Stuart Ridout

How is technology shaping the future of education? I was privileged to be part of a podcast with Duncan Verry - Portfolio Director at Bett & Andy from PodcastLabs.co.uk. We explored: Digital transformation in schools Challenges teachers face with technology Responsible use of AI, Google tools, and tech to enhance learning Supporting wellbeing while keeping students safe online A truly inspiring conversation about the future of learning and the role technology plays in making it better for everyone!

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If you’ve been following our latest mini-series on OpenSource, you’ll know that at Dixons we’ve been exploring ways to help our leaders engage in agile approaches to strategy.   One of the most powerful tools we use is something we call our live list. It’s a living document where every challenge we’re facing, big or small, gets captured in one place.   It’s not polished or static. It changes every few weeks, blends day-to-day issues with long-term ambitions, and directly shapes our priorities and leadership conversations.   Find out more in this week’s episode below 👇 #Leadership #Strategy #Focus

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🎓 Opportunity for Teachers! 🌍 Free Professional Development Courses by British Council The British Council is offering a series of free online courses designed to support teachers in enhancing their skills and classroom practice. Whether you're new to teaching or looking to refresh your strategies, these courses cover essential areas of teaching and learning. 📚 Explore the courses below: 1️⃣ Lesson Planning 2️⃣ How to Teach Reading 3️⃣ How to Teach Listening 4️⃣ Managing Learners and Resources 5️⃣ How to Teach Writing 6️⃣ How to Teach Speaking 7️⃣ Understanding Language Systems 8️⃣ How to Teach Vocabulary 9️⃣ How to Teach Grammar 🔟 How to Teach Pronunciation 1️⃣1️⃣ Assessing Learning 1️⃣2️⃣ Professional Development 📚 Explore the courses below (Click the links to enroll): Explore the courses below: 1- Lesson Planning https://lnkd.in/dSqevFE2 2- How to teach reading https://lnkd.in/duJzJPgW 3- How to teach listening https://lnkd.in/dcZHzDrz 4- Managing learners and resources https://lnkd.in/dfa5xxrP 5- How to teach writing https://lnkd.in/dPNjGGJm 6- How to teach speaking https://lnkd.in/dQEwq4eC 7- Understanding language systems https://nkd.in/d_wfiK56 8-How to teach vocabulary https://lnkd.in/d5sQbHjx 9- How to teach grammar https://lnkd.in/dF3PrT-A 10-How to teach pronunciation https://lnkd.in/d9ru7Jkw 11-Assessing learning https://lnkd.in/dMWtC9u7 12- Professional development https://lnkd.in/dbkpBwhb Let's continue to work for sustainability, to be focused in core skills and bring more creativity, confidence, and positive impact to our classrooms. #BritishCouncil #FreeCourses #TeacherTraining #ProfessionalDevelopment #TeachingSkills #EducationForAll #CPD #TeachingAndLearning #GlobalEducation #LifelongLearning #OnlineLearning #EmpowerTeachers #SkillUp #EdTech #InclusiveEducation #SustainableTeaching #LearningNeverStops #DigitalEducation #ClassroomInnovation #NeXA11AI

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Challenges and opportunities of restructuring IT teams in education. For some time now, I’ve been mulling over putting my thoughts on paper about the challenges and opportunities of IT restructuring in education. Finally, I’ve taken the plunge! This is a subject that can be contentious—perhaps even emotive—but I feel it’s an essential conversation. The paper outlines the benefits of restructuring IT within multi-academy trusts, addressing common misconceptions and offering practical strategies to unlock organisational potential. One key point I touch on is how organisations often limit themselves with assumptions that “it can’t be done.” This mindset can stifle progress before it’s even started. However, a positive, solutions-focused attitude transforms barriers into challenges—and challenges into opportunities. I’d love for you to take a look, share your thoughts, and let me know if the paper resonates with your experiences. Feedback is always welcome, and if you’re interested in discussing how this process could relate to your organisation, feel free to get in touch. (re-posted due to amended document) #EdTechStuff #DigitalTransformation #MultiAcademyTrusts #ITSupport #Leadership #Innovation

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Starting today, I’ll be sharing a new digital course every day this week on the QA Ltd platform. Each post will focus on either #multicloud strategies or #cloud #costoptimisation, giving you practical insights to boost your cloud #skills. 🌐 Day 1: Multi-cloud Architecture Foundations https://lnkd.in/ebpjHGnD Kick off the week by exploring the essentials of multi-cloud architecture. Today’s course will help you: ✅ Understand the fundamentals of multi-cloud architecture ✅ Analyze common use cases across different cloud providers ✅ Evaluate the benefits and challenges of multi-cloud environments ✅ Apply design principles and architectural patterns to real-world scenarios Whether you’re starting your multi-cloud journey or looking to refine your architecture strategy, this course sets the foundation for building resilient, scalable, and flexible cloud solutions. Stay tuned and don’t miss a day! #MultiCloud #CloudArchitecture #CloudStrategy #FinOps #DigitalLearning QA North America Thomas Mitchell #Cloud #Learn #AWS #Azure

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Teaching tomorrow’s skills, today - starting in schools. Technology moves fast, and if we want the next generation to shape it, not just use it, we need to start early. That’s why it’s great to see this article from The Educator, spotlighting the top coding resources to help teachers - including our very own @Code For Life, designed to make coding accessible and fun for all! https://lnkd.in/eYPtc4j7

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Newly Added in the GS UK 2025 Virtual Conference Session 6F 4:15 BST We need to talk about EMMA! (An Innovative Model in Mainframe Learning) The Eli Madison Memorial Mainframe Apprenticeship (EMMA) is an innovative training program addressing the critical skills gap in mainframe technology.. Established in 2024 EMMA provides an innovative model to enable the learning of mainframe skills. A community based initiative adjacent to industry and academia where learners explore the mainframe software land tools using real hardware. A variety of learning resources are deployed; supported by experienced mentors and other learners. - providing mutual aid. The ultimate goal being to engage employers and place entry level staff in mainframe roles. An independent mainframe learning syndicate? A mentoring and employment community? A hive mind for entry level z skills? An open platform for entry level recruitment? Join me and some knowledgeable insider voices to discuss the EMMA approach to learning and its potential to offer a new route onto the platform.

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Announcing our second speaker for the upcoming Scottish Power Platform User Group event Simon Greenall will be joining us for the first time, with his session "From Chaos to Community: Building a Makers Journey in Higher Education" In many higher education institutions, the rise of low-code development has empowered staff to become solution creators—or “Makers”—using tools like Power Apps, and Power Automate. However, without structured enablement, this can lead to inconsistent, unsupported, and potentially insecure business-critical applications. This session explores how a UK university designed a scalable and repeatable enablement framework—The Makers Journey—to guide citizen developers from initial curiosity to confident solution delivery. Built on the foundations of community resources, Microsoft Learn, and tailored in-house content, the Makers Journey provides a structured pathway for learning, governance, and community building. Attendees will learn how the university aligned its Makers with best practices in solution architecture, application lifecycle management (ALM), and data governance, while fostering a collaborative environment that encourages innovation and reduces technical debt. 📅 29th July ⌚6pm-8.30pm 📌The Poetry Club @ SWG3 🎟️https://lnkd.in/e3rkdMHp Thank you to our sponsors DigPacks and Adapt 365 for their ongoing support! Reach out to me or one of the team if you have any questions. Charlie Phipps-Bennett 👨‍💻 | Josh Giles | Rani Colquhoun #SPPUG #UserGroup #PowerPlatform

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BootcampsHub is now SkillBnk! We’ve rebranded to better reflect our mission: helping coaches and institutes scale their operations with purpose-built systems that deliver value. At SkillBnk, we’re all about transforming how coaching businesses and educational institutions operate, by automating processes, streamlining student experiences, and giving you more time to focus on what matters most: teaching and delivering value. Why the change? We’ve evolved from a simple tool to a complete business infrastructure for both coaches and institutions. Our goal is to help you scale operations with systems that work seamlessly, so you can focus on delivering a premium experience, not managing the chaos. What’s next? The same powerful platform, now with a clearer vision to help you streamline operations and deliver a premium experience, whether you're coaching individuals or managing an entire institute. If you’re ready to see how SkillBnk can help streamline your coaching operations or educational institute, DM me! Let’s talk about how we can scale your coaching experience better.

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The world our children inhabit today is digital, AI-driven and dynamic. They need a range of new skills to help them navigate it and thrive in it. So I welcome the #UKGovernment's proposals to give digital skills and science more prominence in a reformed school curriculum. Equipping primary aged children with critical thinking skills so they can spot fake news, identify and challenge misinformation and disinformation, and protect themselves from online harms, is essential. I also welcome the proposal to offer triple science GCSE to all pupils, a new computing GCSE, and possibly a new qualification in data science and #AI. These should give young people a firm foundation on which to build rewarding careers in AI and science-related disciplines. At Microsoft we’re committed to giving people the AI skills they need to flourish in this new world – we’ve already trained more than 1.3 million people in the last 18 months, and 700,000 of them students – and through our education partners, we’re supporting AI-based apprenticeships and college courses. The future is coming at us fast, and our children need to be ready for it, supporting the need to create AI advantage to build UK prosperity. Read more about the government’s new curriculum proposals here: https://lnkd.in/e2zjiNcB #Education #AISkills #UKEconomy #Science #DigitalLiteracy Department for Education | Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) | Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

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AI has the potential to benefit every sector in the UK, from helping teachers craft engaging lesson plans to improving small businesses’ customer service, and even helping construction workers better manage building sites. Analysis from Public First shows the scale of this potential, revealing that almost two-thirds of jobs across the UK (61%) will be significantly enhanced by AI. Whilst every sector will benefit in some way from AI, office workers and people in roles involving administrative tasks are likely to be transformed most profoundly. 💡 60% of Brits want AI training 💡 Potential 10X return on economic impact investment 💡 UK stands to gain £400 billion from AI-driven growth by 2030 This presents an unparalleled opportunity to transform the world of work. Empowering people to use AI to get the most out of their careers and businesses would both improve the working lives of millions, and unlock productivity and growth worth billions. The first-of-its-kind initiative saw Google work with Community Union, Enterprise Nation and their network of small businesses including Grind Coffee, as well as multi-academy trusts Lift Schools and LEO Academy Trust, to shape and test different approaches to AI skills training. 🌱 70% of participants from the AI Works program are now using AI to innovate at work 🌱 They estimate AI will help them save 122+ hours per year 📌 To read the full findings from the pilots and discover the opportunity of AI for UK workers, go to: https://goo.gle/aiworks

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