Richard Anderton is Head of Education at Sync, a Manchester-headquartered edtech provider working with thousands of schools, MAT’s, universities and colleges across the UK to provide and implement digital technologies, infrastructure solutions and technology products to enhance teaching, learning and organisational effectiveness.
Before joining Sync this year, Anderton began his career as a school teacher working his way up the ladder to leadership positions where he led trust-wide strategy and large-scale digital transformation.
Here, he takes us along for a recent week in his life inside a growing edtech firm…
Monday
I started my week early in Birmingham for the first day of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) CEO Summit. CST is the national sector body for school trusts in England, and its annual CEO Summit brings together leaders from multi-academy trusts across the country to collaborate, share best practice and discuss some of the biggest opportunities and challenges facing education.
At Sync, we were really proud to be the headline sponsor of this year’s event, building on the close relationship we have developed with CST and the trust sector more broadly.
Digital strategy was a particularly important part of the conversation for us all. CST’s latest CEO survey found that 35% of trust leaders now identify digital strategy as one of their top organisational priorities. That reflects something we’re increasingly seeing through our own work with trusts across the country: technology is moving from being seen as an IT initiative to becoming a much more critical strategic consideration for education leaders.
At Sync, we’re working with a growing number of trusts to help them develop sustainable digital strategies and explore how Apple technology can support their wider educational priorities at scale.
Tuesday
Tuesday I was up early for the second day of the Summit and another opportunity to chat and spend time with trust CEOs and leaders from across the sector.
One of the highlights was hearing from Schools Minister Georgia Gould MP, who shared the Government’s ambitions for education in England and spoke about the important role strong multi-academy trusts can play within the system.
Events like this are incredibly valuable for us because they provide an opportunity to understand what is genuinely occupying the minds of education leaders. Digital transformation can’t exist separately from those conversations. If technology is going to make a meaningful difference, it has to respond to the challenges and priorities that leaders, teachers and learners are facing every day. After two busy but fantastic days in Birmingham, it was time to get in the car and head west.
Wednesday
Wednesday took me to Wales for an exciting event bringing together representatives from 17 local authorities. The focus was on developing their expertise and understanding of how Apple technologies can be used effectively across schools within their authorities.
What made the day particularly exciting was the scale of the opportunity. Rather than thinking about technology within a single classroom or school, the conversation was about how local authorities can develop the knowledge and capacity to support schools across their regions.
For me, successful digital transformation is as much about people as it is about technology. Giving leaders and educators the confidence, knowledge and expertise to make informed decisions is what ultimately creates sustainable change! This was the start of what we hope will be a really exciting relationship, with plenty more activity planned over the coming months – so stay tuned.
Thursday
After three days on the road, Thursday was a welcome work-from-home day. Much of the day was spent meeting with our fantastic Sync Education team and a number of our external partners. These days are important because they give us time to reflect on the work happening across the country and make sure we continue developing our approach.
Sync now has three former educators within the Education team, including myself, who have held senior and system leadership roles across UK education.
That experience is incredibly important to how we work. Schools, colleges, universities and trusts don’t simply need someone who understands the technology; they need people who understand education, the pressures facing leaders and teachers, and the realities of implementing change across complex organisations.
Our role is increasingly about helping education organisations connect those two worlds – taking their educational priorities and considering where technology can genuinely make things better, rather than introducing technology for technology’s sake.
Friday
Friday was spent with the leadership team from a multi-academy trust at Apple’s EMEA headquarters in Battersea.
We took a deep dive into the trust’s organisational and educational priorities before exploring where technology could support them. A significant part of the day focused on teaching and learning and teacher workload. These are exactly the kinds of conversations I enjoy most because they move beyond devices and features and instead start with the outcomes an organisation is trying to achieve.
We explored how technology can support effective classroom practice, create more accessible learning experiences and remove unnecessary workload for teachers, while also thinking about what successful implementation looks like across an entire trust. In a few months time, we have an incredible opportunity to visit the global Apple headquarters, so part of our time was spent planning and discussing this trip!
It was a great way to finish a busy week, we have some really exciting projects coming up with Apple!
Looking back on the week
Weeks like this are probably my favourite part of the role.Across five days I’d had conversations with government, multi-academy trust CEOs, local authorities, education leaders, teachers, colleagues and partners, all looking at technology from slightly different perspectives. It’s great to gather these to inform how we can adjust and provide the best service for each group we work with.
Having spent much of my career working within education before moving into the technology sector, being able to continue working closely with educators at every level is something I really value. Technology has enormous potential within education, but simply putting devices into classrooms doesn’t create transformation. The exciting part is helping organisations understand what purposeful use looks like, how it connects to their wider priorities and, most importantly, how they can implement it successfully at scale. This week involved a fair few miles, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
