We spoke with Kiran Ittoo, Head of IT at CFBL for over 10 years, to look back on the project.
An International Bilingual School in the Heart of London
Founded in 2011 and located in Kentish Town, London, CFBL welcomes around 700 students from Petite Section to Year 9 in a bilingual French-English environment.
The school follows the French national curriculum while encouraging strong international openness. Educational innovation, student well-being and family support are central to its educational project.
The Need to Centralize Tools and Modernize Processes
Before implementing Eduka, CFBL faced several challenges related to the day-to-day management of the school
“Like many schools, we were using different tools and sometimes fragmented processes, which could make daily follow-up more complex for teaching teams, administrative staff and families.
It was essential for us to have a single platform that could streamline communication between administration, teachers and parents, while ensuring simple and quick access to important information.”
One of the strengths of the project was its gradual deployment, allowing teams to adopt the different tools step by step:
“Another major challenge was supporting the school’s digital transformation. We needed a modern, intuitive solution that could adapt to the specificities of our organization and to the expectations of a demanding and multicultural educational community.”
Digitizing Extracurricular Activities and Online Payments
This transformation began with extracurricular activities:
“The first need for our school was to implement a solution dedicated to extracurricular activities, together with an online payment system. Managing childcare, clubs, Klubhouse and camps represented a significant amount of administrative work, with many manual exchanges for registrations and payments.
We needed a centralized, easy-to-use tool that could offer a better experience for families while making the work of administrative teams easier.”
Thanks to Eduka’s Extracurricular Activities module and integrated online payment system, families can now:
- complete administrative procedures more easily;
- register their children directly online;
- pay for activities through the platform.
“Thanks to Eduka, we were able to digitize the entire process. Registrations for extracurricular activities and payments are now handled directly online through the platform. This has considerably simplified day-to-day management, improved registration follow-up and secured payment processing.”
Simplifying the Admissions Process
Following the success of this first phase, CFBL continued the project with the implementation of the Admissions module. Kiran explains:
“Following the success of this first step, we continued the project with the implementation of the Admissions module, also supported by an online payment solution. This development allowed us to streamline the journey for new families, simplify application tracking and centralize administrative information within a single environment.”
Synchronization with Pronote
During this phase, CFBL also implemented synchronization with Pronote:
“It was also during this phase that synchronization with Pronote was introduced. This integration was particularly important for us, as it ensures a better flow of data between platforms, limits duplicate data entry and guarantees consistency between pedagogical and administrative information within the school.”
This integration made it possible to:
- strengthen the consistency of pedagogical and administrative information;
- improve the flow of data between platforms;
- reduce duplicate data entry.
Tuition Fee Management and Financial Monitoring
Finally, the project was extended to Eduka’s Finance module for the management of tuition fees:
“This final phase of the project allowed us to:
- improve the school’s overall financial monitoring;
- automate certain administrative tasks;
- provide better visibility over payments and invoicing.
Building the project step by step was a real advantage. It allowed us to gradually support our teams throughout the digital transition.”
Results After Implementing Eduka
Time Savings for Administrative and Teaching Teams
“We now have a centralized platform that significantly simplifies the school’s administrative, financial and extracurricular activity management. Families benefit from a much smoother experience thanks to online registrations and payments, whether for extracurricular activities, enrolments, re-enrolments or tuition fees.
For administrative and teaching teams, the time savings are significant. Many processes that were previously manual have been automated, which reduces the risk of errors, improves file tracking and allows teams to focus more on supporting families and students.
Synchronization with Pronote has also brought real added value by ensuring better data consistency between the different platforms and limiting duplicate data entry. This has strengthened the overall efficiency of our organization and made teams’ daily work easier.”
A Smoother Experience for Families
“The project has also helped improve communication between the school and families thanks to more accessible and centralized tools. Today, we have better visibility over all the school’s administrative and financial operations, as well as a more modern and efficient way to manage our services.”
Better Data Consistency
Synchronization with Pronote also brings real added value on a daily basis. By reducing duplicate data entry and improving consistency between platforms, CFBL has been able to strengthen the overall efficiency of its organization.
Human Support Throughout the Project
CFBL also highlights the importance of Eduka’s team support in the success of the project:
“Eduka Support played an essential role in the success of our transition to the platform. Throughout the project, we particularly appreciated the quality of the support and the availability of the teams.
Beyond the technical aspect, we felt that we were working with a true partner, capable of supporting us over the long term and actively contributing to CFBL’s digital transformation.”
Kiran particularly emphasizes the availability, responsiveness and adaptability of the teams throughout the different deployment phases:
“The team was always present to support us during the implementation of the different modules. Their attentiveness, responsiveness and strong understanding of our needs made the deployment much smoother and more reassuring for our teams.
More generally, Eduka Support has always been able to find solutions quickly to resolve the issues we encountered, but also to suggest system improvements to better meet our specific needs. This adaptability and collaborative approach were greatly appreciated throughout the project.
Having responsive and committed support allowed us to move forward with confidence through the different implementation phases and ensure the gradual adoption of the tools by administrative and teaching teams.”
Conclusion: A Scalable Platform to Support CFBL’s Development
Thanks to this collaboration with Eduka, CFBL has been able to implement a more modern, centralized and scalable way to manage its administrative, financial and extracurricular operations.
The project continues to support the school’s development today, while providing teams and families with simpler, more accessible and better-connected tools.
Thank you, Kiran!
