A clear, agreed ICT strategy, embedded within a strategic approach to school management, has allowed Wildern to boost staff ICT capability and adopt innovative, creative solutions and approaches. Their appraoch makes use of open source software including Moodle and Joomla!
Wildern School is an 11 – 16 co-educational comprehensive near Southampton in Hampshire. There are currently 1860 pupils on roll and the school is oversubscribed.
The school is well resourced and there is a strong focus on the use of ICT throughout the school. Pupils generally have access to a computer and broadband at home. Pupils are able to bring in laptops and other mobile devices to school.
The aim for Wildern is to ensure that ICT has a high profile in the school and that pupils and teachers benefit from the possibilities offered. This is achieved by developing a clear and agreed ICT strategy which is embedded within the whole school strategy.
Before looking at the use of open source, it is useful to understand how the ICT strategy is planned and delivered within Wildern as that helps to explain how open source applications have been introduced and been successful. The approach is applicable for use of any type of software.
The school has a very clear understanding of the importance of ICT in the school environment and in preparing pupils for their future careers. ICT is given a high profile within the school in terms of:
- embedding it within the strategic planning for the school using five year plans
- employing an ICT consultant reporting directly to senior leadership to lead on the development and implementation of the ICT strategy
- ensuring that all staff meet minimum levels of ICT ability and supporting them through a comprehensive training programme
- being innovative and creative in trying out new solutions and looking at a full range of approaches
Wildern School is characterised by a positive, dynamic environment, with a very driven, hard working staff. There is a very clear understanding about what the identity of the school is and ICT been given a prominent place on the school's agenda.
Working as the ICT team
The IT consultant, Tim Dalton, leads a team of 13 staff and reports directly to the leadership team. He is responsible for the strategic overview of ICT for the school; essentially identifying how technology is to be used. He provides the key link between the ICT team and teaching staff. The team also comprises a network manager and senior technician, supported by a group of technicians. In addition the school employs two web application developers and two graphic designers. There is also a classroom support person whose role is split between supporting children in class and providing technical support.
An early benefit of the strength of the ICT team was that it enabled the school to take the decision to use the open source Moodle for its VLE and, instead of paying for a proprietary solution, to use the budget to tailor the Moodle configuration to meet its specific needs. This approach is now carried across other applications, in particular Joomla.
Working with leadership
Because the school has a strong commitment to ICT and a highly effective ICT team, a clear strategy is developed and implemented, with agreed budgets, objectives and targets. There is no issue of trying to convince senior leadership of the need for or benefits of ICT, and the governors are equally supportive.
Senior leadership takes an active role in the implementation and delivery of ICT solutions – for example, one of the Deputy Heads has final approval of all content posted on the school website.
Working with subject staff
As part of the ethos of embedding ICT within the whole school, there is good communication with subject teachers, both through formal and informal channels.
The School Improvement Group (SIG) is an important part of linking the ICT team with subject staff. The SIG has a representative from each subject area who is enthusiastic about the use of ICT in teaching. These people provide a vital channel of communication between departments and the ICT team. Each member of the SIG is involved in developing and discussing ideas and will then take these ideas back to their departments, sell the message and engage staff in their department with each initiative. This approach is seen as being a great way of getting ICT initiatives adopted. Having an enthusiastic representative from each department who can liaise with teachers in their department means initiatives are seen as something the school is doing, not something the ICT team is imposing.
The ICT staff, especially Tim, consider it is vital to work with all departments within the school, and Tim feels that over recent years this communication has got much better. Inevitably some teachers are more enthusiastic and willing to try software than others – some can immediately see the relevance of software for their learners, whilst others don't and tend to avoid the issue. Members of the ICT team attend subject meetings to find out what the subject teachers are teaching and to suggest ways in which, for example, they could be using Moodle more effectively to provide resources.
Training
As Wildern places a high priority on ICT within the school and has invested in a variety of technologies and solutions, it is essential that teachers are able to use it well. Staff are performance managed on ICT as it is seen as a key part of teaching. The ability of staff to use ICT is important and minimum ICT competences are specified.
New staff have training sessions covering, for example, whiteboards. Each class has a whiteboard and it is important for all teachers to know how to use them effectively.
Each year there is an audit of staff ICT skills to identify what training may be needed during the year. Each year the skills needs are becoming more advanced and staff want to learn more sophisticated applications (implying that the majority of staff have mastered the 'functional' levels of ICT literacy for the mainstream applications in the school).
Training requests this year include video editing and graphics packages that can't be taught in one session. The school is now offering a number of courses (including one on digital graphics) that participants can do either physically or virtually. The ability to follow the course online if they are unable to attend has encouraged a high number of people to register.
The intention is to have all the resources for the courses available online next year .
A variety of methods are used for training, with resources such as screen casts developed and then available for all.
Tim feels that this approach to training is very much linked into the open source philosophy as it focuses on developing the skills of the staff and not just training them to use software packages.
Working with parents
Parents have been very involved in the development and trialling of web based initiatives. The school runs a parental focus group that operates in the form of a round table. The group is involved in all areas of the school, but often discusses ICT, for example Moodle.
In addition, parents are invited to the school for introductory sessions on how to use applications such as the school Moodle in order to support their child's use of the tool at home. These sessions are popular with parents, with a recent session on Moodle attracting 200 parents from a year with 360 pupils. The ICT team is generally supported by subject teachers volunteering to contribute to the sessions by helping out with hands-on sessions to allow parents to try out Moodle themselves.
By explaining how the Moodle is set up and functions, parents can then be aware of what pupils should be doing in terms of homework.
The development of the school website has been trialled with parents, particularly to discover what information about their child they would like to be able to access online. Parents for this trial were those who also worked in school as teachers and administrative staff. The process allowed the development team to talk to parents to understand what they would expect from the system.
Working with pupils
The views of pupils are also sought, with the ICT team, especially Tim, making time to chat to them to see what they are doing with software. There is also a Pupil School Improvement Group for ICT.
All students sign an acceptable use agreement when they join the school and it is rare to have problems with misuse of the Moodle. When they join the school, pupils have lessons on how to use the technologies and also on e-safety.
By using a mix of software and systems (including Windows and Mac), pupils become more confident users of ICT.
Implementing strategies
Having spent time developing and planning for ICT, it is vital to have a workable implementation strategy. The ICT team is very careful about how ICT is rolled out to staff and gives much consideration to timelines for the development and launch of solutions and software.
In order to encourage staff to use applications there are very clear targets for use (for example to have one year's resources on the Moodle in an agreed timeframe.)
The main benefit of having a clearly defined and agreed ICT strategy that involves the whole school has been that it has led to a creative approach to finding appropriate solutions and gives the ICT team the ability to try things out.
In addition Tim feels that because staff and pupils are exposed to different types of software they are then prepared to try things out themselves; he will sit with pupils and see that they have installed something new.
The general aim is to get ICT to work in the way people want. The use of open source applications seems to make people more creative with tools as they realise they are not limited by what the software can do as it can be changed and extended. The ICT team will talk about ideas staff have and find out what they want to do – and then investigate and suggest ways in which these goals can be achieved. The fact that open source allows this makes people more enthusiastic, and by listening to staff the ICT team can come up with the best solution.
The way in which ICT is structured in Wildern has changed the way of working – with solutions coming from consultation with the whole school community.
IT is often thought of as being additional to the teaching job, but the culture throughout Wildern is that experimenting is very much part of the job of all staff.
To develop ICT across the school in accordance with the strategy.
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