The Cam Academy Trust was set up in 2011 to oversee the conversion of Comberton Village College to academy status, its role is now to ensure excellence for all in each of the Trust’s academies.

The Cam Academy Trust required a digital solution that brought their group of primary and secondary schools together.

Cloud Design Box, who specialises in crafting SharePoint platforms for the education sector, has worked closely with the Trust to create and implement a digital strategy.

The result was theCATalogue - a suite of software that encompasses Office 365, SharePoint, Teams and OneNote.

The combination of Microsoft products has empowered the Trust to share educational resources, enhance collaboration and improve connectivity outside of the classroom.

The move to a cloud-based suite of software is part of a wider IT strategy, which started five years ago. In the future, the Trust’s digital transformation will see the adoption of one-to-one devices to further endorse pupil development.

“As a growing Trust with five primaries and four

secondary schools, we believe that Office 365

provides the most comprehensive foundation for

an outstanding platform that supports sharing

and collaboration and nurtures essential digital

skills for lifelong learning and the modern

workplace,” Digital Learning Developer, Jonathan

Bowers, explains.

Teams Class Notebook

A Digital Solution for The Cam Academy TrustJonathan Bowers, Digital Learning Developer, Cam Academy Trust

Key Information

Full Digital Strategy

Nurturing Essential Digital Skills

Reduction of Costs Vs. On-Site Servers

Standardised System Across the School

Unique Portal Promoting Consistency

“We’ve been on a journey of cloud migration and the last part of the puzzle was to move our file data up to the cloud. This reduces costs associated with maintaining onsite servers, but also enables us to access our information anywhere at any time,” Paul Middleton, IT Manager, continues.

The switch has allowed the Trust to continue to achieve and deliver their core principles.

Firstly, the Trust ensures their education is of the very highest standard and accessible by pupils of all types and abilities.

With Office 365 and SharePoint, students no longer have to worry about spending money and installing widely-used Office programmes, such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.

“Whilst we have a WAN network that connects our schools, it has been difficult to allow collaborative work across all our sites, as each school has its own server. SharePoint simplifies everything, encouraging a standardised system, rather than the use of different drives and folder structures,” Paul enthuses.

Jonathan adds: “By migrating to Office 365, we aim to embed convention, consistency and consolidation. We have worked with Cloud Design Box to design a system where resources are stored logically and always available, implementing common, standardised practices. Essentially, everything we need for teaching and learning is now in one place.”

Tailored to suit the distinct needs of a Trust, theCATalogue is a secure, safe digital space for everyone at the Trust to collaborate in new and exciting ways.

“Schools need a much more bespoke, education-focused solution. Cloud Design Box have delivered just that. Working with the team at Cloud Design Box means that we get the best of both worlds: a unique portal that promotes consistency across the Trust, yet reflects the individual character of each of our schools.”

A digital space that delivers real benefits for the classroom.

Enhance your learning experienceInject life back into assignments as pupils create personalised projects, collaborate with classmates and receive real-time feedback from teachers.

Develop independent learnersEncourage pupils to take control of their own learning, as they get to grips with industry-standard tools that will be used in their future workplaces.

Learn in and outside of the classroomBridge the gap between school and home learning with a platform that works effortlessly on any device, wherever you are in the world.

Find out more: clouddesignbox.co.uk