Transforming the School District Ecosystem with ThingLink: East Renfrewshire Case Study

Kyla Ball March 24, 2026

East Renfrewshire Council’s Education Department sought to improve how they delivered training, shared resources, and communicated with teachers across a diverse digital landscape. With materials previously scattered across multiple platforms and formats, staff faced ongoing challenges in locating, accessing, updating, and navigating essential resources. By adopting ThingLink as a centralised solution, the team has transformed how information is organised, accessed, and experienced – saving time and improving the user experience.

ThingLink spoke to Jonathan Hull, Principal Teacher: Equity (Digital Inclusion), to understand more about the difference that the platform has made to the day to day operations of the schools and the education authority as a whole. 

Background

East Renfrewshire is an area located to the south west of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. East Renfrewshire Council Education Department is responsible for 7 secondary schools, 24 primary schools (13 of which have nursery classes), 10 family centres, 1 school for children with additional support needs, and 1 school for Gaelic Medium Primary Education (where all classes are taught in the Gaelic language.)

The council have deliberately followed a device- and operating system-agnostic approach, incorporating a combination of Google Workspace for Education and Chromebooks, Microsoft M365 and Windows OS devices, and Apple devices, across all schools. In this way they aim to equip all pupils and staff with the skills and confidence to navigate all devices and operating systems, choosing which to use depending on the best fit for the task. In addition, schools access all teaching and learning resources through the Glow platform, a national digital learning platform provided by the Scottish Government. 

Challenges: Inefficiency and Inconsistency

Before implementing ThingLink, resource sharing across the authority was inefficient. Despite all the resources being centralised on Glow, teachers often struggled to find the most up-to-date materials, while the central team faced the ongoing task of distributing revised materials and managing multiple versions. 

The multiple platform approach often created inconsistencies in how resources were accessed and stored. This added complexity for teachers, who had to navigate different systems depending on the content. Altogether, these challenges resulted in lost time, duplication of effort, and a less effective experience for both the central team and school staff.

For regular communications such as newsletters from the Digital Inclusion team, tools such as Sway and Wakelet were not meeting user needs, as their formats required excessive scrolling and made it difficult to view the content holistically.

ThingLink Provides the Solution

To address these issues, the wider improvement team implemented ThingLink as a way to rationalise, group and share training materials and other resources in a way that was clear, intuitive, easy to navigate, and instant to update. This approach created a stable, centralised hub where resources could be accessed through one consistent link, and updated at any time to ensure it was always current and relevant.

The interactive tags in each ThingLink resource can contain a mixture of documents, videos, PDFs, images, embedded content and links out to external websites and resources. Explore an example of one of these interactive resources below.

DigiHub Digest transformation

One of the most visible changes was the transformation of the weekly “DigiHub Digest” newsletter. This contains important updates to tools, resources and materials, training, events, news, and other relevant information. Previously hosted on other platforms, it was redesigned using a simple Canva background enhanced with interactive ThingLink tags. This allowed users to view all content on one page, significantly improving usability and engagement. To make past issues even easier to locate, they are all hosted on one ThingLink Landing Page, which you can explore below.

Structured Curriculum Resource Pages

The team also developed comprehensive curriculum resource pages covering key areas such as learning, teaching, and assessment. These pages use layered ThingLinks to organise content clearly while maintaining a clean and intuitive interface. 

In addition, themed “resource lockers,” such as those for literacy, numeracy and EAL (English as an Additional Language), were introduced to provide structured, easy-to-navigate guidance for teachers across all grade levels.

Seamless Access via Glow

By placing ThingLink tiles directly on the East Renfrewshire homepage on the Glow platform, Jonathan’s team ensured that every staff member can quickly and reliably access the materials they need.

Unifying the Ecosystem

Importantly, ThingLink also acts as a unifying layer across the authority’s varied technology ecosystem. Regardless of whether content is stored on Apple, Google, or Microsoft platforms, teachers can access it seamlessly through a single interface. 

Below: Explore the Interactive Troubleshooting Guide

Canva Integration for Ease of Creation

ThingLink’s Integration with Canva further simplifies both the creation and the updating processes, enabling staff to design and update content efficiently in an all-in-one step. The integration means that there is no need to download and upload background graphics and visuals in Canva prior to adding the interactive tags in ThingLink; it can all be done at once. Read more about the ThingLink Canva integration here.

Benefits, Results, and Feedback

Significant Time Savings

The adoption of ThingLink has delivered significant time savings for both the wider improvement team and teachers. Educators no longer need to search across multiple systems for resources, and the central team can update materials without redistributing links or managing multiple versions. This has reduced administrative workload and improved overall efficiency.

Improved User Experience

User experience has also improved considerably. Teachers report that the DigiHub Digest is easier to navigate, and prefer its interactive, one-page format. Having all key materials available in a single location, with the same layout for each issue, has reduced confusion and made it easier to engage with content.

Streamlined Updates and Maintenance

The ability to update resources centrally while maintaining a consistent link ensures that all users can be confident that they are always accessing the latest information. Combined with Glow integration, this approach guarantees equitable access across all schools in the authority.

Cross-Platform Compatibility

ThingLink’s compatibility across different platforms has further enhanced its value, removing any barriers that might have existed in a mixed technology environment. 

“ThingLink has become the glue that holds all the digital systems together.”

Jonathan Hull, Principal Teacher: Equity (Digital Inclusion), East Renfrewshire Council

As a result, ThingLink is now regarded as the most essential tool within the council education department. East Renfrewshire hold a K12 District (Enhanced) licence, and each year when licences come up for renewal

“ThingLink is the ONE licence that we never have to persuade the council to renew each year – it’s essential to how we operate as an Education Department.”

Jonathan Hull, Principal Teacher: Equity (Digital Inclusion), East Renfrewshire Council

Conclusion

By implementing ThingLink, East Renfrewshire Education Department has successfully streamlined staff resources and resource sharing, transforming a fragmented system into a cohesive, user-friendly experience. The platform not only saves time and reduces administrative burden, but also enhances accessibility, consistency, and engagement for educators. As both a content hub and a technology integrator, ThingLink now plays a central role in supporting teaching and learning across the authority.