PedTech in action: System leaders nationwide join forces to ensure the future of digital technology in schools is equitable, balanced, and high impact

The National PedTech Partnership, an alliance of visionary education leaders, including founding partner the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership, has unveiled an ambitious research and development programme focused on ensuring high impact and equitable teaching and learning, supported by contemporary digital tools.  

Representing approximately 3% of the national school system through 756 schools, 250,000 students and 22,000 staff, the National PedTech Partnership represents state and independent funded schools ranging from nursery through to sixth form, mainstream and special schools, and alternative provision.

The National PedTech Partnership has been co-founded by Dr Fiona Aubrey-Smith – a national leader and researcher who coined the term PedTech, and John Murphy, a national leader and former MAT CEO who has extensive experience of managing change at scale. 

The Partnership is underpinned by a two-year research programme funded by the schools involved in the alliance. By joining together, the Partnership will explore how those leading a pedagogy-first approach to digital (PedTech) identify, articulate, scale-up and share evidence of impact. This will support others across the wider education sector, bringing greater equity for young people across schools. 

Themed areas of focus will span pedagogy, curriculum and assessment, SEND, inclusion and equity, oracy, community and families, the role of artificial intelligence (AI), and what it means to be a teacher or learner in a contemporary landscape. In the short term, the alliance will empower schools to more effectively understand the return on investment of their existing digital provision, through a series of themed studies, reports and guidelines. 

Speaking about the launch of the National PedTech Partnership, Co-founder Dr Fiona Aubrey Smith, said: “At the heart of the National PedTech Partnership are the human beings at the centre of all our classrooms – learners and teachers. Our work is driven by the moral imperative of reducing inequities in and across schools. 

“We formed this partnership with extraordinary forward-thinking system leaders as a result of our shared belief that by contributing insights, questions and expertise, we can offer informative at-scale research trends, insights and practical tools. This will support not only the relationship between schools and digital technology, but also wider educational leadership. 

“Critically, our partnership is not restricted to specific models of schooling, policies or funding models, products or agendas, allowing us to bring together a diversity of perspectives and retain our focus on the most important aspect of all – our learners and their learning.”

John Murphy, Co-founder of the National PedTech Partnership, reflected on the launch of the Partnership sharing:

“This work is fundamentally about equity and excellence. By collaborating together with purpose and intention, we can really think about the reality facing schools and groups, galvanise around a PedTech approach, and create exceptional leader and teacher capacity for success. This is the start of a very exciting journey – one filled with extensive professional generosity from the individuals involved across the partnership.“

System leaders involved in the National PedTech Partnership have committed to five founding principles:

1. A belief that digital tools underpin a high impact contemporary school system. 
2. A pedagogy-first mindset about the use of digital (PedTech).
3. The forward-thinking system leaders involved in the partnership have strategic responsibility for schools/groups.
4. A commitment to supporting schools beyond the partnership’s immediate networks or groups.
5. Acting as a community of purpose, transparently scaffolding each other’s learning. 

Paul Stone, CEO of the Discovery Schools Academy Trust in Leicestershire, said: “I have long believed that as a nation we have lagged behind in this space and there have been too many silos all doing different things with different agendas. The National PedTech Partnership represents a key opportunity to bring cohesion – to come together meaningfully, and to learn and share as part of a powerful momentum for change.”

Sarah Hand, Head of System Leadership at Inspiring Futures through Learning (IFtL), a group of 20 schools across Milton Keynes and Corby, said: “We joined the National PedTech Partnership in order to be part of a community that can raise the sector’s aspirations and understanding of effective and impactful uses of digital technologies – bringing greater precision to the work that we do in our schools. Joining other system leaders who are similarly motivated by collective innovation and evidence-based improvement means our system impact can be greater than the sum of our parts.”

Tom Wade, Assistant Headteacher at Haileybury, an independent co-educational boarding school, said, “For too long, discussions about technology have been separated from education and from teaching and learning. What the National PedTech Partnership gets right is that it sees education as the whole, and technology as being integral to that in a way that is free from doom-mongering or over-inflated promises. The conversations with members of the partnership are tangible and transformative, born from experiences working with young people of all ages and backgrounds. The founding principles of the Partnership are a lightbulb moment of clarity for the education sector.” 

The National PedTech Partnership will be publishing its research findings and guidelines over the next two years, through a series of events and publications, alongside a book due for publication by Crown House in 2026.

You can follow the work of the National PedTech Partnership by following “The National PedTech Partnership” on LinkedIn. 

Photo Caption: Founding Partners of the National PedTech Partnership at the launch event on 19 June. 

Photography by Greg Bennett, Engaging Education.

Notes to editors

For further information, or access to images, please contact:

• Dr Fiona Aubrey-Smith, fiona@onelifelearning.co.uk 
• John Murphy, info@johnmurphyeducation.co.uk 

Social Media tags

• #PedTech
• The National PedTech Partnership (LinkedIn)

About the National PedTech Partnership

• The National PedTech Partnership is a two-year programme which began in Spring 2025.
• The Partnership represents 756 schools, 250,000 students and 22,000 staff (approximately 3% of the national school system) across state and independently funded schools ranging from nursery through to sixth form, mainstream and special schools, and alternative provision. 
• This breaks down as
  • 41 organisational groups of schools (78% state, 22% independent),
  • 6 large individual schools
  • 33% of organisations (groups or schools) have secondary provision (compared to 13% nationally)
  • 75% have primary provision (compared to 64% nationally) 
  • 25% of organisations are either special schools or have special school provision as part of their group (compared to 5% nationally)
  • Schools all have, or are working towards 1:1 digital device ratios (laptop/tablet per student/staff member) – with a roughly even split across Microsoft and Google ecosystems.

• The Partnership is underpinned by a self-funded model with no sponsorship or financial support from suppliers, government or other organisations.
• Gift-in-kind support is being provided by leading organisations including Amazon, Everway, Pearson, Renaissance, Google and the University of Oxford – amongst others – enabling the alliance to run engaging and dynamic face-to-face events.
• Over the two-year programme, the alliance will move through a number of phases combining in-person and online workshops, school visits and the production of a range of materials (including a portfolio of reports and guidance frameworks for internal and outreach purposes).
• The first year of the partnership’s work is focused on surfacing the breadth and depth of existing work across the group, through structured discussion with key stakeholders, immersive experiences (including school visits) and dedicated time for exploring key themes. 

Founding Partners involved in the National PedTech Partnership

Abingdon House School 

Achievement through Collaboration

Arthur Terry Learning Partnership

Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust

Broadleaf Partnership Trust

Cavendish Group

Chiltern Learning Trust

Cognita

Compass Partnership of Schools

Connect Education Trust

Cygnus Academies Trust

Discovery Schools Trust

Dr Challoners High School

Epping Forest Schools Partnership

Eton College

Haileybury 

Inclusive Multi Academy Trust

INOVA

Inspiring Futures through Learning

Laidlaw Schools Trust

L.E.A.D. Trust

LEO Academy Trust

Maritime Academy Trust

Rainbow Education Academy Trust

Severn Academies Educational Trust

Shaw Education Trust

Swale Academies Trust

The Cornerstone Academy Trust

The Golden Thread Alliance

The Stour Academy Trust

The Wherry School

Uckfield College

Woodland Academy Trust