Customer Success Stories

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 nearly 700 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 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 holistic perspective improves strategy and standards across 20-school Trust
STEP Academy Trust, London and South-East
BlueSky helps leaders to identify talent and expertise that can be leveraged to improve standards across the 20-school Trust.
“It really helps us to understand our people but, more importantly, empower them to develop their own career pathway as well.”
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.”


Updating the model for whole school teaching and learning
Barnby Road Academy
“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”.
Supporting the focus on literacy and middle leadership
The Bemrose School, Derby
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.”


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.”

Using an online platform has transformed lesson observations
Thomas Telford School, Shropshire
Leaders can see at a glance the outcomes and easily identify common areas for development and training
“We have a culture now where professional development is seen as a career-long process and BlueSky could really help us to embed that concept ever more deeply across the school.”
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.”


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.”


A large and swiftly improving academy pairs quality of teaching with school-wide improvement
The Chalk Hills Academy, Luton
The Chalk Hills Academy uses BlueSky to identify best practice – and rapidly improve quality of teaching and learning
“The level of integration in each of the modules was excellent. At the click of a button I can tie an objective from an improvement plan to a particular report or see a staff profile or team overview. The reporting mechanisms are also exceptional: with BlueSky it’s easy to pinpoint the relevant information quickly.”
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.”
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.

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.”

Staff centred appraisal, development, and professional learning
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”

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


A systematic approach to performance management enables leaders to track performance and boosts staff engagement
GEMS Wellington – Silicon Oasis, Dubai
BlueSky’s flexibility means the academy has been able to tailor the functions to suit its needs and its existing culture and practice.
“It helps us to be consistent in our systems and processes across the academy. For example, because all policies, documents and feedback are stored on BlueSky, it enables us to have a uniform approach to target-setting and monitoring performance because we can look across whole cohorts and groups at a glance. It also means objectives for staff and teams can be clearly linked to the school development plan and to the UAE teaching standards.”
At CIT South, standards are heading north.
Community Inclusive Trust South
CIT is also finding BlueSky is ideal for presenting information to bodies such as governors, Ofsted and the local authority.
“BlueSky provides senior leaders with access to quality-assured information, allowing an accurate overview of what areas are working well and conversely highlighting those areas which may need more energy and focus.”


BlueSky helps a leading technology college streamline its performance management
Basingstoke College of Technology
Basingstoke College of Technology uses BlueSky to monitor the progress of more than 400 members of staff.
“After only a few weeks of being in post I could see the benefits of having a centralised system to monitor staff performance and development”

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.”