A guest blog by Steven Craig, an Education Consultant and ex-teacher with over six years of classroom experience.

With schools under ever-increasing financial pressure, teachers have been asking, ‘Is there a positive, innovative way of progressing learning that doesn’t break the budget?’. This is where Doodle can help!

The problem of squeezed budgets

Three years ago, when I was a teacher, I thought that budgets could simply not be squeezed anymore. It wasn’t possible. Then a pandemic happened.

Over the past year in particular, the schools we work with have all been saying the same thing: that their budget is ridiculous. Increased supply and energy costs, coupled with the ever-growing spend needed on all things staff, resources and day-to-day, have put many schools in a very serious situation.

Many schools face the challenge of making a case — whether to the Head, SLT, Governors or the eagle-eyed SBM — to part with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of pounds for a beneficial software solution.

And here we are… an EdTech company with a great product, a great team of former teachers, great feedback (see our EdTech Impact reviews) and the offer of a great free trial!

But what about when schools simply don’t have the pots to pull from? This is where a very wise SBM I once worked with comes in…

Considering direct vs. indirect costs

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to have a chat with your finance manager about how much the printer costs your school. From the excessive printing (black and white I hope, unless you really do want to cause trouble!) to the cost of fixing it when it breaks down, the printer can be a right pain.

But, consider this… while the direct costs of printing (the paper, the ink) are obvious (spoiler alert: it’s not cheap), more interesting are the indirect costs in terms of staff time.

As teachers, how much time have we all spent doing next-step marking, creating and printing ad hoc resources for each child? How about completing intervention paperwork (that, dare I say, may end up just sitting in a folder idle for many years before eventually being discarded)?

So, when looking for resources that can save your school money, it’s just as important (if not more so!) to find something that can save on both direct and indirect costs. And this is exactly where Doodle can help.

Doodle: a money-saving solution for schools

When you start focusing on staff time, costs can quickly rack up. But what if there was an adaptive programme that would create every child a personalised work programme, plugging their gaps, revising content and introducing new learning all specific to them?

And, what if it was accessible on laptops, tablets and smartphones, meaning no printing?

How about an online Teacher Dashboard that allows you to analyse data (and even set additional, specific NC-aligned work) which you can use for handovers, Pupil Progress meetings, data input and reports?

Doodle can do all of these things — and more!

It’s simple maths: if black and white copying costs roughly 5p a sheet (depending on your supplier!), and a teacher prints or photocopies 60 pages a day (I was, I’m afraid, and a lot more at times), that’s £600 in a school year. Multiply that by the number of staff you have, and it doesn’t take long for schools to be racking up thousands of pounds, maybe even tens of thousands.

Factor in the cost of multiple intervention sessions, TA time, and the planning, printing and potentially purchasing of resources, the direct and indirect costs involved quickly add up.

With this in mind, investing in Doodle — an e-tutor style software programme that saves you precious time whilst progressing learners — at just £6 per pupil per year, can save you money.

To find out more about how Doodle can benefit your school and save you direct and indirect costs, why not book a free no-obligation chat with our team?