We were commissioned to provide educational and technical consultancy services for this Academy which replaced two predecessor schools in Tameside.We worked closely with key stakeholders, including Tameside FE College (lead sponsor), Local Authority advisors and representatives of the BSF Local Education Partnership (LEP) to help develop and refine an ICT vision and specification that supported and enhanced the overall educational goal.

The first key factor to the success of this project was the clear articulation of the Academy’s vision for ICT, in addition to a BSF solution that had already been finalised and to develop a holistic vision for two institutions that had historically “done their own thing”. Through close stakeholder engagement, particularly with the two schools, we were able to ensure that the Academy developed its own ICT vision with its individual ethos and values, whilst still working as part of a learning community of schools.

The second factor was that the Academy was due to open over a split site until construction of the new build was completed in 2012. Our consultants worked closely with the sponsor, predecessor school staff, LA advisors and incumbent ICT supplier to implement an interim solution that met the Academy’s immediate requirements for ICT. Through our technical and project management experience we were able to successfully co-ordinate the various, complex strands of this work to ensure that the Academy opened with fully functional systems that provided a consistent ICT environment for staff and students across multiple sites.