EDISON SCHOOLS AND MCLAREN SOLUTIONS ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP

Collaboration Offers New Web-based Tools to Enhance School Leadership

Colchester, UK: March 4th, 2005 ­ Edison Schools UK has announced a partnership with online people solutions and human resources technology company, McLaren Solutions. By combining elements of Edison's school improvement programme with McLaren's range of online performance management tools, the partnership provides an all-encompassing and effective environment for building leadership capacity in schools.

'We believe that performance management is at the heart of the successful operation of a school, and that staff development and retention is fundamental to the overall success of the school,' said Paul Lincoln, Education Director of Edison Schools UK. 'Edison works with schools to refine and implement their overall improvement strategy and appraisal and development frameworks that are credible, easy to use and motivating are a key part of our method. So many approaches and systems that we see are impractical because they require too much time from members of staff and fail to make a real contribution to improved school performance. McLaren's approach is very different and we are delighted to be able to offer this valuable enhancement to our programme.'

The McLaren AsterionTM suite offers a set of integrated software tools that allow schools to highlight the competencies and objectives for staff and then use these as the basis for performance reviews and learning and development plans. The tools are delivered over the internet, allowing schools to implement 'best practice' performance management processes in an easily accessible, paperless, cost effective format.

Paul Glover, MD of McLaren Solutions, believes that it is essential to measure the capability and culture of teams and individuals in order to harness the full power of an effective team. 'The future success of any team needs to be built upon a solid foundation of leadership development and performance appraisal ­ this is particularly true when the entire focus of an organisation is about the development of children's potential', he states. 'Together with Edison Schools, we will help schools harness the power of their most important asset ­ their staff ­ and use this asset to improve the performance of the overall school.'

Representatives will be available to discuss the Leadership Improvement offering at an event at the SHA (Secondary Heads Association) Annual Conference in Brighton on March 4th.