it forms a rich and meaningful picture of the student – providing an efficient way for educators to get a whole student view, quickly and easily.
And what about capturing evidence of learning? Thanks to the Schoolbox Learning Moments module – capturing evidence of learning is a snap! Whether it’s videos, photos or screenshots, Learning Moments provide a fun and engaging way for students to capture their learning. And, with Learning Moments being displayed securely in a student’s activity feed, parents can easily view, comment and engage in their child’s learning!
Here at Schoolbox, we are thrilled to have been involved in the successful and rewarding journey undertaken by St Andrew’s Catholic College. We can’t wait to have our Professional Services Team continue to support this journey now and into the future!
