Greenhead College

Digital Experience
Survey 2026

What staff and A2 students told us about the technology they use every day, what works and what doesn’t.

Responses902
PeriodApril–May 2026
Cohorts862 A2 students  /  40 staff

Greenhead · Digital 2026
Overview

01, Who answered

Over half of A2 Students and 40 staff had their say. 902 people answered.

Total responses
902
Staff and students together
A2 Students
862
A really strong response from A2 students
Staff
40
Teaching, pastoral, leadership and learning support
Survey period
April
May ’26
The survey ran for three weeks

Staff mix

21  Teaching staff (52%)
9  Pastoral (22%)
5  Leadership (12%)
5  Learning support (12%)

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Greenhead · Digital 2026

A2 Students.

What 862 A2 students told us about WiFi, devices, AI, and the everyday tech they experience here.

Slides 4 to 13 · Students

03 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
A2 Students, n = 862

02, A2 Students

Where A2 students stand right now.

Overall
Overall digital experience
5.7/10
The average score A2 students gave overall
Infrastructure
WiFi & connectivity
4.5/10
The lowest score we recorded anywhere
AI
A2 Students who have used AI
70%
600 of the 862 A2 students who answered
Pedagogy
A2 Students who feel tech isn’t helping learn
72%
622 of the 862 A2 students who answered

WiFi scored lower than anything else we asked about. 

862 A2 students answered
04 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
A2 Students, n = 862

Does the technology at college help you learn?

Most A2 students say it doesn’t really help.

25.5%
No
220
46.6%
Not really
402
14.8%
Yes, sometimes
128
9.5%
Yes, often
82
3.1%
Not sure
27
622  A2 students

said No or Not really. That’s 72% of everyone who answered. Right now, the technology isn’t making learning easier.

n = 862
05 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
A2 Students, n = 862

How confident do you feel using digital tools for your studies?

Most feel okay, but a quarter don’t.

Yes, definitely
24.6%
n = 212
I think so
47.2%
n = 407
Not really
19.7%
n = 170
No
8.5%
n = 73
72%

feel at least somewhat confident using digital tools. But 28% (243 students) don’t. That’s a quarter of the year group.

n = 862
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Greenhead · Digital 2026
A2 Students, n = 862

What device do you primarily use for college work?

Own laptop or desktop
77.7%
n = 670
Phone
15.3%
n = 132
Shared family computer
4.4%
n = 38
College loan device
2.2%
n = 19
No reliable access at home
0.3%
n = 3
78%

Whatever we build has to work properly on the laptops and phones students already own. Home included.

n = 862
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Greenhead · Digital 2026
A2 Students, n = 862

Which college digital tools do you use regularly?

Almost everyone uses Teams. Email, not so much.

Microsoft Teams
90.6%
n = 781
Moodle, the learning platform
66.5%
n = 573
OneDrive
54.1%
n = 466
Email
28.5%
n = 246
None of these regularly
0.9%
n = 8

What this all adds up to

Only 29% of students use email regularly. They mostly live in Teams.

n = 862
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Greenhead · Digital 2026
A2 Students, n = 862

Have you used AI tools to support your studies?

AI is already part of how A2 students study every day.

70%
of A2 students have tried AI at least once. That’s 600 of them.
Yes, a few times 443 51.4%
Yes, regularly 157 18.2%
No, but I’m curious 40 4.6%
Not sure what AI tools are 8 0.9%
No, and I’m not interested 214 24.8%

Three quarters of A2 students have either used AI or are curious about it. We don’t yet have any college wide guidance on it.

n = 862
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Greenhead · Digital 2026
A2 Students who use AI, n = 600

What do you use AI tools for?

Mostly to help them learn, not to take shortcuts.

Explaining topics I don’t understand
425
71% of those A2 students
Research and finding information
342
57% of those A2 students
Checking my own work
334
56% of those A2 students
Helping with writing or essays
166
28% of those A2 students

What this tells us

Students are using AI as a tutor, not to write things for them.

71% of the A2 students who use AI reach for it to understand things they don’t. Only 28% use it to help with essays. Our guidance should treat it as a study aid, not just a risk.

Asked of the 600 A2 students who use AI. They could pick more than one, so totals are over 600.
10 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
A2 Students, 536 written responses

What gets in the way digitally?

Seven things A2 students said get in their way.

01
WiFi is unreliable
It drops out in classrooms, and coverage is patchy across the campus.
Mentioned very often
02
Moodle feels outdated
Students find it confusing and struggle to find what they need.
Mentioned very often
03
Macs are slow to boot
Lessons lose minutes waiting for them to start up.
Mentioned often
04
Repeated password prompts
Logging in keeps interrupting the work, over and over.
Mentioned often
05
SharePoint and Teams sprawl
Finding the right document in the right place at the right time is hard.
Mentioned often
06 · 07
Printing and library PCs
Devices often don’t recognise printers, and the library PCs were removed. Students miss them.
Mentioned sometimes
536 A2 students answered in their own words. Themes drawn from what they said.
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Greenhead · Digital 2026
A2 Student, in their own words
“

The Macs take so long to boot up that I’d bet Royal Mail can deliver post to Australia faster than them booting up.

, Student  ·  taken from a written response
One of 536 comments students wrote in their own words
12 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
Students, 606 written responses

What digital skill do you wish you’d learned here?

Students asked for one thing more than anything else, Excel.

Excel / spreadsheets
365
60%
Finding reliable information online
33
5%
AI literacy and responsible use
28
5%
Video editing
23
4%
Coding / programming
18
3%
Referencing and citations
5
1%
Professional email writing
4
1%
60%

365 students brought up Excel or spreadsheets on their own, without being asked, across every subject we teach.

“Using spreadsheets should be taught in form time, it is such a useful skill for the future, even if your job doesn’t directly require it.” , Student

606 of 862 students answered. Counts are exact matches to the words they used.
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Greenhead · Digital 2026

PART TWO

Staff.

What 40 members of teaching, pastoral, leadership and learning support staff told us.

Slides 15 to 22 · Staff

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Greenhead · Digital 2026
Staff, n = 40

How would you describe your relationship with digital technology?

Most staff feel comfortable.

Comfortable, not expanding · 52%
Curious and exploring · 32%
Behind · 12%
2%
21
Comfortable, but
not really growing
13
Curious and actively
trying new tools
5
Feeling behind, things
move faster than I can
1
Anxious, digital feels
like pressure, not support

86% of staff feel at least comfortable.

n = 40 staff
15 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
Staff, n = 40

How often do you use digital tools in your lessons?

Practice is all over the place.

12%
Always
5
25%
Often
10
40%
Sometimes
16
5%
Rarely
2
18%
Never
7
22%

of staff use digital tools rarely or never in their lessons.

n = 40 staff
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Greenhead · Digital 2026
Staff, n = 40

What would help you use technology more effectively?

What staff want most is time.

More time to explore & practise
62%
n = 25
Better training and CPD
57%
n = 23
More reliable technology
45%
n = 18
Clearer guidance on what tools, when
38%
n = 15
Peer support from colleagues
25%
n = 10
A culture where it feels safe to try things
15%
n = 6
Better student digital skills
10%
n = 4

Staff are asking for room to develop, not another course or guide.

n = 40 staff
17 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
Staff, n = 40

Do you use AI tools in your work?

Many staff have tried AI.

Yes, occasionally
32%
n = 13
No, and not planning to
25%
n = 10
Yes, regularly
18%
n = 7
No, but curious
15%
n = 6
Tried but stopped
10%
n = 4
18%
staff use AI
regularly
70%
students have
used it at least once

n = 40 staff
18 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
Staff, n = 40

What concerns you most about AI in education?

Two thirds of what worries staff is about students.

Academic integrity and cheating
32%
n = 13
Students using AI without understanding it
32%
n = 13
Data privacy and safeguarding
20%
n = 8
My own lack of knowledge / confidence
10%
n = 4
Leaders not modelling digital well
5%
n = 2

The top two concerns point to the same thing. Students and staff both need to learn how to use AI well.

n = 40 staff
19 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
Staff, n = 40

Are you aware of any college guidance or policy on AI use?

There is guidance. Hardly anyone is using it.

Yes, occasionally referred to
40%
n = 16
I’m not sure
28%
n = 11
Rarely
18%
n = 7
No
8%
n = 3
Yes, regularly
8%
n = 3
8%
regularly engage with AI guidance
28%
aren’t sure any guidance exists at all

A policy nobody uses isn’t really a policy.

n = 40 staff
20 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
Staff, n = 40

Which tools do you use regularly?

Staff use the Microsoft tools, but not evenly.

Outlook
40
Teams
37
SharePoint
35
Word
34
OneDrive
30
Excel
29
PowerPoint
28
Forms
19
OneNote
3

n = 40 staff
21 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026
Staff · 40 written responses

What digital tools or systems cause you most difficulty?

Most friction happens in the gaps between systems.

Platform proliferation
Too many systems, nobody really knows which one to go to for what.
Moodle and SharePoint duplication
Confusion between Teams, SharePoint and Moodle, duplication across systems.
Remote working
My laptop can only manage to do one thing at once from home.
Cedar underused
Cedar’s full capabilities are not being adopted, it would assist hugely with workload.
Communication of change
Changes to digital ways of working are not communicated well, rationale not explained by CLT.
Authentication at home
Too much hassle to access college systems at home, I now do nothing from home.
40 staff answered in their own words. Themes drawn from what they said.
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Greenhead · Digital 2026
Strategic signals

What this all adds up to

Six things we should do next.

01
Infrastructure before innovation
WiFi scored 4.5 out of 10, the lowest figure anywhere in the survey. Slow devices and constant logins get in the way every day.
02
Rationalise the platform landscape
Teams, SharePoint, Moodle, and email all live side by side, with no clear sense of what goes where. Students and staff are both asking for fewer systems and a clearer sense of what each one is for.
03
AI policy and literacy, now
70% of students already use AI, mostly without support. Only 18% of staff use it regularly.
04
Excel as a life skills blind spot for students
365 students, 60% of those who answered, named spreadsheet skills on their own. Enrichements would cover it, at very low cost.
05
Staff need time, not just training
“More time to explore” at 62% beat “better CPD” at 57%. What staff want is protected time and permission to try things.
06
Change management
Staff describe past changes as arriving with “zero notice, zero training.”
Drawn from the full survey of 902 responses
23 / 24
Greenhead · Digital 2026

Closing

So where do we go from here?

In the next year
What are the three things we want to commit to in the next twelve months?
By the end of 2026/27
What does success look like by the end of the next academic year?

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