Darren Bastyan
Head of Digital Strategy, Harrow International Schools, Hong Kong
As a Maths teacher in a leading UK independent school, Darren quickly developed an interest in the effective use of data to support my pupils to succeed. Always having been a bit of a data nerd, he worked to develop Excel systems for the department, especially as, at the time, online learning tools became increasingly prevalent and valuable for teaching and learning so he wanted to look at gathering and utilising that data within the team. As the Head of Scholars and Gifted and Talented coordinator, he developed bespoke systems to analyse and make sense of the data available, as well as to provide quick, actionable insights when working with a large amount of varied, messy data across multiple platforms. This is when he really cut-his-teeth on data analysis and began to understand both the benefits and necessity of data in education. As a Head of Department at Harrow Hong Kong, the systems were disparate and the management information system was uncooperative. What was abundantly clear was that the teachers and middle leaders were (and are) exceptional and motivated to provide the best for the children in their care, but the systems and, to a lesser extent, the understanding of the data were not supporting them. This, with the support of the Head, gave him the mandate to work to improve the use of data at the school, which he has been doing since 2019. This is a work in progress, but with great strides forward.
