Case Study: Inspiration Trust

How the East Anglian multi-academy trust increased its student music engagement and participation with Involve

Inspiration Trust
Case Studies>Inspiration Trust
We spoke to Georgie McAndrew, Music Administrator at Inspiration Trust to find out more
Case studyWe spoke to Georgie McAndrew, Music Administrator at Inspiration Trust to find out more
When did you start using Involve Education?

"We started using Involve in September 2023. Before that we were using Microsoft Word which was very cumbersome. It was taking me a full week to manage our timetabling for 400 students across our schools. We now have over 600 pupils so it would have become an impossible task for one person if we hadn’t found Involve! Getting setup was very simple - we were up and running within a week."

What were the main issues with your past setup?

"I would need to manually check each week which times pupils could and couldn’t do. For example, off-site P.E. or ensuring our GCSE pupils didn't miss year 11 maths and English by making a list of student names and the dates and times they could and couldn't do. It just wasn't a sustainable solution as our music lesson scheme and our number of pupils continued to grow. With Involve that’s all done automatically, which has saved me lots of time!"

What was the response?

"Parents are happier as they can now see what their money, time and effort is going towards. Lesson notes are no longer just kept in the pupils practice diary - our parents can now see when their children's lessons are and what is written by our teachers. The safeguarding is also reassuring. Parents can see when their children’s lessons are and what the teachers are saying in each one. Our teachers are reporting an increase in attendance and commitment, and our parents are engaging much more."

How has it impacted your relationship with other staff across your Trust?

"It's been great for our relationships not just with music leads, but also with other teachers within our schools. We no longer have class teachers asking why pupils are missing parts of their lessons - Involve automatically sends notifications to class teachers each morning if any of their students need to go to their music lesson, which explains any student absences and keeps everyone in the loop!"

How have you found working with the Involve team?

"The Involve team have been fantastic with answering all of our queries quickly and efficiently, as well as being very receptive to feature requests and new ideas."

Have there been any cost savings since using Involve?

"In the past, we would buy 100s of practice books to give out to music student in which to mark their progress and what they needed to practice. Now this information is logged in Practice Pal and we no longer need to buy in the books, so we've been able to save money as a department."

What’s your favourite feature?

"My favourite feature has to the simplicity of making the timetables - I can't imagine going back to using Microsoft Word documents for timetabling over 600 pupils across 17 schools! Involve has been a fantastic solution. It's very easy to use (even for technology beginners!) for teachers, parents and pupils.

Its so easy, because Involve is connected to our MIS, when I add a student to the timetable it will automatically pull in all their details from the MIS and sends a notification to their parents. 

Also really like that I can export a week’s worth of lessons into an Excel file and print it out to give to teachers and parents who may have limited access to internet or devices.”"

Out of 10 how likely would you be to recommend Involve to a friend working in a similar music department?

"10/10 definitely recommend - our Head of Finance asked me the same question recently and I told them the same thing!"

Inspiration Trust

Fact File

Founded2012CountyNorfolk & Suffolk

GenderMixedAge4-18TypeMAT

Education Policy Institute RatingBest MAT in England for high schools (2016)

FoundersTheodore Agnew, Baron Agnew of Oulton (Founder), Dame Rachel de Souza (Founding Chief Executive)

MISBromcom
Our teachers are reporting an increase in attendance and commitment, and our parents are engaging much more
Georgie McAndrew, Music Administrator crestGeorgie McAndrew, Music Administrator

600+

Average number of music lessons taking place through Involve per week during term time across 15 Inspiration Trust academies

30+

Staff members using Involve at with the Inspiration Trust

3275 hrs

Avg. time saved by Involve schools annually since switching to Involve