After two years of planning, collaboration, and phased rollouts, Outwood has successfully completed its migration to GSuite—marking a major step forward in how we work and communicate 🎉
Our migration journey:
- Initial adoption of Google Classroom
- Trust-wide rollout of core Google productivity tools (Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides)
- Staff training and development
- Phased email and calendar migration
Our decision to move to GSuite was driven by our commitment to providing the best possible digital tools for our students and staff. The initial deployment supported our adoption of Google Classroom, championed by curriculum leads in Computer Science Colleagues across the trust quickly expanded that remit after experiencing the more flexible collaboration offered by GSuite. The difference from our previous on-premises solution was especially pronounced, coming from fragmented systems, with siloed document sharing and calendars increasingly frustrating trust-wide collaboration.
Docs and Drive were in place for over 18 months, but rolling out Calendar and Gmail proved a longer journey.
Each school had a uniquely configured email and calendar system, meaning we had over 30 individual migrations to plan and implement. As we wanted the process to be as seamless as possible for staff, we planned a staggered deployment over the 2019/20 school year to give each migration the attention it deserved. Thankfully, aside from a pause as we adapted to the new ways of working imposed by COVID-19, we made consistent progress.
With the foundations now in place, we’re excited to explore what’s next. In the upcoming academic year, a new team of edTech leads will help staff unlock the full potential of GSuite—empowering new ways to collaborate, create, and connect across our trust.