The collaborative elements of cloud computing are amazing. Cloud apps allow greater collaboration between teachers, students and academies within Trusts, giving the ability to access work and resources wherever and whenever it’s needed. Further to this, the tools available can increase classroom efficiency, for example, if teachers or students are ill, classes can be recorded to ensure no one falls behind.

In addition to this, teachers can see students’ online work and Notebooks through Microsoft 365 or G Suite for Education, and so help teach one to one, without having to alert the whole class to a struggling student.

Due to the regular updates on cloud platforms, the device and infrastructure security is always being worked on and can be updated at times convenient to you to avoid any downtime during class times. This means that as soon as any potential security flaw is identified, the cloud platform provider can fix and patch it before this flaw is exploited.

There are an ever-increasing number of apps for browsers and websites that allow students to learn more easily. For example, Microsoft Learning Tools allow students to change fonts and background colours, to have the document read aloud to them, or have the text broken down into syllables; particularly useful for SEND students and younger children who may struggle to read.

The cloud is becoming more and more popular and there’s no getting away from it, and the students of today will be using cloud computing in some capacity in whatever they decide to do next, from college to retail work, medicine to office jobs, labour work or university. Whether you’re a nursery, primary or secondary school, college or university, your students will need to be confident using cloud tools in the same way previous generations just needed to be able to use computers.

There are many ways for schools to save money with cloud computing. The most obvious is through reducing physical hardware, whether that’s desktops, shared laptops or servers. The costs to both purchase and maintain these computers can be significantly lower! There are also cost savings through the better management of devices and sharing of resources across multiple schools within the same academy. In addition, you can potentially benefit from lower costs of supply teachers with the ability to record lessons for the students when teachers are ill.