Vine Schools Trust Case Study
The Vine Schools Trust was established in October 2013 as an independent not-for-profit company. It was created by the Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Education.
The Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Education supports children and youth across 460 parishes in Essex. Their mission is to promote life in all its fullness through education and offer life enhancing encounters with Christianity.
The purpose of our Trust has been to create a mutually supportive family of academies who are dedicated to driving positive change. We work in partnership with our schools to ensure we are delivering support and solutions that will help them flourish.
The Vine Schools Trust is based in Chelmsford, Essex. However, our schools are located throughout the entire county of Essex.
The Goal
The Vine Schools Trust wanted a connected IT and software remote learning solution to replace its hybrid system. The Trust had twenty three schools using a range of Apps – all of which relied on the individual teacher’s knowledge. The aim was to provide remote learning fit to deliver the National Curriculum, support administrative staff working from home and keep in touch with parents, key stakeholders and governors i.e. Meet, Teach, Learn.
Project Challenges
Each school was different in terms of its knowledge of computer systems so had to be supported individually. The network provision and broadband speed varied across the Trust with some schools receiving less than 2MBS making remote teaching and learning difficult. While the Government provided laptops for learners without access these still needed to be set up to allow a new software to be installed and working.
By the second lockdown of January 2021, Schools were under increased pressure to deliver the National Curriculum via remote learning putting the turnaround, learning and installation time on a tight deadline.
The Solution
Zenzero had begun the changeover from the Trust’s hybrid system to a Microsoft Teams Digital Education Platform in the summer of 2020 training teachers during the holidays. Administrative staff were given training so they could work remotely whether the schools were open or closed.
When the second lockdown was announced (January 2021) Zenzero refreshed learning for staff and worked with each school individually to ensure it was set up on the portal for teachers to deliver the National Curriculum.
Because of the need for a swift turnaround, Zenzero provided account managers to work alongside the IT company’s helpdesk to support the Trust to meet its deadlines for the school year.
Zenzero worked with its network supply partner Zen to boost broadband provision which was patchy in some schools. It now reaches 100MBS making remote learning consistent and providing access to all the tools Teams offers to enhance the virtual classroom experience.
Testimonials
We have been working with Zenzero for a number of years and went to them as the experts to help guide us through the turbulent times of the past twelve months. We predicted remote learning was going to be introduced. We had so much to do to support pupils, staff and parents across our twenty three schools. The one thing we didn’t need to worry about was our IT and that is because of Zenzero, its attitude, experience, knowledge and its staff.
In the first lockdown the education sector was asked to focus on looking after children’s well-being. To do so we used Teams through Zenzero alongside other apps. But in the second lockdown in January 2021 schools were told they had to, as far as possible, fulfil the National Curriculum. This involved stepping up the use of Teams to provide so much more from interaction to setting homework, virtual classroom environments and consistent and parallel remote learning across all schools. The way we used Teams changed overnight.
Zenzero were with us all the way. The Trust and Zenzero worked together to provide teachers and heads with master classes for those more used to Teams and supported staff who had less experience. With Zenzero’s help, we increased the knowledge throughout the Trust to the point where teachers and headteachers now share good practice. Zenzero encouraged us to help our self-sufficient model grow all the way.
In the past, headteachers may have viewed our IT providers as being an external team. Through working with Zenzero we now have a joined up approach with the company and across all twenty three schools. We have a regular newsletter from Zenzero, we share success stories and are taking our use of Teams forward to provide catch up intervention with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) pupils.
Zenzero are very much part of our everyday life in education and administration. We know their staff and they know us. Their support was and is invaluable.
Emma Wigmore, CEO, Vine Schools Trust.
Working with Zenzero and its team was a really good experience. During the remote learning and setting up of Teams, the company listened to what each individual school needed and provided one to one support as and when required.
By understanding the starting point of each school, it allowed the support to be tailored to what each needed, rather than a one size fits all. This has meant, through Teams, we have been able to provide our pupils with the very best of the National Curriculum in a virtual world. This is something our other systems would not have enabled us to do.
We don’t want to lose those skills and are now using Teams post-lockdown for a wide range of offerings. These include homework where we can set and mark assignments, face to face interactions with children unable to attend school and virtual parents’ evenings. For parents unable to take part, we can speak to them individually via Teams too. There is so much Teams is able to offer. We look forward to learning more.
Gemma Smith, Headteacher, Vine Schools Trust.
We view Zenzero as one of our few strategic business partners. I have nothing but overwhelmingly great things to say about the company and its staff.
They have an organisational support culture which you don’t find in a lot of small and medium sized businesses. Whether it is the managing director or a technician, they genuinely want to provide solutions which work for the Trust.
Zenzero is sympathetic to the pressures on the schools’ environment and bring commercial standards to the education sector.
Over the past twelve months, with Covid, they have accelerated our Teams deployment and enabled us to deliver a remote learning environments and communications network for our administrative, governance and business to the point we have seen no drop in efficiency or effectives.
Zenzero is fantastic in terms of support. Pro-active, genuine and transparent.
Brendon Ince, Chief Operating Officer, Vine Schools Trust.