Management Information Sheet
Electronic Communications with Schools and the E-Courier
Communications
As education continues to face ongoing change, the volume of information required to respond to Central Government and other initiatives continues to grow. The County Council is trying to help schools manage the flow of information in order to reduce the burden. One method of doing so is to use more effective means of communication and information retrieval. The e-Courier is a key element in our strategy and its development is receiving recognition at a national level.Over recent years we have sought to encourage schools to join with us in moving to the new opportunities presented by e-communications, the table below spells these out. Clearly change and new ways of working will create different responses from different people, no single system will suit everyone all of the time. So whatever system we adopt must try to meet the needs of most people, most of the time. We firmly believe that the e-communications channels we now have put in place provide a better means of communications between Council services and schools. A very important aspect is that the communications are now open to everyone, teachers, non-teaching staff and governors alike. In addition, we, the local authority, handle most of the tedious administration of this wealth of information.
Before Christmas 2004 we had a unique opportunity to look at the take up of the e-Courier, our primary means of communicating with schools. I hope you will share our concern that a significant minority of schools did not access the e-Courier once during the Autumn term 2004. Realising that towards the latter end of the term MI sheets became entirely electronic heightens this concern.
Through various groups and forums we have been made aware of the concerns and issues schools have experienced in moving from an entirely paper-based system of communications to one with a greater dependency on electronic communications. But I am pleased to say that almost without exception, these same groups and forums have acknowledged that the debate has moved on from: which medium should be used to: how best to use e-communications. The message is clear, e-communications provide new and powerful opportunities to communicate with different audiences, however to get the best from them we need to change the way we work. To assist with this process I include some notes at the end of this document on advice and tips that schools have shared with us to date.
Please ensure that you check the e-Courier weekly, that your staff and governors are aware of it and between you, you agree on any new ways of working necessary to make the most of this medium.
We are proud of our achievement in developing the e-Courier and could not have done so without help and feedback from schools. We welcome your views, either directly or through ECAF¹ , on elements that you feel still need to be improved.
The pros and cons of e-communications - what schools have told us
| Pro | Con |
| More people can access the information | Internet access is required |
| It is available all day, every day | Some Internet links are too slow |
| It is searchable | Changes to the way we work are required |
| It is already filed and cross-referenced | Some people lack the confidence to use Internet services |
| It is always up to date | In some situations paper is needed |
| It can link to other related information | I don't like reading from a screen |
| It is accessible from any internet connected computer | |
| It is, in the main, printable when needed | |
| It can be, as required, interactive | |
| It is quicker | |
| Colour and multimedia are available |
e-Communications: What works for us
We asked schools to tell us how they have made e-communications work for them. Some of their experiences may help you.
- Our clerk to governors checks the e-Courier weekly and forwards links to what he feels is relevant to governors by e-mail.
- Our school secretary checks the e-Courier weekly and forwards links to what she feels is relevant to headteacher, staff & governors by e-mail.
- We have put a link to the e-Courier on our web site as reminder to staff, governors and parents of this source of information.
- I refer to some electronic documents quite often so I have put them in my Favourites.
- When I first look through the e-Courier or the DfES online communications I used to promise myself I would go back and look at some documents in more detail - then I would forget! Now I have created a folder in My Favourites to remind me.
- We have bought laptops for all teachers and now expect that they will use them to access the schools own intranet to access lesson plans, policies etc as well as LEA information.
- We found the change hard and challenging and we are not there yet, but we are now beginning to recognise the benefits of the new medium and it is beginning to shape the way we plan, teach and manage.