#233 – School leadership: navigating constant change
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Hello listeners!
Hello everyone and welcome back to The Edtech Podcast. Our mission is to improve the dialogue between ed and tech for better innovation and impact, through storytelling.
What’s in this episode?
In this episode, I am in conversation with Simon Freeman, Managing Director for IRIS Education, providers of agile School Management Software for 12,000 schools in the UK and Internationally.
Simon has an array of public sector technology experience and we talk about;
- how School Leaders can manage the scale of the task ahead to create precious time for school plans through technology, learning and digitally-competent leadership
- how to choose agile partners who can act as a change management hand-holder during this process, including what to look out for and avoid
- how to tap into data within your school and get on board with agile processes and more.
For me, this episode comes at an exciting time when schools are still potentially suffering from a fragmented community group due to the pandemic. I like the idea of a better flow of information and building up that trust again across a cohesive school community. Listen to the episode and tell us your thoughts on this. How are you navigating change within your school environments? How are you keeping your community together and getting onboard with agile processes that work for you? Drop us a voicemail at Speakpipe.com/theedtechpodcast or tweet us @podcastedtech.
Guest:
Simon Freeman, MD for education with IRIS Software Group (IRIS) | @IRISEducation_ | @IRISSoftwareGrp
Simon joined IRIS following a unique career in public services, bringing 15 years of experience in leading organisations to deliver outstanding customer experiences through innovative technologies.
Simon is driving forward IRIS’ evolution, leading the education offering and focusing on meeting the needs of senior leadership teams in Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and independent schools. He plays a key role in further establishing IRIS as the UK’s leading supplier of education software solutions and services that help teachers and parents use data to create smarter schools and improve the lives of students in the post-pandemic world of blended learning.
Prior to joining IRIS, Simon began his career as an engineer, quickly taking on strategic roles across BT, moving around its leadership programme, including living in India whilst focusing on delivering service for customers worldwide. He later moved to services specialist Serco where he was COO of the Ministry of Defence’s Business Services division. Most recently he was the MD of Capita’s local government business, where his role was to reshape the strategy and transform the business to enable local government clients to deliver effectively for the many hundreds of thousands of residents they served.
Alongside IRIS’ other sector MDs, Simon focuses on making sure IRIS truly understands its customer base within education and how its products put productivity back into the hands of educators to focus on what’s truly important; improving the lives of students. . You can find out more at iris.co.uk/education/.
Plus, awards news (including free tickets for our listeners to attend the Reimagine Education conference, and a special guest blog by Swedish learning psychologist, Martin Hassler on using cognitive behavioral therapy, advanced gaming technology, and screen-time limits to get everyone confident in maths.
Show-notes:
Introduction:
- Learning Technology Awards
- Reimagine Education Awards – Twitter
- Reimagine Education Conference – Website
- Free Full Access Conference Pass to the Reimagine Education Conference (worth 300$), and that you can bring up to 2 colleagues at The Edtech Podcast using the link/code: https://www.reimagine-education.com/register-as-delegate?promo=REJUDGE
- Education Resources Awards
- Simon Freeman – LinkedIn
- “IRIS appoints Managing Director for Education to drive forward Smarter Schools initiative” – Simon Freeman joins IRIS, IRIS website
- IRIS Education – Twitter
- IRIS Software Group – Twitter
- Drop us a voicemail at Speakpipe.com/theedtechpodcast
Episode:
- Multi-Academy Trust – Wikipedia
- Management Information Systems (MIS) – Wikipedia
- IRIS Ed:Gen – Link to website page
- IRIS Analytics – Link to website page
- IRIS Invoice Matcher – Link to website page
- IRIS Parents Evening Manager – Link to website page
- Satya Nadella (Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation) – Twitter
- Book written by Satya Nadella (recently read by Simon) – ‘Hit Refresh: A Memoir by Microsoft’s CEO’ – Waterstones link to book
- Book recommendation from Sophie, a memoir of the CEO of PepsiCo – ‘My Life in Full: Work, Family and Our Future’ by Indra Nooyi – Waterstones link to book
- iSAMS (management information systems by IRIS, for international and independent schools) – Twitter
- EdTech Demonstrator Programme – Twitter
Outro:
- Martin Hassler Hallstedt – LinkedIn
- Take a look at the guest blog post from Martin Hassler Hallstedt here on ‘Making everyone an “I am a Maths person” person’ – Link to blog post
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