BSN Nominated For Strategic Initiative of The Year 2015 - 2016

The BSN is delighted to announce it has been nominated for Strategic Initiative of the Year 2015 – 2016 by the British International School Awards, an annual event ‘to recognise excellence in British schools overseas, celebrate the success of the sector and help set benchmarks in best practice.’

The nomination acknowledges the school’s interactive strategy development tool, conceived and developed in-house by the school's 11-strong IT team. It was driven by BSN Principal and CEO, Kieran Earley, and his vision that a school’s strategy depends on enabling all staff to have quality input, and informed by his long term aim of enabling the school’s four campuses to work more collaboratively as a high-achieving whole. 

Soon after joining the school in September 2015 Mr Earley charged the IT team with finding a tool which would put real time interaction and ideas-sharing right at the heart of the school’s conference in April 2016, which was attended by all 500 staff.

The IT team then set to work, spending around 160 developer hours planning and building their own tool – dubbed BSN Pulse-Meester.

BSN Pulse-Meester catapults event interaction into the 21st century.  Rather than posting feedback after the conference, or having to ask questions in front of a large audience, the tool successfully allowed staff to contribute to the conference in real time via questions and prompts sent to their smart phones. In addition to the 436 staff who attended in person, 47 staff were able to play a full part by logging on remotely via Pulse-Meester.

Answers and ideas were collated instantaneously and displayed on large screens around the conference hall for immediate discussion. In turn school leaders were expected to answer in real time; a level of openness to engaging with staff that signals a new kind of school leadership and shows how crucial the input of BSN staff is to the future direction of the school. Pulse-Meester creates a complete record of all feedback for future reference, analysis and further discussion with staff.

The school is thrilled to receive the nomination, which is organised by ISC Research and BIS magazine, with a judging panel made up of highly respected and experienced sector leaders.  The presentation evening will take place on 23 January 2017 in London at the Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden.

Good luck BSN!