Slowly, very slowly, the concept of efficiency is creeping into education.   Three years ago a new course for school administrators (the Certificate in Educational Administration) was launched, which focussed very much on efficiency in the school office.   Then the government set up the Financial Management in Schools programme, and the Value for Money Unit.

Back in the world of administration, the School of Educational Administration launched a service through which administrators can write in and ask questions about anything to do with educational administration.

And now they are speaking of the great success they are having with Use the Key.

The project is run by the TDA, and the aim is this - if you have a question and you don’t know how to get the answer, you search The Key’s site for answers to all the previous questions people have asked, and if the answer is not there, you email the project and one of their ten researchers will send you back the answer.

According to a report in the Guardian the sort of questions coming up are  “How can I engage hard-to-reach parents?”, “Can I use Wi-Fi in my school safely?”, and “How can I raise achievement in boys’ writing?”.   You can’t ask legal questions, but anything else educational is ok.

Apparently all questions are answered within 72 hours and the service is thought to be saving users 5 hours a week.

An independent report shows that school leaders believe the service is saving them on average five hours per question asked.

To access the Key you need to be a senior manager in a school in England.  You can log on at [1] http://www.usethekey.org.uk/createMember

For school administrators the SEA’s service takes the form of a weekly newsletter, with subscribers able to email in questions (email [2] ad.admin@schools.co.uk with the word Subscribe in the subject line).  This service is open to all schools in the UK.

The value for money unit is at [3] http://www.dfes.gov.uk/valueformoney/ 

Details of the Certificate in Educational Administration can be accessed from [4] www.admin.org.uk