We just held our largest customer conference to date! Over 800 schools joined us at this year’s ArborFest, which took place at the Repertory Theatre in Birmingham and on livestream.
Couldn’t make the event and want to know what ArborFest is all about? We’ve put together a small roundup of the day, stage by stage below. If you were able to join us, remember to keep sharing your experiences of the event using #ArborFest.
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The Main Stage
James and Sonia opened the day on The Main Stage, which was followed by a fascinating talk on AI by Professor Rose Luckin, a showcase of all Arbor’s new features, and a panel of Arbor users sharing how they’ve improved attendance and parental engagement at their schools.
Plus, our keynote speaker Lord Jim Knight, former Minister of Schools, gave an insightful keynote on the challenges facing schools, and what change a new government could bring to the sector. In his own words, speaking on the numbers leaving teaching: “We have to empower the professionalism of school staff and reconnect with a culture of vocation if we want to be serious about retention.”
We finished up the day with our annual Customer Awards – from the customer we can’t wait to hear from, through to the Yoda of Arbor.
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The Data Stage
Over on The Data Stage, Arbor customers shared their practical takeaways on how to change the culture within schools and trusts to one of foresight, rather than hindsight. This was followed by Rob Wall, Data and MIS Lead at Danes Educational Trust and Stephen Schwartz, Trust EdTeach Lead at Inspire Partnership Academy Trust shared their top tips on how to make the most out of data in Arbor.
Phil Le-Brun, a director of Enterprise Strategy at AWS (ArborFest’s lead sponsor) and former Corporate VP at McDonald’s Corporation, then gave a talk on patterns that can help schools to innovate around data, whilst bringing your staff along on the journey too.
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The MAT Stage
Back by popular demand, our MAT Stage brought trust leaders together to discuss strategy, growth and collaboration.
Amanda Hodder, Chief Finance and Operations Officer at Emmaus Catholic Multi Academy, opened the stage with her insights on how, why and when her trust centralised.
This was followed by an inspiring panel from three trust leaders on navigating retention and wellbeing as a trust leader. One piece of advice that stuck with many delegates, from Nicola Noble, Co-Headteacher at Surrey Square Primary School and Big Education Trust was “Everyone is following their own map of the world. Don’t impose yours on your team.”
Our last panel of the day, with Louise Cooper, COO at Education for the 21st Century, and Stephen Barrat-Kinsley, COO at Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust, followed a discussion on how they advanced their trusts’ aims using Arbor’s MAT MIS.
If you’d like to hear more from MAT leaders, but couldn’t make the event, download our recent report. Made in collaboration with Confederation of School Trusts, five MAT leaders share their insights on alignment at their trusts. Download for free here.
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The Demo Stage
The Demo Stage was the go-to place to see Arbor in action. Aiden, Arbor’s Product Manager for Assessments, was joined by Kate Harris (Customer Education Specialist at Arbor) and Dewan Chowdhury (Head of Data at Co-op Academies Trust) to give two live demos plus Q&A of how to get the best out of Assessments in Arbor. If you missed the demo, but want to know more, download our free Customer Education Guide here.
Next up on The Demo Stage was an in-depth demo of Arbor Finance, the top-rated finance system for LA maintained primary schools, powered by the team behind Arbor MIS. Find out more here.
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School and MAT leader Roundtables
At Arbor, we love to see customers coming together to share best practice.
Throughout #ArborFest, we ran Roundtables for school and trust leaders in our community. These peer-to-peer conversations encouraged schools to network with others in their roles and share best practice.
Not yet in our online community? Join Arbor HQ to hear from schools like yours on how they’re making the most out of Arbor and sharing advice.
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Ask an Arbor Expert and Meet your Account Manager
Events like ArborFest are the perfect place for the schools in our community to meet the Arbor team and ask any questions they might have. Our Ask an Arbor Expert and Meet your Account Manager rooms provided a space for exactly that. We loved meeting so many of you in-person!
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Plus much more!
As well as our bustling Partner Marketplace, there was plenty of time for networking, chatting and meeting more of the team at breakfast, lunch and post-ArborFest drinks.
We’re already looking forward to next year!
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