Jonathan Bowers

Digital Resources Manager at The Cam Academy Trust

Jonathan Bowers has been working at The Cam Academy Trust for over 22 years. From starting off as a Teaching Assistant at St Peter’s School, to eventually taking on a wider Trust position, Jonathan has played a pivotal role in developing the Trust’s technological side and applying it to an educational setting for the benefit of our schools.

As a former pupil of the school he got his first job at, to now becoming a Digital Resources Manager at The Cam Academy Trust, Jonathan has shared more about his career development and experience throughout his time working here.

What is your background in education?

“I joined St Peter’s School in 2001 as a 20-year-old Teaching Assistant working in the IT department. I’ve always had a keen interest in IT and having previously achieved grade A in A Level computing as a student at the very same school, I was passionate about going back to St Peter’s and being involved in the development of young people and giving them skills which would be useful for their school career and beyond.

“The role quickly became more technical, and I was eventually put in charge of overseeing the network management and IT support. The next few years were revolutionary in educational technology and saw us oversee the embedding of IT into every part of teaching and learning as we gave every teacher the tools they needed for the 21^st century classroom.

“I remained at St Peter’s as the IT Manager for almost 16 years and was there when they joined The Cam Academy Trust in 2016. Later that year, a chance arose for a fresh challenge, and a new opportunity to use technology to positively impact teaching and learning on a larger scale. As Microsoft 365 was growing and fast becoming an industry standard, the Trust gave me the opportunity to oversee the digital transformation of all our schools, and in February 2017, we got to further our bold ‘cloud-first’ strategy as I was appointed Digital Resources Manager.

“Over the coming years, we successfully transitioned the content within our schools from geographically limited silos to universally available hubs. This allowed us to make our content available to everyone 24/7 and enable cross-school sharing and collaboration. This helped empower teachers to confidently use tools such as Teams and OneNote to bring a new dimension into the learning experience of our pupils.”

What’s your favourite thing about the role?

“Despite not being in the classroom anymore, I love what I do because I’m still able to have an impact on the education of thousands of our students. By working with Microsoft 365, we are not only providing secure access to resources essential for modern teaching and learning across the curriculum, but pupils are also learning how to use a platform which is used throughout the world across all industries, giving them a solid head start for their future careers.

“I love coming alongside colleagues and showing them how technology can be utilised in their various roles and giving them the confidence to do more. My favourite words to hear are ‘well, that wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be…’.”

How has working for CAT provided you with opportunities (including training or CPD) or links you might otherwise not have made?

“Working for The Cam Academy Trust has enabled me to blend my technical expertise with my passion to see people progress – both students in their educational journeys, but also other staff in their own progression through ever-changing technology. I believe in technology, and I believe in education.

“Since I started, I have always said that ‘it’s my job to make everyone else’s job easier’, meaning I want the technology we put in place to ultimately be a solution and not a problem. My role requires me to keep on top of the latest developments and I am given the freedom to ensure I get the training necessary to provide the best quality service to our thousands of users.”

Excellence For All