Strategic consultancy / Fractional digital strategist
A digital strategist on your senior team, without the full-time post.
A review tells you where you stand and what to do next. Many schools then want someone senior to see it through.
As your fractional digital strategist I work alongside your leaders through the year, for an agreed number of days each term.
- Up to ten days a termfewer if that is what you need
- Term by termreviewed each term, with a month’s notice
- One personthe same strategist throughout
What I do.
The work is shaped to your school or trust. These are the parts most schools ask for.
Lead the strategy
I write the plan with you and keep it current, with an owner and a date for each priority.
Work with your senior team
I join the meetings where digital decisions are made and advise the head between them.
Report to governors
A written report each term, and a briefing when the board wants one.
Support your digital lead and IT team
Regular time with the people who do the work, so they are not carrying it alone.
Check whether it is working
The Staff Baseline once a year, with a repeat, so you can see what has changed.
Keep you current
On AI, national guidance, exam board rules and what inspectors expect.
Senior digital expertise without the cost of a permanent post.
A director of digital is beyond the budget of most schools. A few days a term from someone who has done the job gives you the direction, and your own staff carry it out.
How it runs.
An initial conversation
To agree what you need and how many days it will take.
A review
Most work starts with a Digital strategy review or an IT function review.
A plan for the year
Priorities, owners and dates, agreed with your senior team.
Time each term
In school and online, and on call between visits.
A termly report
For the head and governors, on what has moved and what comes next.
When schools ask for it
The digital lead is a teacher with little time for strategy, a key person has left, the school is too small for a senior digital post, or a trust wants its schools to move together.
What it does not do
It is not IT support and it does not replace your IT manager. Your team keeps running the service day to day.
You work with me.
I spent more than fifteen years in senior leadership in schools, eight of them as a deputy head. I am a serving school inspector and a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching.
I have held this role in both the state and independent sectors, at Keys Academies Trust and at Francis Holland Schools Trust, where the focus was AI.
Your expertise and professionalism were very well received by our school leaders, José. Thanks for generating an excellent report which gives us real clarity on next steps.
Questions.
How much of your time do we get?
We agree the days before we start. A trust usually takes up to ten days a term and a single school five or fewer, part in school and part online, and I am on call between visits.
How long does it run?
Term by term. We review the work at the end of each term, and either of us can end it with a month’s notice.
Do you replace our IT manager or digital lead?
No. I work with them. They run the service and the training day to day, and I help set the direction, support them and report to the head and governors.
Can a trust share you across its schools?
Yes. For a trust I work with the central team and with each school’s leaders, so the schools move in the same direction.
What does it cost?
A fixed fee each term, set by the number of days you need and agreed before we start.
Where it usually starts.
Staff Baseline
Find out how confident your staff are with the technology your school has deployed.
See the Staff BaselineDigital strategy review
Find out where your school stands on digital and AI, and what to do next.
See the Digital strategy reviewIT function review
Find out whether your IT is set up to support the school.
See the IT function reviewAdd a digital strategist to your senior team.
Twenty minutes on a call is enough to see whether a fractional arrangement suits your school or trust.