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Midlothian Council is pleased to announce that, as part of our ‘Equipped for Learning’ programme, we will be moving all staff and pupils to a new Google Workspace environment throughout August, September and October. Google Workspace is a common platform with a wide range of services for all. 

What is Equipped for Learning?

The ‘Equipped for Learning’ programme is the council’s £10.5 million project to give every school age pupil in the county a learning device such as an iPad or Google Chromebook. Midlothian is the first local authority in Scotland to launch a world-class digital learning project on this scale. This programme will benefit both staff and pupils by:

  • Allowing an inclusive learning environment for all pupils and ensuring there is equitable access for all. 
  • Giving pupils the tools to take greater control of their learning with the ability to access materials from anywhere on their device.
  • Technically supporting the opportunities and demands of remote learning.
  • Utilising the Google Workspace platform that is used across many industries, helping all staff and pupils to develop their digital skills for life and work. 

Why Google Workspace?

Google Workspace has been widely used across Midlothian schools for ‘Classrooms’ and we will now be looking to take advantage of the various other collaboration features in Google such as Mail and Drive by moving everyone to the same “@midlothian.education” email address. This will streamline our technology behind the scenes and ensure a safe and secure learning environment for all. Here are some of the key changes across the next few months:

August – We will be working with our Early adopters and Core IT groups to test the new environment for Mail to ensure this is configured correctly.  During this period we will also be looking to launch a new ‘Classroom’ environment for staff and pupils. 

September – The new “@midlothian.education” email address will be available for all staff and pupils to use in Google Mail.

October  – All documents will be moved to the new Google Drive and the old Classrooms will move to the new Classroom environment. All staff and pupils will be working under one common platform.  

I’m a member of staff. What do I need to do?

We will be communicating dates in due course and providing training to staff members and support materials for those that need this throughout the change. Please check your emails and our Athena channel for any important communications surrounding the change, and if you are invited to any training sessions, it is important that you attend these. 

We will be informing everyone of our support channels shortly so that if  at any point you have any questions or feedback, we can accommodate these.

We hope that by providing devices to all pupils and introducing a new Google Workspace environment to all, we will inject a strong sense of collaboration into our educational workforce. Our aim is to raise attainment in children, equip young adults with the digital skills to enter the workforce and provide a platform for professional development for our staff.