Our school has made it through to the final thirty organisations shortlisted for a global WISE Award. Sponsored by the Qatar Foundation, the WISE Awards recognise outstanding practice and achievement in education and the final winners are invited to the World Innovation Summit for Education, held annually in Qatar’s capital city, Doha. The thirty finalists have been selected from hundreds of applications submitted from 89 countries.
saltash.net’s submission to The Qatar Foundation was only made possible as a result of its partnership with Microsoft who chose only one school from across the world to support in its bid for a prestigious WISE Award. Microsoft and senior leaders form saltash.net worked on the application together, which chronicles the journey that the school has been on over the last seven years and demonstrates the significant impact that Microsoft’s Partners in Learning programme has had upon staff and students, especially with regard to the development of learning and teaching with new technologies.
During the month of October, the international judging panel will select six ‘Laureates’ from the 30 shortlisted finalists. All bids submitted for consideration had to address the theme of ‘Transforming Education: Investment, Innovation and Inclusion’. There is a rigid set of selection criteria against which every organisation will be judged, including the overall extent to which the project described in the application has transformed an aspect of education and had a societal impact.
saltash.net and Microsoft’s project entitled ‘Creating a Culture of Innovation’ is up against some very stiff competition in the final stages of the Award process : Save the Children, UNESCO and Teachers’ TV are also shortlisted finalists. (For a full list of finalists and to view more details about the applications and projects involved go to http://www.wise-qatar.org/ ).
If saltash.net is successful, they will be invited to the WISE summit in Doha in December to showcase their educational project to a worldwide audience. In addition, they would be set to receive $20.000 from the Qatar Foundation to support further learning and teaching developments at the school. Isobel Bryce, Head Teacher, commenting on the school’s success so far, said, ‘We count is as an honour to have the support and backing of Microsoft. To have made it through to this stage of this International Award scheme is an excellent reflection on our school and our local community, as well as on the way in which we have worked in partnership with external organisations for the benefit of all our young people. Everyone should be feeling very proud of what has been achieved so far. Fingers crossed for the final!’
You can see our application here online at: http://bit.ly/d3KiQd