Navodaya English High School and Junior College

Navodaya English High School & Junior College Switched to

Google Workspace


One big school, one easy solution

How Shivaami helped streamline processes with Google for Education tools. Offering quality education to underprivileged children, Navodaya English High School and Junior College has spent the last 52 years ensuring its students, ranging from 4-17 years, have access to the best teachers, programs, and opportunities. Technically savvy, the school was still experiencing challenges that needed to be solved.

What they wanted to do

  • >From greater accessibility to bring large groups of the school community together, to better tracking of assessments, the Navodaya English High School and Junior College wanted to make a big difference to the whole school community, quickly and easily. Having outgrown the technology they had been relying on for years, Dr Shetty and the team at Shivaami Cloud Services knew it was time for an upgrade that everyone would benefit from.

What they did

  • The school’s technical team approached Shivaami Cloud Services for some advice on what they needed to change
  • Shivaami suggested the Google Workspace for Education Teaching and Learning Upgrade, which would solve the current issues around scale of enrolment, providing and tracking assessments and ensuring the best quality of development for staff and students
  • Within one week, Shivaami switched all of the school’s technology onto the Google for Education platform and provided Google IDs for all users
  • Shivaami provided a training session for teachers and support staff to showcase the benefits
  • As students returned to the school, Shivaami maintained a high level of support and training for staff, which will continue over the coming year

What they achieved

  • Greater ease of enrolment
  • The ability to run online competitions live with students without a “time limit”
  • Increased professional development and skills for teachers and support staff.
  • A further commitment to a holistic education approach, where academia can be placed alongside languages, dance, debate and more, in a real-time, virtual classrooms that every child can take part in or witness.
  • A new, streamlined way of collecting and storing data, both for assessments and planning.

Business

  • Industry: Education
  • Number of Employees: 100

Challenges

With almost 4000 students and over 100 educators and support staff, the sheer size of Navodaya English High School and Junior College offers challenges to principal, Dr Ushavati Shetty, every day.

Priding themselves on being a technically savvy school, educators were drowning under the weight of organising assessments, staying on top of attendance and the logistics of bringing the larger school community together.

The key challenge, in year two of the global pandemic, was keeping the school community connected and thriving, something they couldn’t do without better technology.

Solution

“We believe in giving quality education to students, but we don’t only focus on textbook knowledge,” says Dr Shetty. “We believe in the overall development of students, their holistic development.”

Dr Shetty admits that 2020 was especially tough because she was unable to bring her whole school community together using the platforms they had used for years.

Result

Ease of data collection

Google Docs has enabled Dr Shetty to collect data from her 120-strong staff quickly and easily, without the time-consuming processes of previous platforms. “A simple thing, getting information from everyone, has become so much easier for me. All I have to do is create one format and post the editable file. Everyone can then add their own edits.”

Increased engagement with students and extended community

With students still studying remotely, this second year of the pandemic will be very different thanks to the features of Google Meet and Google Classroom. “We have a lot of festivals, a lot of days of celebration. Last year I couldn’t bring everyone together. With Google Meet, I can. It also allows me to connect our students to global educators and international opportunities.”

Time saving = Greater development

With Google for Education saving teachers and support staff valuable time, they can invest in student development, and focus on long-term learning outcomes, as opposed to short-term issues. “Teachers are focusing on skill development, communication skills, language and other activities, such as dance and debate. Many avenues have been opened up to our students thanks to Google Workspace for Education and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade.”

Flexibility of providing education and support

Being able to use the Teaching & Learning Upgrade, with no limitations, the school’s students, teachers, and support team can choose how and when they access the programs. From Slides, Docs, Meet, Calendar, Forms and more, planning how to educate, and implementing that learning-style, has provided the kind of flexible environment that both students and staff can thrive within. “Parent engagement, student engagement …it’s all improved,” says Dr Shetty. “Everyone is excited.”