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Unique insight
There is certainly no shortage of commentary about our schools; however, which of this information really impacts on your business? Our insights are uniquely geared towards better understanding what, when and how schools make purchases of your products and services.
Conversation
Our newsletters are aimed at starting a conversation with your business about how to most effectively and accurately gather information from schools, teachers and parents.
Analysis
Data is just data until analysis is generated. Over 25 years researching schools in support of supplier business development ensures you receive robust analysis of the data you generate internally, or that we gather on your behalf.
May news update
Are the taps being turned off?
EdTech: Is it working?
State of Education: Update
School leaders are telling us that some medium and long-term strategic planning is being suspended and existing plans potentially revised, due to the election announcement. The issue here is that many schools were planning on a Conservative Government for another two-year period after the end of this academic year and not a new five-year period.
Outside of the uncertainty brought about by the National Funding Formula (NFF) changes, schools understood the macro budget environment and have been working within these restrictions. Some believed that spending on schools would have been improved after the existing two-year period, regardless of which party won – i.e. that school spending would have been a high-priority issue resulting in the progress of school funding improvements. Therefore, some were willing to reduce surpluses or build deficits based on an improvement in budgets after 2019/20.
The pre-emptive election has changed that version of the future. Most expect a Conservative win that will then bring with it a further five years of austerity for the school sector – that is, no hope of relief in two years. It is still possible for school funding to become an issue in this election that results in the Treasury releasing more money; however, as the local election results attest, the Conservative’s believe the election will be all about Brexit.
While we are not expecting to see schools suddenly cut spending that was planned over the next few months, it is possible that a greater level of pessimism about the longer-term outlook may result in forward buying plans being re-assessed or even curtailed for fear of placing additional pressure on the remaining surplus, or already in deficit budgets.
I encourage you all to read the latest market report I have compiled for BESA, which goes some way to providing a more balanced view of the marketplace and help counter the strongly politicised commentary in the news.
Note: You need to be a BESA member to access this report. Over 900 senior leaders responded to a wide range of financial questions including funding, resource budgets and spending plans by product type - including forecasts for 2017/18.
New report available from BESA in June to coincide with London EdTech week.
We are currently undertaking a review of the EdTech marketplace on behalf of BESA. The focus is on understanding if EdTech systems and content solutions are proving efficient in the eyes of school leaders, while also finding out where schools source information on efficacy. We are targeting input from over 700 school and ICT leaders, thereby ensuring a representative overall view of the market.
Parent power
Finding what parents think about education
Parents have been under pressure to support and encourage their offspring’s education since what seems to be, the beginning of time. However, parent power has been growing with the opportunity to engage via new technologies. In 2015, we created and continue to maintain a panel of 600+ parents, with children of both primary and secondary age. We use this panel to better understand how children learn at home and how parents engage with the learner and the school. Take the opportunity to understand the entire sphere of influence for your products by using our parent panel along with our teacher panel when you conduct research.
Apps and e-books
Omnibus research for publishers
Each year we work with a small group of publishers and software providers to generate insight into the use of content in different environments. In previous projects, we looked at delivery of content and assessment to students via apps and e-books. We will be canvassing interest and question preferences over the next month and launching the questionnaires to subject leaders in mid-June. One of the benefits of joining this omnibus research is the opportunity to ask questions specific to your own requirements that will remain confidential to you and only reported back to you. If you are interested in understanding more about this programme, please contact Richard on rconnor@c3education.com and a call will be setup to discuss in more detail.