We sat down virtually with Craig Doyle, Project Manager, and Amy Icke, Online Learning & Innovation Manager, at the Girls’ Day School Trust to discuss the progress of their community platform and the importance of user experience.
The Girls’ Day School Trust is a family of 25 schools across England and Wales, made up of 23 independent schools and two academies. As a specialist in girls’ education, the GDST tailors its teaching to the way that girls learn best – an approach that encourages its students to be confident, happy and fearless with the belief that there is no limit to what they can achieve.
In 2020, the GDST partnered with Aluminati to create a community platform – called GDST Life. This space is there for students when they join the sixth form, giving them the opportunity to connect with others across the GDST family of schools. And it connects alumnae in one social space, opening the door to a host of new networking opportunities, mentoring support, events, news and resources, and much more.
For alumnae, this meant that, at the click of a button, they were able to find mentors, events and friends; something that previously had all been channelled through their former schools and the GDST’s alumnae team. By giving alumnae the means to tap directly into their 70,000-strong community, the potential to optimise the power of their network became clear.
One location – two communities
As plans for the new community platform were being discussed, the GDST team realised the potential value of expanding the reach of the platform to sixth formers too. Through GDST Life, sixth formers have the chance to network across the GDST family of schools, form cross-school groups, societies and study groups, find new resources and join GDST-wide events. It also makes the transition from student to alumna much easier and ensures the GDST is able to continue to support its students after they’ve left the physical school gates.
“GDST sixth forms offer the very best of independent learning, supercharged by our powerful network of schools and alumnae, and having access to GDST Life is central to this,” Amy Icke, the GDST’s Online Learning & Innovation Manager, explained.
She continued, “During the pandemic, there has been an even greater sense of collaboration across the GDST. Over the last year, we’ve had to find a way of pooling our resources and harnessing all of the great work that was going on in our schools across the country. GDST Life allowed us to do this – to share events, a library of resources and a safe, informal space where girls could connect without needing staff facilitation, allowing for an increased focus on student well-being.”
Flexibility and personalisation
To do this, the GDST required a highly personalised platform build to allow for the organisation’s complex structure, with the ability to segment their community into staff, sixth formers and alumnae with ease. “This was just not possible with other platforms we considered, which made Aluminati a clear choice for us”, Craig Doyle, the GDST’s Project Manager said.
A helping hand
Being a new venture for them, the GDST team was able to draw on the professional expertise of Aluminati’s consultants.
Maria Gutierrez, Strategic Consultant at Aluminati focused on the user journey mapping of the platform to better understand the potential requirements and pain points that the users may have.
“The close connection between Maria on the consultancy team, and Rebecca Whitton, Head of Client Success at Aluminati, allowed for minor changes and alterations to our platform set- up to be made to be made easily”, said Craig, “Plus the ongoing feedback we were receiving at this stage was helpful, too – such as the positive response we got, for example, to the resources section.”
GDST Life has been up and running for some nine months now. With this, the team is currently in the midst of taking the next steps to build its online offer. Moving to the latest version of the Aluminate Community Builder by next month will enable greater customisation and functionality across the platform, and give the GDST the opportunity to build its online presence and communities even further.
