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Brookmans Park

Case Study on the progression of ICT at Brookmans Park School from January 2007 to April 2009

Introduction

I was contacted by Charlene Lewin from Brookmans Park School and asked to come and assess the schools ICT hardware and Infrastructure. The school didn’t feel that they were getting the results they wanted from the hardware and software they had bought. They were also looking at applying for the ICT Quality mark and were looking for some guidance in their preparations.
These comments are staffs thoughts and feelings about the state of ICT at the school.

“By 2007 a substantial amount of money had been invested in ICT and whilst there had been some improvements in the achievements of the children especially in lower KS2, we continued to be dogged by technical problems especially with our wireless networking system. This was very much impacting on the children’s ICT skills and for using ICT to teach other areas of the curriculum. Many of the staff had lost confidence in the technology and were therefore understandably were reluctant to use the laptops. We had also lost confidence in our technical support who seemed unable to solve our technical difficulties.

There was a clear ICT action plan in place to raise standards in ICT and to increase the use of ICT for the purpose of teaching and learning in other areas of the curriculum. The aim was to achieve the ICT mark, to demonstrate our focus on ICT although we wanted to go beyond the remit of the ICT. The action plan had been costed out and was being funded by PTA, charity funding and from the school’s own budget. The immediate need however was to develop a system whereby all the children and teachers were able to have access to the laptops together with the appropriate software, without fear that the system would have problems and cause frustration and wasted lessons.

At the same time the school was also developing the infrastructure to enhance the children’s learning and the teachers’ teaching and to this end a rolling programme installing smart boards into all the classrooms had just been completed and the plan was also to purchase visualisers for the classrooms.”

Lesley Stevens – Head Teacher Brookmans Park School 2002 - 2008

“In Jan 2007 we had two banks of laptops that were both fairly new and should definitely have been working, however, they weren’t. Additionally, the teaching staff were not overly confident when using working laptops so the idea of wasting a lesson because of logging in problems and panicking in front of the children did not encourage anyone to use them. Consequently, there were very few children able to use the laptops so even using Word became unnecessarily stressful. After trying various strategies, we decided to ask for help from an outside agency. We wanted to ensure all children were confident using technology and also wanted to achieve the ICT Mark.

Russell came in for an initial meeting and discussed all the various issues and possible solutions. We realised how much we needed to do before we could even think about the ICT Mark and so instead wanted to raise the profile of ICT again and help the staff to become more confident. Russell was familiar to the staff and they all felt very confident of his abilities. We then spoke to the Governors and it was agreed that Russell could come in each week to work with the children and teachers. “

Charlene Lewin – Previously ICT Subject Leader Brookmans Park School, Team Leader at Coldfall Primary School

The first steps.

The school’s server was not working correctly and the two trolleys of laptops used to teach the children their main ICT lessons were only working occasionally. The staff’s laptops were only functioning some of the time as data was frequently being lost when they were connected to the network.
The schools staff confidence it the ICT equipment was very low, with the majority of staff unwilling to risk teaching a lesson with the equipment as they feared they would spend the entire lesson just trying to logon to the schools network. The classrooms that had permanent computers in them were used only as standalone machines and were lacking in children’s curricular software.

The School took the decision after my initial meeting and after receiving other professional opinions about their equipment and infrastructure, to terminate the association with their ICT support provider and rebuild the computer system. Working with a local secondary school, who are an ICT beacon school in Hertfordshire, the school agreed a timetable for the rebuilding of existing equipment and repair or replacement of all other equipment around the school. A plan to extend the wireless network to provide more adequate coverage for the amount of devices was also agreed and timetabled for installation during the upcoming Easter holidays. Finally the secondary school agreed to support the network with one of their technicians.
The school at this point employed my company to help bring their plans to fruition and re instil confidence into the staff. We put the ICT mark application on hold until we felt the staff were happy working with their equipment again.

“Teach Together first tackled essential technical issues so that the equipment would be more reliable. A teaching timetable was then developed so that he taught years 1 to 4 on a rota basis with the teacher present. This enabled him to model lessons for the teachers using the software that the teachers would use. He mainly taught the programmes directly related to the It programmes of study where appropriate using ICT in a cross curricular manner to make the teaching and learning more relevant. As an experienced primary school teacher with a passion for ICT and a high technical knowledge he started to rekindle the teachers’ confidence and at the same time, through his excellent rapport enthused the children. Through his manner and openness the teachers of whatever level of skill felt able to ask him questions and therefore all the teachers that he was involved with raised their level of skill or / and increased their knowledge of the available software to which he introduced the teachers to enhance their teaching.”

Lesley Stevens – Head Teacher Brookmans Park School 2002 - 2008

“My teaching of ICT was always of great concern to me. I lacked any sort of confidence and the equipment in our school was frequently temperamental or didn’t work at all! If I encountered problems I had no idea what to do.”

Trish Fisher – Year 3/4 Teacher Brookmans Park School

“Soon after Russell joined us I gained experience with difficult programs and became more familiar with how to use them with the children. I now use a variety of programs confidently across the curriculum and with pleasing results. I continue to be surprised by the complex tasks children manage to complete.”

Laura Yeldham – Year 1 teacher Brookmans Park School

“We had less hardware and a much more limited range of software which the teachers weren’t as confident using. Now we have a more varied range of software that the staff have been trained in using by Teach Together. I think teachers can panic if you give them too much of a new thing and they prefer to get to know what they have got over time and get the most out of it before moving on.”

Alyson Mitchell – Year 1/2 Teacher, ICT Subject Leader Brookmans Park School

End of school year 2007 – What had changed?

The school had progressed steadily through the refurbishment plans for the wireless network and had introduced a third laptop trolley suite into the school according to their long term development plans. The network and server repairs had hit some problems and the decision was made to completely wipe the entire network and all equipment and rebuild the software on each computer from scratch during the summer holidays in order to remove the erroneous problems that were still occurring.
We had started to team plan and teach with the staff at Brookmans Park during the summer term and managed to successfully complete a selection of ICT lessons that began to reinforce to the staff that the equipment could be used successfully. Unfortunately due to the problems that still existed at the server the initial timetable that was in place to revive the staffs confidence had to be adjusted and extended.
It was agreed to start the new school year off with an Inset day teaching clicker 5 and also a quick explanation of the new visualisers that each classroom were having installed during the summer. A complete inset day was booked for the spring term to allow the staff time to familiarise themselves with the visualisers before they had the full training. A new staff confidence building timetable was put into place and we continued working with each member of staff over the term using the new software and hardware equipment.

The new school year - What is needed to continue forward in the forthcoming school year?

A most promising term had finished the school year off and now with the hardware rebuilt we were hoping for the system to be more effective and consistent than it had for a few years. Only a few small issues remained to be completed with the server and installation of software.
We had purchased and installed a range of new software designed for use with the Smartboards installed in each classroom. This would help the teachers to engage the children and also extend the teaching resources available for the staff.
The staff’s confidence in the equipment they were using in their classrooms had grown consistently and they were now teaching lessons more frequently and using more of the software available to them.

Staffs thoughts on the changes that they had noticed.

“Russell planned the lessons with the teachers and taught the lessons with their support. When problems occurred with the laptops Russell was able to solve them immediately or knew who needed to solve them and was able to contact them directly. This helped the teachers gain some understanding of the technical side of the laptops and reassured them that it wasn’t them making them go wrong. After the initial lesson had been team taught there was a follow up lesson to be taught by the teacher. This meant that staff could not rely on Russell and also meant that Russell could ensure that everyone’s confidence was growing.

As IT Leader, Russell’s support was invaluable, he has a wide range of experience and is able to reassure everyone and help them grow in confidence. This process started in 2007 and the staff and pupils are now much more confident and should be receiving the ICT Mark very soon. Having recently left the school, I am already trying to get him on board at my new school.”

Charlene Lewin – Previously ICT Subject Leader Brookmans Park School, Team Leader at Coldfall Primary School

“What a relief to have someone to deliver an ICT lesson even if it was every other week. The equipment was no less temperamental but at least there was someone who knew how to sort out some of the problems or give a reason why things did not work.”

Trish Fisher – Year 3/4 Teacher Brookmans Park School

“After we changed our support provision and started to work with Teach Together we found that we started to plan more as a team and action plans were easier to put into action and keep track of.

By the end of July 07 we were working towards having the same software on all networked computers throughout the school and we had installed all the extra AP’s to increase the wireless coverage allowing the ICT to be taught more effectively in all classrooms.”

Alyson Mitchell – Year 1/2 Teacher, ICT Subject Leader Brookmans Park School

One year on, have the changes worked? Is confidence returning?

With the staff fully trained on their visualisers and the computer hardware in school working reliably the confidence levels were now increasing from week to week. The staff were beginning to utilize effectively the equipment they had at their disposal and were using it to progressively challenge their children. The ICT Subject Leader was now back on track with the schools ICT mark application preparations and was training and assessing the staff accordingly.

I felt the school had achieved an exceptional amount in one year. All of this down to the amazing dedication of the schools staff from the governors right through to the children themselves. Everyone was always willing to test out the equipment no matter how troublesome their last experience and the staffs thirst for knowledge and experience was a key element to them regaining their lost confidence.

“There were still problems with the equipment but I became a little more relaxed about certain aspects of ICT. Some units of work continued to take me out of my comfort zone such as manipulating sound especially when I had to try and deliver the lesson independently.

My own personal use of ICT in the classroom – using the Smartboard and visualiser has increased considerably and I would be lost without them now. There are so many more skills and programmes I can use.”

Trish Fisher – Year 3/4 Teacher Brookmans Park School

“At the end of the year the staff were clearly more confident in teaching ICT and had more trust in the hardware. The pupils’ standards of ICT had also definitely improved demonstrated by the work produced, observations and discussions with the children. As a head teacher, and for the ICT subject leader, having someone that could be trusted, could be used as a sounding board in developing a strategic plan for ICT and could take a strong part in was very productive

The process outlined above was achieved in just over a year, and the employment of ‘Teach Together’ was certainly a major factor in the school achieving its objectives. Resulting in the governors extending their contract.”

Lesley Stevens –Head Teacher Brookmans Park School 2002 - 2008

End of the school year 2008, what had we achieved?

The schools infrastructure has been running as expected with only normal operational issues and maintenance to be done. The staff have been planning and teaching adventurous ICT activities using an array of ICT hardware. The school have been trialling a new multimedia database and e-profiling piece of software with the year 6 children which will allow all the children in the school to create and update their own e profile and creates a timeline of events through the school year with multimedia evidence. The school will be introducing the software to the rest of the school next academic year.

“I think our ICT equipment is much more reliable now, compared with a year ago. I feel confident using laptops in a range of lessons as I know the equipment will usually work efficiently. The amount of programs we have has also developed and this has enabled me to use ICT more creatively across the curriculum.”

Laura Yeldham – Year 1 teacher Brookmans Park School

“We were looking at our next area of development. We were looking ahead to new whizzy things like the multimedia database being installed. We were excited that we could start producing videos with the children and then share them immediately around the school.
We had also just completed a very smooth changeover of the old Y5/6 laptops to a new set and the software had been installed with very little going wrong.
The staff were really using the visualisers in more challenging ways having had some great INSET training on the multiple functions that they offer. They were also becoming a major part of our assessment process for the children’s work. We could instantly at any time discuss a child’s piece of work and with the entire class able to add constructive measures of how to improve this and their own work as well.”

Alyson Mitchell – Year 1/2 Teacher, ICT Subject Leader Brookmans Park School

The end of our case study, how did the school improve?

Now at the end of the case study we have a school that; have achieved an immense amount of progress with their hardware infrastructure and have a staff with very high levels of skill both using and teaching ICT throughout the school’s curriculum.
The school have successfully implemented the new School Life software and are introducing it to the different classes throughout the school year utilizing the older children as mentors and guides for the younger children. The teachers are now using the software to keep digital evidence of pupil’s progress throughout the year.
The staffs renewed confidence in ICT is evident in their teaching and they are willing to tackle any new obstacles they encounter.
The children are increasingly completing key skills at earlier ages and allowing themselves to work more effectively with the computer hardware and software at their disposal.

These are some staffs overall thoughts of how things have changed.

“The ICT equipment has greatly improved. I greatly looked forward to using visualisers in my teaching. The children enjoy using it to show their work at the end of lessons.
My confidence has increased with the use of ICT equipment and as a result I do use it more often. The introduction of more ICT packages has enhanced the teaching and learning throughout the curriculum.
Through regular use of cameras to take pictures and videos; through regular staff meetings on ICT and through regular conversations with ICT specialist and developed my own skills in the area over the last year.”

Hetal Sitram – Year 5/6 Teacher Brookmans Park School

“Training was very motivating, confidence has improved. I am using ICT more now in my lessons. Very much appreciate your willingness to support any problems.”

Linda Wilson – SEN Subject Leader Brookmans Park School

“My own personal use of ICT in the classroom – using the Smartboard and visualiser has increased considerably and I would be lost without them now. There are so many more skills and programmes I can use.
Joint planning with Russell for some of the units of work has been very beneficial and I have felt more in control when I deliver a lesson on my own.
I use the laptops with the children more frequently and even run a computer club with the children where we all help each other out!”

Trish Fisher – Year 3/4 Teacher Brookmans Park School

“I am grateful for having the opportunity to work with Russell as I don’t think I would have been able to become so familiar with such a range of programs. My confidence has grown and my ICT lessons are now successful.”

Laura Yeldham – Year 1 teacher Brookmans Park School

“Over the whole study I have learnt an incredible amount about how the whole system works. I think that’s where we were struggling the most originally as we were relying on the technical support to take care of everything for us. We weren’t given the opportunity by the support company to understand what was happening or how the wireless system worked, or the server system worked they never seemed to tell us anything. I think once we started investigating for ourselves what the problems were we learnt an awful lot about the infrastructure that we have got.

We are now at a position where we are confident with our equipment and software and are all looking to continue progressing forward at a steady pace taking on new technologies that will benefit our school and our teaching of the children. All of the staff are now far more confident teaching ICT and are proving that they are capable of embedding ICT into their whole timetable.”

Alyson Mitchell – Year 1/2 Teacher, ICT Subject Leader Brookmans Park School

At the beginning of the 2008-2009 School year Nathan Hairon took over the job of Head Teacher at the school. Here are his thoughts on what he has seen so far and his thoughts for the future of ICT at Brookmans Park School.

When I arrived the ICT provision was well resourced. Staff were developing their confidence but ICT was not yet fully embedded into all curriculum areas. Over the year this has become better with ICT used, where appropriate, in virtually all subject areas. Staff have certainly become more confident over the course of the project.
I was aware that there had been some technical issues, but these seem to be largely resolved.
The school had a well developed ICT plan written by the ICT Subject Leader which has largely been followed and completed.
For the future I would like to see;

- ICT used seamlessly in all curriculum areas.

-In the medium term consolidate use of existing resources.

-Investigate VLE potential and new mobile technologies.

Nathan Hairon – Head Teacher Brookmans Park School

In conclusion it is clear to see that the school and its staff have worked extremely hard to achieve their goals and have overcome all challenges that have faced them with a tenacity and efficiency of true professionals.
The teaching standards in ICT have clearly improved and the network infrastructure and equipment is now working as would be expected.
It has been an eventful experience for all involved and I look forward to working with the school in the future to continue progressing the school in the world of ICT.

Russell Westmore – Teach Together Ltd.