For the BCSE 2009 Industry Awards, we had a look around different schools’ approach to technology. Our winner that year – Forest Hill School- had a bespoke cutting edge ICT solution that enables a transformation in their learning and teaching and was provided by VT Education & Skills.
Forest Hill re-opened in January 2008 and was the first Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funded secondary school within the London Borough of Lewisham. The ICT set-up and managed service has been tailored to the current and future needs of teaching staff and the 1500 students at Forest Hill. It featured the integration and implementation of a wide range of the Cisco second generation managed WiFi network providing students access to resources and their own work online from anywhere on the site, giving users the flexibility they need. The network is robust enough to host 400 students online at any one time.
The policy also ensures that there is ….
- a laptop for every teacher
- an interactive whiteboard and laptop docking station in each classroom
- a pupil to computer ratio better than two to one.
- Sharepoint, Fronter Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), and the management information system (MIS) integrated to provide a comprehensive VLE.
- Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony enabling cost-free calling, both internally and externally as well as video conferencing and direct contact with the VT helpdesk.
Students and the wider community have benefited from the virtual learning environment at Forest Hill School, with 24/7 access to information, applications and services. Students can use classroom based learning resources outside lesson time; work on and submit assignments online and have them marked and returned online.
Ongoing sustainability has been achieved through the latest Dell and Cisco technologies. They deliver high performance and reliability with minimised power requirements, utilising the latest chipsets that reduce the power and cooling requirements for each device. This ensures that not only is the minimum radio power generated, the associated heat and power is also minimised.
One central server farm, hosted by the VT Group, minimises the servers and power consuming devices. Student and other stakeholders engagements have been to develop a shared understanding and find innovative ways to harness the aspirations and views of students, teachers and school staff. Strategies to engage teachers and students and to improve standards of learning and teaching were at the heart of the Training Plan.
The suppliers worked with Forest Hill’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to identify key development priorities. An action plan was produced and progress reviewed with the SLT. An ongoing audit of staff skills and competencies within the context of learning, teaching, leadership and management will continue.
The school has taken ownership of the change process and has now developed its own online audit and on-line evaluation tools. Through professional development teachers’ levels of confidence in using ICT in the classroom rose at an extraordinary pace. This involved the suppliers’ subject-specific consultants running sessions on, for example, English and ICT, History and ICT, Art and ICT.
When we were looking at this outline (alongside a number of other strong entries), BCSE’s judges felt this was a very good example of how effective ICT services can be embedded in a new school to build ownership and enhance the curriculum and the learning experience for students and staff.
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