Customer success stories:

Case studies from our schools, trusts & groups

Thousands of schools, trusts and groups across the UK and around the world use BlueSky software to simplify, streamline and enhance professional learning, appraisal and quality assurance processes.

Read our customer success stories to hear how BlueSky supports schools to integrate professional development into day to day activities and lift the burden of planning and evaluating the process for school leaders, teachers and operations staff.

Implementing a developmental approach to appraisal supported by BlueSky

Kampala International School, Uganda

Kampala International School Uganda implemented BlueSky to standardise professional growth, align teaching practices with defined standards, and use data-driven insights to enhance teacher performance,  fostering a culture of continuous development and professional learning.

“I actually made implementing BlueSky one of the conditions of my joining the school, because I knew it could be adapted to the unique elements of the school and the curriculum.”

Case Study - Sherborne School
Case Study - STEP Academy Trust, London and South-East

BlueSky supports custom approach to appraisal designed to enhance staff development

Watford Grammar School for Girls

“I found the whole implementation process very supportive. Although BlueSky Education could be used off-the-shelf, it can be customised, and I think I’ve asked for everything to be customised!”

Watford Grammar School for Girls (WGGS) introduced BlueSky Education in early 2022, with the aim of streamlining their appraisal processes – moving away  from a paper-based system that often caused delays and made it difficult to track progress.

A flexible online platform helps turnaround staff retention and supports a thriving workforce

St George’s Primary School, Merseyside

“It’s really helped us to achieve our ambitions for a thriving workforce.”

Read how BlueSky has helped this large primary school implement a systematic approach to staff development that ensured the staff felt valued, understood and supported.

Case Study - Diverse Academies Trust
Case Study - William de Ferrers Secondary School, Essex

BlueSky helps a fast-growing new school streamline CPD and appraisal workload

Saracens High School, Barnet, North West London

“We wanted a system that allowed us to manage all of our CPD processes as well as triangulating this with objectives and quality assurance. We looked at other solutions and concluded that BlueSky Education was the only platform that could do this effectively.”

Saracens High School joined BlueSky Education in 2022, and uses the platform to support teachers and operations staff with appraisal, CPD and evaluation.

BlueSky’s flexible platform supports a focus on leadership development for trainee fellows

Teach For Portugal

Teach For Portugal chose BlueSky because it supports their focus on leadership development for their professional fellows. It allows them to map the path of learning that they want our trainee fellows to follow, and it connects everything to the competencies that they need them to develop.

“We emphasise that we’re not going to be good educators if we’re not focusing on our own development, and BlueSky is the platform that allows us to make that possible.”

Case Study - Doha College, Qatar
Case Study - STEP Academy Trust, London and South-East

Moving to an online platform streamlines the workload of CPD

Beechwood Primary School, Crewe

“We document professional development conversations in BlueSky. Using the online platform ensures that the practice is consistent, it is an ongoing dialogue and that it is protected time for professional development, not just in terms of improving practice, but also celebrating.”

Supporting individualised teacher development that aligns with trust priorities

Advance Learning Partnership, County Durham

“The platform supports accountability: the records are ongoing and staff can build up a professional development portfolio throughout the year. Having ownership of their professional development is really important. Using an online platform helps to maintain the structure of having those ongoing conversations, with the meeting schedule and information in one place, where it can be accessed easily at any time.”

Case Study - Sherborne School
Case Study - Congleton High School, Cheshire

BlueSky helps streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation

Congleton High School, Cheshire

Intelligence for Ofsted is easy to access, helping the school to tell its improvement story in a simple but powerful way

“The ease of pulling off reports is key. If someone asks me how something has improved, I can very quickly say, well this was the picture in 2018 but this is the picture now.”

BlueSky helps Repton School give staff the recognition they deserve

Repton School, Derby

Repton School’s use of BlueSky’s versatile platform allows staff to evaluate every aspect of their role.

“A big part of the value of BlueSky is its versatility. It allows us to recognise our people for their full role, rather than just focusing on one small aspect of teaching.”

Case Study - Sherborne School
Case Study - Diverse Academies Trust

Building trust with staff supports changing appraisal culture

Diverse Academies Trust, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire

“Implementing BlueSky for the trust came from our desire for a new approach that separated performance management from professional development. It supports our ethos of placing trust in your staff to take ownership of their own professional work.”

Read how BlueSky has helped Diverse Academies Trust to change the perception of appraisal and professional development and bring consistency across the group of schools.

Gaining a holistic oversight that supports a focus on school priorities

Nexus International School Malaysia

BlueSky has streamlined CPD practice for schools in the Taylor’s Group, while also helping to ensure fairness and equality in terms of access to professional learning.

“Professional learning is at the heart of everything in a school, because the more your teachers invest in learning, the better the outcomes for young people ultimately.”

Case Study - Sherborne School
Case Study - Sherborne School

BlueSky supports a developmental approach to performance at a leading independent school

Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire

Bromsgrove School chose BlueSky to enhance and integrate their performance appraisal and professional development processes across the entire school workforce, aligning them with school priorities for streamlined, efficient, and effective management.

“It’s a one-stop-shop for school development. I love seeing progress, which is why I love the timeline so much. I can see continuous improvement and BlueSky is helping us to facilitate that.”

Building an accountable professional development culture with BlueSky.

AISL Harrow Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang, China

Harrow Nanning introduced BlueSky’s online platform to streamline performance management processes as well as linking professional development to objectives and ensuring staff understand the impact of their work.

“Having all of the evidence from quality assurance activities logged in one place means we can show why we want to focus on particular areas with professional development, and we can demonstrate improvement in teaching and learning.”

Case Study - Sherborne School
Case Study - STEP Academy Trust, London and South-East

BlueSky Education supports consistent school improvement priorities across a rapidly growing trust

Advance Learning Partnership, County Durham

BlueSky underpins a consistent approach to performance management that aligns the appraisal objectives of all staff with trust priorities: improving literacy, supporting SEND and disadvantaged students, and the use of research in improving teaching and learning.

“I absolutely recommend BlueSky. It is a solution to achieving consistency across a Trust and is a universal tool that can be used in so many different ways to support school improvement and development, which ultimately has a positive impact on student outcomes.”

BlueSky simplifies professional learning and development processes for large International school

Dulwich College Singapore

A strong emphasis on developing teaching practice through professional learning is supported by BlueSky’s comprehensive staff development platform.

“BlueSky allows us to ensure that all staff are treated fairly. With BlueSky, everything is on one system, from application to approval to evaluation, so the whole process is much, much simpler.”

Case Study - STEP Academy Trust, London and South-East

BlueSky Education - Customer Success

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A tailored approach helps City Learning Trust drive staff development and improvement

City Learning Trust, Stoke-on-Trent

City Learning Trust uses BlueSky Education to support a clearly defined CPD strategy that ensures the trust’s core priorities are threaded through the professional learning objectives of all staff.

“When we realised BlueSky would allow us to manage appraisal and CPD activities more effectively across the whole trust, we were in. BlueSky was vital when we moved all our training online. It’s much easier to link the PMR and CPD together now, and have the same system in every school.”

BlueSky Case Study - City Learning Trust
Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation

BlueSky Education’s customised features support a specialist SEND school, Step by Step, to deliver an ‘Outstanding’ education.

Step by Step School, East Sussex

“BlueSky has benefited us by bringing all of our quality assurance and CPD activities together in one platform. This makes the process much easier to manage and ensures staff continue to keep their focus on their professional development.”

A streamlined approach to appraisal and induction

Sancton Wood School, Cambridgeshire

“We wanted a one-stop shop where people knew when, where and how they were dealing with appraisal, and they could find everything that they needed.”

BlueSky has helped replace the leading independent school’s fragmented approach to appraisal with a customized system that made it easier for staff to engage with the process.

Case Study - Congleton High School, Cheshire
Case Study - St Stephen’s C of E Primary School, Bradford

BlueSky supports enhanced professional development practice for large secondary school

Welshpool High School, Powys

Move from paper to online system delivers a more consistent approach to appraisal and engages staff in professional learning, while holistic intelligence allows senior leadership team to identify development needs and evaluate impact of improvement actions.

Updating the model for whole school teaching and learning

Barnby Road Academy, Nottinghamshire

“Staff have really bought into BlueSky and are now using it to log their own development.

“Before deciding on BlueSky as our new model, we conducted a survey of staff attitudes and it was clear everyone was ready for change. Ensuring that staff would use the new system was essential and thanks to the strength of the support we received from BlueSky, including training and unlimited use of the BlueSky helpline, this need has definitely been met”.

Case Study - Barnby Road Academy
Case Study - STEP Academy Trust, London and South-East

BlueSky helps state Secondary school build culture where professional development is seen as a career-long process.

Thomas Telford School, Shropshire

“The project facility on BlueSky can be used by people to collate evidence of professional learning, demonstrating that they are research-based in terms of their thinking, that they’re trying out new ideas to develop their pedagogy and that they’re working across departments”

Rethinking data for Ofsted leads to switch from paper to BlueSky

St Stephen’s C of E Primary School, Bradford

The capacity to combine performance data, professional development and whole school targets made BlueSky the ideal digital solution

“It allows staff to feel they are part of the process and they can see themselves as part of the bigger picture. Staff don’t tend to see that usually: they don’t see how their development is connected to other people’s, but with BlueSky, they see at a glance how their appraisal links to national standards and the school’s standards and to the school’s improvement goals and the work that others are doing.”

Case Study - St Stephen’s C of E Primary School, Bradford
Case Study - STEP Academy Trust, London and South-East

BlueSky Education boosts staff engagement with appraisal and professional development to enhance teaching quality

Newton International School – Doha, Qatar

Using BlueSky improves staff engagement with professional learning and appraisal processes, while teaching quality assurance practices are more efficient and consistent.

“BlueSky is helping us to shift our appraisal practice towards a more developmental approach – we want to help people to achieve their career goals, develop their teaching ability and knowledge.”

Online system combines efficiency with power to drive improvement

William de Ferrers Secondary School, Essex

BlueSky helps the all-through school guard against a ‘tick-box’ culture for performance management and puts staff in control of their development.

“BlueSky allows me and the leadership team to reflect on things that are important for us, providing a rich source of evidence that we can triangulate with pupil outcomes and the impact of training on wider school outcomes.”

Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation
Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation

Evaluate the effectiveness of professional development and learning provision

Lampton School, Hounslow

“Transparency is key to holding people to account and staff have warmed to BlueSky as it enables them to highlight their successes. They view it as progressive and particularly like it when it supports them to progress up the pay scale!”

BlueSky helps to reinvigorate its approach to professional learning

Olchfa School, Swansea

BlueSky provides leaders at the school with an evidence-based analysis of performance and a deep understanding of the impact of CPD.

“With BlueSky, it is now a quicker, more responsive approach to observations, which is important in a large school and appreciated by staff.”

Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation
Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation

Performance management systems and practice are aligned across six schools in the multi-academy trust

Gloucestershire Learning Alliance Trust

BlueSky has provided an excellent platform for the trust to analyse and evaluate the impact of its performance management strategy, Claire says. But beyond the technical accessibility, a key element is that it matches their culture and philosophy around performance management.

A 2-19 academy has transformed its approach to performance management

Beaumont Hill Academy, Darlington

“Now that everything is on BlueSky, we have hard data to demonstrate how training is addressing skills and development needs directly and the impact it is having on the academy not just immediately but in the longer term.”

Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation
Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation

A school with 16th century history and 21st century management

Sherborne School, Dorset

Sherborne School’s new paperless process links the development of staff with its professional standards and school improvement.

“It is reassuring to know that we have a system to help us operate our CPL more effectively and productively. We are now a more effective organisation.”

Transforming the performance development system at leading Qatar school

Doha College, Qatar

“Set up was simple, involving just a few emails about log ins and activation. BlueSky’s website, including FAQs and explanatory videos, has been really useful too”.

Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation
Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation

Improved efficiencies provide a documented personal professional journey for staff

Taipei European School, Taiwan

“It has been revolutionary! It has helped enormously with showing staff how to cherish their own professional development.”

Reduce workload by having everything in one place

Dulwich College Beijing, China

“The teachers are comfortable with using BlueSky, and the processes we use it for. That makes a huge difference. They know their own objectives, they can request CPD and they know the school development plan. BlueSky links everything together, that’s a huge impact for everyone.”

Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation
Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation

Education establishment moves from ‘Special Measures’ to ‘Outstanding’ in one academic year

Oxfordshire Hospital School

BlueSky has helped bring together and share best practice across the whole school. Between September 2016 and July 2017, the school went from being in special measures to outstanding in every category.

Staff centred appraisal, development, and professional learning

Ulink College Shanghai, China

“If you want to make teacher development, professional learning and appraisal teacher centred, and give the teachers the onus to be at the forefront of their own development then you need a platform that you can set up and hand over to the teachers. BlueSky is perfect for this because it brings it together so well”

Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation
Case Study - BlueSky helps Congleton High School streamline and strengthen approaches to CPD, performance management and self-evaluation

Evidencing the trajectory of one of Dubai’s most successful schools

The Emirates International School – Meadows, Dubai

“We can provide feedback very quickly after lesson observations. Whereas in the past I would have been entering data into spreadsheets and then making comparisons, the system does it all and the Head of Department can discuss the evidence with the member of staff almost immediately.”