ICT is child’s play
Pupils from Telford Junior School in Leamington Spa have been helping to shape the future of ICT support for the county’s schools.
A group of 29 youngsters from Year 5 spent the day with staff from Warwickshire County Council’s ICT Development Service last week to try out some new software and review the county’s online learning platform for schools.
Telford Junior School has always worked closely with the service to develop the use of ICT within school and last term - to launch Internet Safety Week - the year 5 students contacted the team for further advice on using the learning platform and how to address e-safety issues.
They held a class assembly with an ICT theme and a member of staff from the service attended. Interesting results of a school survey about children’s use of computers and mobile phones were revealed during the assembly and the service decided to hold this event to find out more about the children’s views.
As a result the service invited the pupils to their offices at Wedgnock House, Warwick, to share their opinions about ICT and the Warwickshire Learning Platform, how they use these resources to learn, and what improvements they would like to see.
It was a special occasion for the pupils who got to be the first in the county to try out three new creative applications yet to be launched to Warwickshire primary schools, and also the first group of young people the service has consulted with in this way.
The new applications, commissioned from 2Simple Software, can be used by pupils to create their own exciting games, write and animate their own ‘super stories’, or paint a picture.
The students all had the chance to use all the programmes and try out Windows 7 and to use an Apple Mac to make their own music. They produced some imaginative work which will be loaded onto the learning platform so other schools can see what can be achieved.
Year 5 Form Tutor Liz Merrick accompanied the pupils on the day, she said:
“The ICT Development Service set up this day as an opportunity for us to have some real involvement in improving ICT systems and for the children to share their points of view.
“The service offers great support to schools and the staff have been really helpful today. All our expectations have been met and the children had lots of fun, we’ve come away with lots to think about and develop at school.”
E-learning advisor Colin Talbot led the sessions with the pupils, he added: “We had a really successful day. It’s the first time we’ve had pupils in for this sort of session and I found it incredibly useful to hear their opinions.
“The children seemed pleased to know that their work will influence how the service develops and we will certainly consider running similar sessions in the future.
“It has also given us a chance to test out some new applications which will be used by nearly all Warwickshire primary schools eventually.”