In 2016/2017 Kingswood School required a part time position as Acting Director of IT until the permanent position was filled. Within this context Mr Andy Murden spent a fixed term working at Kingswood School supporting the development of IT and helping to lay the foundations for the adoption of an IT delivery strategy which fitted the requirements of a 3 year plan previously agreed by the schools Senior Management team.
Within this capacity Andy joined the school for a six month period, and in a very short time began to support the School to develop practice. He is an excellent communicator, and working closely with the network manager, he helped the team to create a more transparent working relationship between the IT team and the wider School community.
Andy is very thorough and has a systems thinking approach to all tasks. He seeks advice to develop his understanding of a context or situation, and his appreciation of an evidence based approach has informed many of the initiatives he developed.
Andy is utterly professional, and throughout his time at Kingswood he used his considerable experience to add a great deal of value to the work of the department. I recommend Andy as a highly capable IT professional who was able to apply his considerable educational experience, to progress the strategic development of IT provision at Kingswood School.
Mr G.M., Director of Kingswood International (Acting)
As regional principal of 12 schools in 8 countries speaking 7 languages, implementing a new Learning Management System was always going to be a challenge! This challenge has been made far easier having Andrew Murden working alongside us. Throughout, his patience, adaptability and ability to see the problems through the eyes of the users and leadership have been invaluable. Andrew is thorough and creative and has produced a solution that allows our teachers to be structured yet spontaneous in producing online learning experiences that are truly inspiring our students. Just to add that beyond his technical ability, Andrew always adds a buoyancy and good humour that makes him a pleasure to work with.
Mr G.P., Regional Principal, One School EU
In my role heading up the School Support Team at Focus Learning Trust I have been very pleased to have Andrew working with me on all aspects of our e-learning program. Andrew has a very strategic and methodical approach which creates a certainty about the results and assures a steady progress. We are an educational provider with a Christian ethos, and it has been an evident strength of Andrew’s approach to respect and work within this. I would recommend his services without hesitation.
Mr J.W., Trustee, Focus Learning Trust
Thanks to Andrew’s support and guidance we have been able to offer and deliver successful e-safety workshops to parents. Andrew has provided the school with relevant resources and introduced us to a new self-assessment tool, allowing e-safety leaders to monitor and evaluate the delivery and impact of e-safety within our school community. As e-safety leader, and IT Co-ordinator his input and assistance has been extremely valuable to myself personally. I would highly recommend his services.
Mr T.S., Deputy Head, St Stephens CE Primary
Andrew was able to highlight and respond to, in a measured and articulate way, problems regarding e-learning/ICT that occurred during the setting up of e-learning systems for the BSF programme. Andrew was very successful in liasing between schools and the IT managed service provider. He was extremely good at analysing situations and working out the direction that was needed and putting this into action.
Mr G.H., Assistant Head, St Silas Primary School