Online training upgrade generates 28,000 course enrolments across academy trust

May 6, 2025

Red Kite Learning Trust in Yorkshire makes online training and development available to staff in multiple schools with Schoot.

Key Outcomes

Increased staff engagement with online training
More accessible and flexible professional development
Seamless tracking of mandatory training for compliance
Opportunities to collaborate and share best practice across multiple schools

Background

There’s a shared mission to nurture ambition, deliver excellence and enrich children’s lives at the heart of the Red Kite Learning Trust (RKLT).

This strong commitment to make a difference to pupils’ experience of school has remained since RKLT was founded in 2015. Today, it has 16 schools located in North and West Yorkshire educating over 10,000 pupils from nursery to sixth form.

Managing staff training and CPD for schools in a wide geographical area is challenging. Although training was previously available via an online platform to 1600+ colleagues, the trust wanted a more engaging, accessible and time effective way for school teams to complete their mandatory compliance training.

In September 2024, the trust moved to Schoot and quickly noticed an improvement in the quality of online course materials, increased staff engagement and managing mandatory training across its multiple schools was far easier.

A challenge uncovered

RKLT discovered through focus groups and staff surveys that the online course materials previously available to staff fell short of expectations.

Jo McElroy, the trust’s learning and development lead, explains.

“Our colleagues felt that with the busy school environment and demanding schedules, the courses they had online access to before were unnecessarily lengthy, and it was challenging to complete them on time. Although the courses offered valuable content, colleagues thought they lacked engagement and could have been much shorter.”

“We knew we had to make a change and after exploring other online training options on the market, Schoot came out on top and we transferred over.”

Schoot gives schools and trusts online access to a wide range of high-quality training and professional development which is tailored for education. The platform includes pre-loaded courses that cover mandatory training as well as specialist professional development for teaching and non-teaching staff.

Training that works for everyone

All mandatory training, such as safeguarding and data protection, is pre-loaded on Schoot making it easily accessible to staff across the trust. Senior leaders now have a clear view of engagement levels too, so they can work directly with staff to ensure critical training is completed in the first few weeks of a new academic year.

“Schoot is our go-to platform for training. Staff love it and they’ve enrolled in more than 28,000 courses so far,” says Jo.

“There are so many advantages of having an online space where training and information is pulled together in one place, and we’ve already started to explore the platform more deeply.”

Courses and information shared easily

Schools can upload their own training resources to ensure everything their staff need is immediately accessible.

Key documents such as school safeguarding policies, Keeping Children Safe in Education and guidance on safer working practice are all stored on Schoot and visible to individual schools, along with trust-specific policies such as RKLT’s Code of Conduct. There’s a full record of all mandatory training on hand for Ofsted inspectors too.

“We know we’ve only just scratched the surface in terms of what the platform is capable of. We’re excited about the possibilities we now have to improve access to the training and professional development of our colleagues,” Jo adds.

A future of learning and collaboration

Trust staff have created and uploaded new resources, including a video on how to log and track safeguarding concerns. Plans are also underway to create podcasts and group discussions on a range of topics which can be shared with staff across the trust.

“We’re a growing trust and as new schools join us, we can make training accessible to everyone online and give colleagues a place on the platform to collaborate and share best practice,” says Jo.

“We’re also exploring how we can use Schoot to create private groups that will provide an additional channel for collaboration. These may include groups for Mental Health First Aiders or Designated Safeguarding Leads.”

Virtually no training was needed to get staff up and running. “Schoot is so easy to use that staff with little or no confidence with technology can start to use the platform straight away.

“With plenty of engaging online training on offer and available to everyone through Schoot, we know that busy colleagues in schools from Harrogate to Leeds and beyond have access to great quality online course materials they can access and complete as and when they need to.”