Exeter-based charity wins international award

Mary Youlden
Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 9:13am

Exeter based charity, South West Grid for Learning Trust, has been awarded a prestigious Bett award in the ‘ICT Leadership and Management Solutions’ category. Coinciding with Bett, the world’s largest technology in education show, the awards are considered the highest accolade in the industry.

The Bett Awards play a key role in identifying and rewarding innovative ICT resources and services for use in education. The winning organisations were announced at the Bett Awards dinner in London on Wednesday 21 January.

The South West Grid for Learning is a not-for-profit charitable trust specialising in supporting schools and other establishments’ online safety and is lead partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre. It won the award for its online e-safety toolkit, Boost (http://boost.swgfl.org.uk).

The judges were impressed with the solution’s ability to help school leaders and managers make informed decisions and safe guard pupils. They commented, “Full and effective support on the use of the product is provided with online training and advice. Boost is a very useful and innovative e-safety solution offering good value for money."

Caroline Wright, director of the education sector’s trade association BESA, pioneers of Bett and the Bett Awards said, “Due to the international recognition of Bett in terms of its place in showcasing the latest learning technologies, the Bett Awards support international trade by providing educators all over the world with a means of identifying the most innovative and effective ICT products, companies and services.”

Debbie French, portfolio director at i2i Events Group summarised; “The Bett Awards bring together developers, distributors and educational practitioners each year to recognise, reward and celebrate ICT excellence in the education sector. Becoming a Bett winner is something that companies strive to achieve. The 2015 Awards mark the 17th year of celebrating and acknowledging the world’s leading developments of ICT within education. We applaud the South West Grid for Learning for the excellence it provides.”

David Wright, Director UK Safer Internet Centre at SWGfL said: “We are thrilled to win this award, recognising the quality of BOOST and its effectiveness at safeguarding children online.  As an organisation which supports the innovative and safe use of technology in education, we work very hard to ensure that schools are better able to protect their children when online - BOOST clearly does this.”

For further information on the Bett Awards, please visit www.bettawards.com

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