Becta

Stephen Crowne was recently moved to make a defence of Becta in the press, saying 'Becta saves more than it costs'.... which is a sign of the political times.

I'm certain that Robin Hood, like many schools in the UK who are passionate about learning in a twenty first century context, would argue passionately in support of Becta for the role that the organisation has played in helping development.

The Self-Review Framework gave us standards to measure our progress against and confidence that our investment in technologies for learning were meaningful and effective.

Gaining the ICT Mark award in November '06 signalled to us that we were operating to a very good standard.

The ICT Excellence Award in '08 inspired the next steps on our journey and the ICT Excellence Award in '09 pushed our thinking even further forward.

The outputs have been enormous:
In that time, we have supported the Professional Development of over eighty colleagues from Leeds schools at Robin Hood.
We have received visitors from the region, the UK and around the world.
I, as Headteacher, have had the opportunity to speak at events and share examples of practice around the country... which (I hope) will have had some impact upon practice in those settings.
Teachers from Robin Hood have worked with the BBC and the Yorkshire Film Archive - directly benefiting provision for our pupils.
I've been a member of the Becta Leading Leaders Network (LLN) since '07 - an outstanding national network of Headteachers and Senior Leaders.... all of which can be traced in a direct line back to Becta.

So when Stephen says that Becta saves more than it costs... I'm inclined to agree with him and also offer the observation that Becta's work and influence reaches far further than may at first meet the eye, or grab the headline.