This week I attended Microsoft HQ in Reading for the starting session of the UK’s Innovative school programme. To give you a bit of background on how this all started… The original Innovative schools programme – started with 12 schools around the world in 2007. They were set as schools for the future e.g. the school in Philadelphia cost around £63 million – wow I can only imagine what type of school you could build for that much money, Microsoft then picked 12 schools outside the US. Bowring school in Knowsley was the first in the UK now Huyton Arts and Sports Centre for Learning. Microsoft UK have decided to chose to go with 20 schools from the UK instead of 60 across the world. This programme is a way of helping schools that are part of the Microsoft community to gain more support and also support other schools to develop their practice. So we have been selected as one of the ten mentor schools and we will be paired with one mentee school out of the ten that will be selected.
Most of the day was spent getting to know a bit more about the 10 mentor schools – you can see who they are and a bit more about them below:
- Blatchington school http://www.blatchingtonmill.org.uk/index.htm
Is in Brighton & Hove, it is an 11-19 school on west of the city One of 4 11-19 schools in the area. Their Strength is engagement with parents – not just communication but bringing in the parents into the students learning. This is particularly effective in collecting and using data.
Sawtry Community College http://www.sawtrycc.com/
Near Peterborough is in a rural area and is 11-18 mixed with 1400 students. Specialist Maths & Computing – training school. They are forward thinking in their ICT development – curriculu|Zm, infrastructure, technical support, professional development through peer coaching, training school & ICTACC and research development groups.
New Line Learning Academy http://www.newlinelearning.com/
It is a designed and built model of education, has plaza based learning models. Large open spaces, have business designed furniture, access to technology etc. Teachers work in teams of 4 or 5 or so and work with a group of 120 students – expected to prepare, deliver and reflect on what is done in collaboration.
Lodge Park School http://www.lodgepark.org.uk/page_viewer.asp?page=Welcome&pid=1
The school is in Corby and is a technology college from 1994 but now more about ICT and business & enterprise, English is a high performing subject in the school. The Use of technology is used to be creative and manage their own learning. The strengths are – links with Microsoft, Peer coaching.
Twynham School https://www.twynhamschool.com/pages/default.aspx
In Bournemouth has a great teaching and learning focus, high quality relationships between students and teachers. There is a belief that education is important, results are important but the personal dimension is extremely important too. Over half the A level students do A level Maths. On the snow days in the last year or so they had 80% of the school were accessing the VLE – ICT has been important as a tool which is firmly embedded in teaching and learning etc. One great thing they do is through their options gateway – each subject has a short video of students talking about their subject & a 2 min sample video of a normal lesson which I think is great!
Huyton Arts & Sports Centre for Learning http://www.huytonartsandsportscfl.knowsley.gov.uk/
Specialist status for sports and art, FSM well above average and SEN well above average. Their vision is to enable students to be independent learners, equipped with the skills to live a productive & fulfilling life in the 21st century. It has so far been an 8 year journey of redesigning the KS3 curriculum, student progress & attainment improved significantly, quality of learning & teaching improved.
Monkseaton High School http://www.monkseaton.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx
Is in North Tyneside it strengths are its parental site where they can discuss issues etc for the school etc. Teachers using Onenote to share and collaborate in real time. They have a programme where they have 1 million students doing primary languages which is amazing!
Calderglen High School http://www.calderglen.s-lanark.sch.uk/
Which is on the West coast of Scotland, the school has a sports hub for the next Olympics etc ‘get set programme’. They are moving to a curriculum of excellence – all pupils in Scotland will do this – journey towards excellence.
Broadclyst Primary Academy http://www.bcps.org.uk/index2.htm
Is in Exeter and has just become an academy – ‘With great freedoms comes great responsibilities’, 420 pupils in the school. They have 64 students housed in the lecture theatre auditorium – each student has their own computer – working with schools abroad and within the UK.
This is a really exciting programme and we are really looking forward to collaborating with the other mentor schools and more importantly developing a true partnership with our future mentee school whoever it may be!