Strategic consultancy
Where you are, where to next
Audits, planning and advisory work for schools and trusts on school improvement, digital strategy and AI readiness.
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When everything is a priority, nothing moves.
Most schools have plenty of plans and too little time to think them through, surrounded as they are by tools and initiatives that all promise to be the answer.
I start by slowing that down: a clear read of where you are, then a firm call on what matters, what to leave and what to do first. The tools will keep changing. The need to decide well, and to keep the thinking with your own people, will not.
Where to start.
What a school needs first depends on how far it has come. Most work starts with an audit, and these often run together.
You need a strategy
If technology has arrived faster than any agreed view of what it is for, we start there. Together we write a short rationale tied to teaching and learning, share it with staff and decide what to do first. I can also do this as your fractional digital strategist, for senior input without a full-time post.
You have a strategy, and staff are behind it
Sometimes the plan and the AI policy have run ahead of what most teachers feel confident doing. Then the work moves to staff: consistency between departments, and confidence with the tools you already have. This is where strategy meets professional development.
AI policy and strategy
Your staff and students need to know where your school stands on AI now, and they need a policy that works in practice. I help you with both. The policy and strategy are benchmarked against national guidance, exam board rules and safeguarding and inspection expectations, and against what comparable schools are doing.
Is it working?
A light way to tell whether your technology helps learning. We choose a few measures, set them up for a term and review them together, so digital spending is judged on what it does. It builds on the Evaluating impact tool.
See the Evaluating impact toolDigital support review
A look at how your IT and digital roles are set up: who supports what, how technology decisions are made, which systems rest on one person and how projects are prioritised. It ends with a structure that holds when someone is away or moves on.
Leadership and alignment
Helping senior teams agree what matters and pull the same way. A good start is the Azimuth assessment taken as a team. I then walk you through where senior and middle leaders see the school differently, and what to do about it.
School and trust improvement
Audits, reviews and planning for schools and trusts, ending in priorities you can act on this term and a plan people use.
Beyond schools
I also advise edtech founders and organisations outside education, drawing on the same thinking about learning, change and adoption. If that is you, start with a conversation.
How the work runs.
It starts with a free conversation. You leave with a written report, a plan with named owners and dates, and a briefing for governors.
Agree the brief
What the work is for, who I talk to and when you get the report.
Listen
I talk to the people who make and live with the decisions: leaders, teachers, governors and, where it helps, pupils.
Look
I walk lessons and read your plans, policies and systems.
Decide
We set priorities, who owns each one and when we review them.
Follow through
I stay involved while the work beds in. For schools and trusts that want more, I work alongside your leaders over time, on a fractional basis.
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.
José’s perspective cuts through the hype that can sometimes surround innovation in our field, advocating instead for technology that genuinely supports teachers and learners, not technology for its own sake.
José has depth and breadth of experience in school leadership and strategic business, and will give you a space to think and consider. Most importantly, he knows that whilst there might be a few quick wins, he also knows that school improvement and high performance take time to nurture and space to grow.