Ballyclare High School
Ballyclare wins award for ICT educational leadership
"Nobody can stand still in relation to ICT. No school can afford to cruise." That sound advice comes from James Maxwell, a senior teacher with the role of specialist school status manager at Ballyclare High School.
With over 1,200 students, the college has 450 computers spread around a spacious learning centre, classrooms and six media suites. It is easy to see why Ballyclare High wins awards for ICT educational leadership.
"School starts at 9.20 each morning but by a quarter-to-nine this place is heaving with students doing research, coursework and artwork," James says. "It's still packed at 5 o'clock when it closes, and so we have been issued with night-access accounts so we can keep it open later two evenings a week."
Ballyclare has joined a handful of schools in Northern Ireland in gaining specialist ICT status. "We use ICT as a vehicle to enhance learning outcomes, not as a learning outcome in itself," says senior teacher James. " Our approach is that ICT facilitates the work that pupils do. We invested in about 150 computers through our C2k allocation and purchased another 300 ourselves. There has been very heavy investment from us as a school."
Key to its specialist status bid was a commitment to utilising emerging technologies to enhance learning and motivate students. A recent successful example of that was an inter-school project with Geography pupils and teachers in Ballyclare Secondary School, using Infomapper software. Year 8 pupils worked in groups, each tasked to research aspects of Ballyclare's past and present.
The groups researched Ballyclare's early settlement, current tourism, trade, traffic and other aspects of town life. James said: "They were able to go out, take pictures, videos, devise PowerPoint presentations and then the final step was getting together and uploading the outcomes on to Informapper."
Supporting Anytime anywhere learning
Ballyclare High also collaborated with another specialist ICT college, Ashfield Girls', in a virtual learning day, which saw 180 pupils work from home on English, Maths and Science. The schools used Marratech which is often used for business purposes. For the first time in Northern Ireland, it was used as a virtual classroom. "The vast majority of students were able to get their work done during the course of the day," James said.
Study sessions were interspersed with 10-minute feedback periods via handsets. A central aim was to explore how schools might use ICT to provide for students who are absent due to long-term illness. James, who teaches modern languages, believes Marratech could prove to be important in meeting those students' needs. Ballyclare and Ashfield, with C2k's support, intend to drive forward the project next year.
Supporting the local community
As James mapped out the school's ICT policies, a practical example of its community involvement was well underway in a corner of the learning centre.
Alan Finlay, having just completed his A-levels, was at a desktop with Vincent McDonnell of Ballyclare Chamber of Trade, discussing video content for the chamber's website. When the traders asked the school for advice on designing and building a website, the school drafted in Alan to do the job He has been short-listed for a National Training award for his successful project.
Ballyclare High has run computer courses in accounts and spreadsheets for local members of the Ulster Farmers' Union, digital photography classes for community groups and is developing computer-based English classes for Polish workers in local plants who also are already using the learning centre.
In a pioneering move, Ballyclare High employs a qualified primary teacher to work specifically in 13 feeder schools, building ICT capacity among staff and pupils. Each school is allocated periods of hands-on computer experience in the learning centre.
The aim is to strengthen pupils' grasp of computer skills as they progress from primary to post-primary levels. Ballyclare High has developed a computer-based benchmarking tool which enables pupils to assess and record their skills.
National Award for delivery of ICT to pupils and the local community
In 2007 Ballyclare High was awarded 1st place for the best whole school approach to ICT in the United Kingdom. This follows their success in becoming the first schools in Northern Ireland's to achieve the government's ICT Mark. Current computer-student ratio is 1:3 and the school is using specialist status investment to improve it to 1:2.5 by next year.
Working in close partnership with its Northgate Education Ballyclare has established an exemplary ICT enabled learning centre, which ensures the integration of ICT into the everyday learning experience of pupils. The wider community is also benefiting from the school's achievements as the facilities are used after school hours for a wide variety of evening classes and adult learning - helping to improve and develop the skills of many different groups of people.
Northgate, which provides an ongoing ICT managed service to the Ballyclare as part of their contract with C2k, has played a vital role in helping the school achieve its very ambitious goals.
"We congratulate Ballyclare for its very positive and forward thinking approach to ICT, which has culminated in this important national accolade," said Stuart Gunning, Regional Director of Northgate, and also an ex-pupil of Ballyclare. "The school really does exemplify how the integration of ICT into the everyday learning process can reap positive benefits for children and adults alike. We look forward to working in partnership with the school in the years ahead, to ensure Ballyclare retains its pole position as an educational leader in ICT delivery."
"Our mission is to 'develop life-long learners in a caring, creative community' and we feel this award is an positive endorsement for our achievements to date. By adopting a flexible approach we have ensured ICT is a large part of the everyday learning practices of as many different people as possible - our staff, our pupils and the wider community." Trevor Martin, senior teacher, Ballyclare.
Celebrating the strength of its partnership with Northgate and confirming the school's position in ICT development, Headmaster David Knox added:
"I'm very proud of the successes of the school and particularly for this formal recognition which places us at the forefront of ICT learning in the UK. Our pupils have enjoyed success at all levels over the years and increasingly I believe that the effective integration of ICT into the classroom has made an important contribution to that achievement. Our pupils are gaining value and our results prove that they are benefiting from the innovative approach to learning that we have embraced."
