Written by Niall Statham, Assistant Headteacher Whole School Student Experience, Hartland International School

Most schools have powerful management information systems, but the number of people who would describe themselves as confident users is remarkably small. Teachers need to be skilled users of these systems not only to draw maximum value from them, but to improve day‑to‑day efficiency so they can spend more time on what delivers the greatest impact for the children in their care.

After spending yet another evening scrolling through YouTube Shorts, I started to wonder about the appeal of that delivery model and what it might mean for professional learning. I didn’t discover a single “optimal” length for a video, but one phrasing stayed with me: using the shortest time necessary to deliver a complete, satisfying, high‑retention experience. In many ways, that became the design brief for improving our use of the MIS: get people exactly what they need, at the right time, in a way that keeps them engaged over the long term.

From this idea came a completely different approach to how we upskill staff in using the system. Like many schools, we have tried drop‑in sessions, annual refresher training and libraries of how‑to videos. All of these have their place, but none of them ever quite seemed to hit the mark. They either needed more time than teachers realistically had, or they were too general to be useful when other demands and deadlines were looming. Out of that frustration, “Tip of the Week” was born.

The rules are simple and deliberately modelled on how we now consume media. Each video has a target length of under 80 seconds and is delivered alongside a hook‑style email, designed to grab attention in a crowded inbox. Each one has a playful, slightly different angle to help drive engagement, followed by a short input that cuts straight to a specific skill – no preamble, no filler. The focus is always a real task: finding a particular data point, running a report, or completing a step that staff are actually using that week.

Timing is as important as length. Videos are released in step with the school calendar, highlighting features that will be useful right now or in the week ahead: how to find key information before to proof read reports how to run advanced attendance reports post online learning, how to pull the data you need for a specific parent meeting. If there is no relevant training need, there is no video. The aim is not to create content for its own sake, but to provide something that feels genuinely “just‑in‑time” rather than “just in case”.

Behind this sits a simple idea: not all professional development has to be long to be valuable. There are times when we need extended, more exploratory learning. The kind of session where we wrestle with curriculum, pedagogy and wider strategy. Those sessions matter, and this approach does not replace them. But there are also moments where the need is niche and practical. In those moments, the ability to get right to the heart of it in 80 seconds rather than an hour is worth pursuing.