ICT Facility Award

sponsored by GCSEPod
Awarded to the educational establishment in the UK that has made outstanding progress in the provision of a first class environment for the teaching of ICT and related subjects.

2011 Winner: Longfield Academy, Kent

Longfield Academy, first in England to venture school-wide use of the iPad, believes it is ‘revolutionising learning’ by giving students an improved learning flexibility - anytime, any place.  The ability to access up-to-date interactive information and easy links to their work at any time or place, will help students achieve better results through such a different learning style. Network access will be monitored while pupils are at school, with a ‘staffed cloakroom’ for storage. This is ICT as an essential skill for life, encompassing the mastery of technical skills and techniques. But Longfield also aims to engender this understanding to be applied to such kills purposefully, everyday life and employment. The school’s ICT capability is fundamental to that participation and engagement in modern society.

Commended

Towers Junior School, Essex
ICT is at the heart of Towers Junior School’s teaching, where eLearning platforms, through the Managed Learning Environment (MLE), have enabled their pupils to access guided activities, via a secure Internet site, at home. In fact, MLE is being used across the borough and internationally as an example of excellent practice. Since its introduction, pupils have actually become enthusiastic about continuing their learning beyond the school day. Expertise has been upgraded with part-time teaching specialists in ICT, which will deepen its wider potential. The ICT emphasis is derived from their view that they are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, for technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet – a fitting mantra for school’s ICT.

Christ The King Catholic Primary School, Birmingham
All pupils at Christ The King school can make regular use of an individual laptop throughout the week, in addition to the PCs and interactive whiteboards in every classroom. The school has a rigorous policy ensuring safe and appropriate use of the Internet at all times. Every pupil has access to their own individual Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) where they can store their work, access it as well as send and receive emails. Multimedia trolleys are available during lessons in class and for whole school presentations. Children are taught computer-use skills and to understand hardware/software components. However, they are encouraged to use ICT skills to support work other areas of their learning. In both key stages they experience a range of ICT equipment.

Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College, Worcester
Blessed Edward College opened a new ICT suite in October 2011 which has been nominated for an architectural award. Interactive ICT hardware, which is now in every teaching room and increasingly applied in the delivery of lessons, is a major motivational force for generating enthusiastic teaching and learning in the College. Every year pupils achieve excellent examination results which prepare them for post-16 education increasing their life chances. That expectation is being enhanced further by the school’s systematic forward planning system to install and develop ICT technologies to nurture student capabilities. That includes, over the next few years, continuing community ICT evening classes – funding permitting; to personalise independent student learning through expanded VLE use, and to expand ICT international trips.