Celebrating digital excellence in schools in England

A massive thank you to the digital leaders and staff in helping our school to attain the Digital Wellbeing Award. After achieving our Digital Schools Award last year, we realised that the second award was within reach and thought why not go for it! My digital leaders worked very hard to ensure that everyone at Clovenstone Primary was up-to-date and understood CRIS. Delivering workshops to parents and carers, presenting whole school assemblies and supporting teachers in class, they exceeded expectations and did so with maturity, resilience and passion. As DLC, I gathered support from parents/carers during Parents Evening, as well as evidence of learning and teaching from teachers which included photos of pupils hard at work. From this, I was able to create presentations for each of the sections required and submitted it to DSAS. After a successful validation meeting last week, we were told we had been successful in our bid for the award and were the first Primary school in Edinburgh to do so! Next step, for our school is to gain the Equitable Creative Coding Award!”

We have absolutely loved working alongside Digital Schools Scotland. They provided us with a clear structure for teaching digital literacy while offering incredible opportunities to empower our pupils. Our pupil team is absolutely thrilled with their awards and has developed vital, lifelong skills along the way.
I highly recommend Digital Schools Scotland to any school looking to elevate their digital literacy curriculum and truly empower their students.
Thanks,
Andy Gonet

The process was easy from start to finish. The given criteria and suggested examples helped to structure our digital journey and evidence pack. Submission was straightforward and quick, and the validators were supportive, friendly and eager to understand the digital journey of the school. They were keen to speak with pupils, interacting with a warm, interested nature. The award report was fair, giving easily achievable next steps. I recommend this process to all schools.

Our nursery setting has worked hard over the past two years to embed digital play into our practice. We have achieved this through an ongoing cycle of improvement priorities and self-evaluation. Throughout this journey, we have successfully changed attitudes, upskilled our entire team, and significantly improved outcomes for children in this area.
The team has thoroughly enjoyed the process, embedding digital play into learning spaces and everyday practice. Everyone involved has contributed immensely to this journey and has demonstrated a positive attitude, enthusiasm, and a willingness to learn and develop their skills further.
Overall, it has been a fantastic experience. The online platform provides clear guidance, extensive evidence, and a transparent framework showing exactly what is required to achieve the award. While it has involved a considerable amount of work, it has been incredibly worthwhile, and we are very proud of what our setting has accomplished.

Harrysmuir Primary School had a very positive experience working towards the Equitable Creative Coding Award. The process gave us the opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the strong practice already taking place across our school, while also helping us to think clearly about next steps.
Our validator, Malcolm, was friendly, reassuring and highly supportive throughout the process. He made staff feel at ease, listened carefully to both pupils and adults, and took time to recognise the efforts of the whole school community. His feedback was clear, encouraging and constructive, and genuinely affirmed the work staff and pupils have been doing in coding and computational thinking.
The validation experience felt collaborative rather than daunting, and Malcolm’s approach helped pupils speak confidently about their learning and staff feel proud of their practice. We would highly recommend the ECCo Award to other schools and greatly valued the professional and positive support provided during the process.

A huge thank you to everyone in the Digital Schools Award team for supporting Holy Rood RC High School in achieving our Digital Schools Award.
Our journey began in October 2024 at the Edinburgh Learns Digital Conference. Hearing from other schools who had already achieved the award — and being given such a clear roadmap — gave us the confidence to get started. From there, staff across the school worked collaboratively to gather evidence that truly reflected the excellent digital practice happening every day: from creative iMovies in Food and Textile Technology to fully digital lessons delivered through OneNote in Maths. We were genuinely proud of the creativity and digital literacy shown by our teachers.
Our pupils are at the heart of Digital Learning in Holy Rood. Their feedback has shaped lessons, inspired new approaches, and helped us understand what engages them most. Our Digital Leaders, in particular, have been invaluable — supporting evidence gathering, contributing to the validation meeting, and championing digital learning across the school. We absolutely couldn’t have done this without them.
A special thank you goes to our validator, Malcolm, who made the whole process feel relaxed and positive. After we submitted our evidence, he organised the validation meeting and everyone who spoke with him — staff and pupils alike — came away saying the same thing: “He was so lovely!” He clearly verified our evidence, offered helpful advice on future awards, and turned the meeting into a genuine celebration of our school community’s hard work.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to explore other awards that recognise and celebrate Digital Learning at Holy Rood. But for now, we just want to say a massive THANK YOU — and rest assured, you’ll be hearing from us again very soon.

As a school we used the online platform to access all the super examples, documents and files. The Digital Schools website and school evaluation were easy to navigate and we really liked that we could input evidence gradually as we progressed. The examples and suggested evidence was helpful.
The validation discussion was supportive and helpful. We really felt we were given the opportunity to share our journey including our success and pressures. The feedback we were given on the day was both helpful and meaningful!
I would recommend Digital Schools for schools working on this area as it is a really helpful guide and easy to use.
A very good experience!

We had a lovely experience and are very proud of our achievement in receiving our digital schools award. The digital leaders and staff worked extremely hard to collate all the evidence and led a presentation on the day. It is a big success that we were very excited to share with our community.
Claire, our validator was so supportive and the children loved sharing our learning with her!
What a great experience, thank you!

Participating in the Digital Schools Wellbeing Award has been an incredibly rewarding experience for our school. The process encouraged us to pause, reflect, and think more deeply about what digital wellbeing truly means for our learners and staff. Taking part in the award gave us the opportunity to evaluate our current practices, identify areas for growth, and celebrate the positive steps we were already taking.
Overall, the journey was valuable, insightful, and has strengthened our commitment to promoting a safe, balanced, and mindful digital culture across our school community.

We achieved the Digital Schools Award in March 2023, and knew then that we wanted to continue working towards the Digital Wellbeing Award. We went on to achieve the Digital Wellbeing Award in January 2026, with our Nursery also achieving its own Digital Wellbeing Award and the Digital Learning and Teaching Early Years Award at the same time. We have found the self-evaluation tools on the website very helpful and easy to use, and the validation process itself was very supportive. We are very proud of our achievements!

Achieving the Digital Schools Award Scotland in the 2024/2025 academic year has been a digital milestone for our primary school. The journey toward this recognition allowed us to critically evaluate our digital integration, ensuring that technology serves as a powerful tool for equity, engagement, and excellence in the classroom.
The validation from the Digital Schools Award team has not only boosted the confidence of our staff and pupils but has also provided us with a clear, strategic roadmap for the future. The assessment process was rigorous yet incredibly supportive, highlighting our strengths while offering professional insights that challenged us to go further.
Following the constructive and inspiring feedback from our assessor, we are now officially aiming for the Digital Schools Coding Award. The momentum generated by our initial success has ignited a passion for computational thinking across all year groups, and we look forward to further developing our curriculum to prepare our learners for a digital world.
We highly recommend this award to any school looking to celebrate their digital achievements and foster a culture of continuous innovation.

Taking part in DSAS seemed daunting initially but the framework provided us with a thorough set of criteria for self-reflection. The validation meeting was helpful and supportive, talking about next steps as well as reminding us of all the good things we had worked hard to achieve. Overall a helpful and affirming experience for us as a school!

As a school, we are incredibly proud of the strong digital learning environment we have built. In the lead up to submitting our application for the Digital Schools Award, our staff and pupils worked extremely hard to showcase the high quality practice taking place across our school.
The validation process itself was organised seamlessly, which we greatly appreciated. The communication throughout was warm, supportive, and reassuring. The validator Claire was particularly lovely—her emails and our Teams call helped put everyone at ease. She explained each stage clearly and made our pupils feel comfortable and confident when talking about how digital learning is embedded in our school.
We felt that our efforts as a school were truly recognised. The feedback we received was both encouraging and motivating, giving us clear next steps as we continue to strengthen our digital journey.
We are absolutely delighted to have achieved the Digital Schools Award and are excited to keep progressing and developing our digital practice in the years ahead.

As a school, we worked really hard prior to submitting our application for the Digital Schools Award. The validation process was organised seamlessly. The team worked hard to ensure we could go through the validation process before the end of the school year. Katharine was extremely kind and explained everything in detail on the day of the validation. She spoke to pupils and made them feel comfortable and confident to speak about how digital is used in our school. She spoke to staff members who said that their experience was really positive. She was uplifting and fair during the whole process and totally listened to each member of staff and pupil. Katharine recognised the efforts we have put in as a school and was really encouraging in the next steps we should take as a school.
We are so proud to have achieved the Digital School Award and are so excited to continue to progress in our journey.
Visit Cambusnethan Primary School

Absolutely delighted to have been awarded the digital schools award at Newark Primary. A straight forward process, gathering clear evidence as already outlined, and extremely easy to use. Organising the call with Victor was plain sailing and a great opportunity to discuss all things digital with him and the pupils.
We are delighted to be a digital school and to be continuing to provide opportunities to link technology to learning.

Applying and working towards the digital schools award is such a lovely and supportive process. The example evidence suggestions supported our progress, and the validation was incredibly supportive with genuinely interested validators who ask questions to know more. It isn’t a tick box exercise and is easily personalised to a school!

We have thoroughly enjoyed this Digital journey. It has opened up so many different opportunities and widened the experiences we now offer to our children through their daily play. The award has provided a vast amount of cpd opportunities along the way for our staff and with great support from the digital team also. I would thoroughly recommend this award to any ELC centres.

The Digital Schools Award was a great focus for our self evaluation and our Digital journey as a school. We found it to be an excellent way for our Digital journey to be recognised and to be promoted within our community, our local authority and beyond. The validation process was very flexible and stress free.

Achieving the Digital Schools Award is something we are all really proud of here at Bonaly Primary. We have looked to embed digital learning across the curriculum over the last few years, with staff and pupils focussed on this goal. Through carefully planned lessons, the teaching of digital skills and investment in new digital resources, we have been able to enthuse our learners and ensure that they have the digital skills they require to take their learning forward. It was only once we started to gather the required evidence for the award that we realised just how much we had done and achieved as a school. It was great to receive the award, as we feel it reflects our commitment to take digital learning forward here at Bonaly.
The assessment process for the award was an enjoyable experience for all involved, with our Digi Ninjas (pupil led digital group) being able to share their achievements and thoughts on digital learning at Bonaly. Our assessor (Malcolm) was very supportive throughout, and made the experience a really positive one.

Tayview Primary are delighted to be award the Digital Schools Award. We have worked hard to ensure that digital technology is embedded within our curriculum at Tayview. Our learners really enjoyed showcasing their digital learning experience as part of the validation process.
 

Receiving our Digital Schools Endorsement award is perhaps even more exciting than achieving our original award in 2021!  This award recognises our ongoing dedication and commitment to, as well as our enthusiasm for, ensuring that the curriculum and tools offered to children within East Calder Primary School embraces the most up-to-date digital technologies effectively; develops computer science and data literacy skills in our children; and consistently supports and enhances children’s learning experiences.

Our children, staff and families are very proud to have achieved the Digital Schools Awards Scotland in recognition of our digital learning journey. We are excited to share our good news with our wider community and continue to learn and grow while supporting others as a mentor school.

We are really pleased to be part of a nationwide initiative which aims to develop, promote and celebrate digital learning in our classrooms. I am delighted that the experiences in digital learning upon which our children here at The Compass thrive and the hard work, dedication and commitment of our staff in providing the creative and confident digital environment from which our children benefit has been recognised by these two major awards. All of us here at The Compass are proud to become one of the schools carrying the flag for digital technology and innovation in Scottish education and we look forward to continuing on this journey during the months and years ahead.

Digital Schools offers our learners the opportunity to develop skills that they will use throughout their lives. As a school with a Learning Centre, we also find that these skills enable our learners with significant additional needs to access the wider curriculum..

The use of digital technology is embedded in our provision, pedagogy and practice. Staff have a very positive ‘can do’ attitude and utilise digital technology to support children’s learning and parental engagement at all levels. This award has given us an opportunity to evaluate our practice, identify our strengths and consider further innovations and developments with our partners.

The Award Programme continues to have an impact on our digital learning in school as we link up with other schools using the programme through digital media and can share good practice and developments.

Today’s children need to be digitally competent which includes having an awareness of digital safety, etiquette and exposure to appropriate applications. At Kirkton of Largo, our pupils engage in high quality, rich learning experiences across the curriculum and use digital tools appropriately to support their learning. The Digital Schools Award Programme enabled us to assess and evaluate our provision in depth and confirmed digital skills were firmly embedded across the school. It also gave us the opportunity to share our work with others and plan future developments in digital technology.

Digital skills are an integral part of our everyday lives, and as such it is absolutely essential that we give young people the opportunities to understand and use them properly. The Digital Schools Awards Programme is a fantastic example of industry supporting education in Scotland and helping ensure our young people develop the skills and opportunities to flourish.

The Digital Schools Award is a fantastic example of industry supporting education in Scotland. It is the result of collaboration between Scottish Government, Education Scotland and the digital industry and as such it is closely aligned with the aims of the Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy.

HP believes that the technology sector has a responsibility to support schools and ensure that the next generation is equipped with the knowledge needed to close the STEM and creative skills gap, and drive the economy of tomorrow. Being recognised as a Digital School is a great achievement and an important milestone. We congratulate the 21 schools receiving awards today.