If your school runs on Google Workspace and someone in SLT has floated a move to Microsoft 365, the first reaction is often a sigh.

There are years of Drive folders to move. And staff who know Classroom inside out aren't always keen to start again.

That's a fair reaction. But the move is rarely the cliff edge it looks like from the top.

I've led Microsoft 365 rollouts across multiple organisations, working alongside Cloud Design Box as part of that work. The hardest part was always deciding where everything should live before anything moved, and showing staff that their daily routine would barely change.

What changes for teachers (and what doesn't)

Day to day, it stays familiar. Setting work, sharing resources, collecting submissions and giving feedback all have a home in Class Teams.

What does change is how the school organises its resources. Instead of every teacher keeping their own copy of a scheme of work, departments can hold shared resources in SharePoint and reuse them year on year. That's where the time savings show up.

Questions to answer before you commit

  • Where will our content land, and who can see it?
  • What happens to old student work, marks and feedback?
  • Which Drive sharing links will break, and does that bother us?
  • Who runs the migration: our IT team, a partner, or both?

If you can't answer those yet, start there. Moving files comes later.

Two free guides from Cloud Design Box

Cloud Design Box has just published two free PDF guides that answer most of those questions. Having worked with the team, I'm not surprised they're practical and pitched well for schools.

The first, Reasons to move from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 for Education, is for leaders and teaching staff. It lines up Google Classroom against Class Teams feature by feature, then looks at what Microsoft 365 adds once you're settled.

The second, Migrating from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 for Education: a practical overview, is for leaders, IT and operations staff. It's upfront about the limits. Historical marks and comments don't carry across into Teams Assignments, for example, and the guide explains how to export and archive them instead.

I like that. Guides that name the awkward bits and tell you how to handle them earn trust quickly.

If you're weighing up a move, or just want to understand what one would involve, both are a short read and a good place to start.

Read the full article from Cloud Design Box: Moving from Google to Microsoft 365: Free Guides

Has your school made the switch, or decided against it? I'd like to hear what tipped the decision.