All Saints HwB – Promethean Grant Case Study 2017

A little bit about us…

Hesketh with Becconsall All Saints CE Primary School is located in the picturesque village of Hesketh Bank between Southport and Preston. The area is semi-rural comprising of farms, market gardens and housing. Our school is very much part of the local community.

The school is of Christian faith and we are committed to giving each and every child the best education through achieving their potential as unique individuals. All Saints prides itself on providing children with a safe and stimulating environment in which they feel secure, happy and cared for. Teachers and children work very closely, allowing each individual child’s needs to be met, echoing the school’s inclusive Christian ethos.

Why we entered…

We found out about the Promethean Grant on Twitter after our Year 4 Teacher Rory Dixon had taken an interest in the Promethean Advocate programme. Rory was enthusiastic about the innovative and engaging ways the Advocates were using technology to enhance teaching and learning experiences in the classroom.

We pitched the idea to enter the Promethean Grant to our Year 4 class who along with their teacher Rory, have a real passion for edtech. They were onboard with the idea straight away and came up with so many ways to get across our need for updated edtech. After much discussion and consideration, the children decided they wanted to create a video that showed how inadequate our existing school tech was. Their idea was to create a black and white video that emphasised how our outdated edtech was limiting our learning opportunities.

Many of the front of class setups in our classrooms were projectors and interactive whiteboards. The whiteboards constantly needed recalibrating and it was really difficult to see the fading display, especially when there was light shining in the classroom. We would use the whiteboards as much as possible but sometimes the failing systems would mean we had to revert back to more traditional ways of delivering lessons.

Knowing the passion our Year 4 class and their teacher Rory have for using technology to enhance their learning, we thought it would be great if we could win an ActivPanel to really transform their lessons. Rory was particularly passionate about how the ActivPanel could be used across the curriculum to further engage pupils after seeing examples on Twitter as to how some of the Promethean Advocates are using the ActivPanel to inspire children’s learning.

What winning means to us…

We were over the moon when we were announced as winners, the children were in complete disbelief when they found out. Everybody was so pleased and excited, we even had a party to celebrate the news.

It’s fantastic to have edtech in the classroom we can rely on and has so many capabilities we can utilise to stimulate our learners. We use the ActivInspire software daily as well as a range of apps for mathematics, literacy and many other subjects.

From a teaching and learning perspective the ActivPanel is an asset to the classroom. The connectivity of the panel means it can be used to mirror and interact with all of our class devices. As a teacher, the whole class polling features are extremely beneficial in getting instant lesson feedback.

Upgrading the edtech in our school was a vision we had for a while. Seeing the ActivPanel being used in the classroom to really immerse children in their learning experiences reaffirmed to us how technology acts as an enabler in giving children more learning opportunities. There are endless resources available on the ActivPanel for teaching across the curriculum at every level. Since winning the Promethean Grant we have implemented an ActivPanel in every class as part of a whole school technology upgrade.

Our resident technology enthusiast, Rory, has become involved in the Promethean Advocate programme and the school is benefiting from a really positive relationship with Promethean. Promethean has given Rory a platform to network and share ideas with likeminded teachers on how best to use technology to improve learning scenarios.

Our killer three tips for the Promethean Grant…

1. Let the children take the lead – our pupils came up with great creative ideas.
2. Check out some of the work the Promethean Advocates are doing – this will give you fantastic ideas on how the ActivPanel could be used to enhance teaching at your school.
3. Make it clear how you will use the ActivPanel to improve your lessons.