Laying the Foundation for Learning through EdTech
A little bit about us
As a dedicated infant school, we believe that early years education lays the foundation for life-long learning. Here at Trafalgar Infant School we are committed to both pupil achievement and pupil development.
This means that through the wide experiences that we offer we aim to challenge our children to achieve academically while also developing their confidence, self-esteem and a positive attitude towards learning.
Why we entered
Four years ago, our school decided it was time to upgrade all our old technology that had come to the end of its life. We had interactive displays implemented throughout the main classrooms in our school, however due to budget restrictions, we were unable to resource our specialist subject rooms we have for music and ICT.
We found out about the Promethean Grant in 2017 and decided to showcase our creativity by demonstrating what music learning experiences could be like if we were able to harness the new technology in the ActivPanels. We won and it has completely transformed our music lessons for the pupils.
Our Year 2 Digital Leaders decided that we should try again in 2018, in a bid to fit out the final classroom with the Promethean technology, this time using green screen technology. We were incredibly shocked and surprised when we won for a second time and have been able to deliver exciting computing lessons in our ICT room
What winning means to us
As we had no front-of-class interactive display unit in our ICT Suite, all instruction prior to using the ICT facilities needed to be undertaken in the classroom or on iPads. This was difficult for us, as the children then needed to move from the classroom to the suite and resume focus.
The ActivPanel has changed this for us, we are now able to involve all members of the class at once. Pupils are a lot more engaged with the panel, are able to interact with the work on the screen and it has enabled us to teach in real-time, allowing our lessons to flow a lot more seamlessly.
Part of the school curriculum for children is coding. We previously used an app, called ScratchJunior, which was strictly tablet based but included all the important information to help students develop their coding skills. Using our iPads, students would require one on one tutorials and it was difficult to ensure everyone was on the right path.
With the ActivPanel and its tablet-like interface, we can use this app on the panel – meaning we can show all the children as a group, they can all work together on the topic and it encourages collaborative learning. The children are much more engaged with their learning and it allows us as a class to work on projects, rather than individually on iPads.
The Promethean Grant has been the perfect opportunity for us to complete out EdTech provision with Promethean technology even though education budgets have been stretched. We are now confident that our panels are exposing our pupils to the very best technology available to help them develop their skills to the best of their ability. We have recently federated with our junior school and they too can benefit from the enhanced technology of the ActivPanels in the Music and ICT rooms to benefit learning development.
Jane Burton, ICT and Music Lead, Trafalgar Infant School
To learn more about the ActivPanel, book an online 30 minute demonstration now.