"A place for everything - and everything in its place."  Well, that's what my grandmother taught me - and it's a start!  However, QA is much more than good organisation - important as that is.  Companies live and die by their customer relations - and so do schools.  Many parents and school governors work in industries where good customer relations is an hallmark of their ethos and invariably made mention of in their mission statements.  (By the way, can you quote your school's mission statement without looking?) 

Companies often talk in terms of  'Customer-Supplier Chains'  or 'Stakeholders'.  Perhaps teachers too often think only about  teaching the subject matter and getting the right grades at the end of the year.  But what of the 'Hidden Curriculum'?  How do our people-management skills measure up to other companies' HR policies?  How do we consider our students and their parents as Customers? - or even as 'Suppliers'?  What is the real perception the neighbours have about your school?  When you leave the school gates at the end of the day are you proud of what you have done?

The 'Quality Gurus' have much to say about leadership, 'Quality Circles' and a whole host of strategies for inspiring levels of customer service in industry and commerce.  Invariably people like Tom Peters or, latterly, Alan November have inspired many leaders of industry or education (respectively).  However, concepts of the 'Quality ethos' do not often trickle down to the chalkface.

As a certificated quality auditor my advice to schools' leaders is this:  "Take big steps, slowly, and small steps - often."  The following pages attempt to identify some of the leading quality standards relevant to ICT in schools:

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