St Bernadette’s School – Promethean Grant Case Study 2017

A little bit about us…

St Bernadette’s Primary is a Roman Catholic School based in the North Motherwell area of North Lanarkshire. Our aim is to create a happy learning environment with a strong commitment to ensure a continuum of learning for pupils that prepares them for their journey through education and is based on an inclusive ethos of achievement for all. We have an ethos which reflects our Catholic values of love, faith, forgiveness, self-discipline and integrity. Expectations are high for our whole school community to enable everyone to reach their full potential.

Our school dates back to 1957 and provides us with large spacious accommodation. We share our campus with Clydeview Special School and follow a policy of Social Inclusion. The school is also frequently used during evenings for a variety of extra-curricular activities and community education sessions.

Why we entered the 2017 Promethean Grant…

Our edtech in the school was dated and could no longer be used to its full potential. The interactive whiteboards had become irresponsive and were simply being used as projectors because the functionality of the boards had stopped working. The poor clarity of the display as well as sunlight on the board was also making it increasingly difficult for children to see what we were showing them.

We first encountered the ActivPanel at the North Lanarkshire Learning Festival and were really captivated by the quality of the display and the things it could do, it was very user friendly. Not long after the Learning Festival we heard about the Promethean Grant and jumped at the opportunity to win an ActivPanel for our school. We knew that we needed new technology to support the children’s learning, but budgets are quite restricted, so this was the perfect opportunity for us.

What winning means to us…

We are so pleased with our new ActivPanel which now lives in our Primary 3 class. The clarity of the display is amazing and is easy for everybody to see. We have it on a mobile stand which means we can move it to other classes whenever necessary. The ActivPanel comes in very useful across the whole curriculum, particularly for interactive maths and literacy activities, it really helps to get the children engaged. It’s a great teaching tool but also beneficial for children to use in small groups in collaborative learning sessions because of the multitouch capability.

We have been so pleased with our ActivPanel that parents at the school have kindly helped to fund an additional two ActivPanels for our Primary 1 and 2 classes. The school ran fundraisers such as discos and a Christmas fayre, plus we received donations from parents and some school funding. The generosity of the Promethean Grant and our local community has meant we have been able to enhance our children’s learning experiences.

Our killer three tips for the Promethean Grant…

1. Be creative – we came up with an acrostic poem and a chant to wow the judges for our entry.
2. Remember there is always the option to have your ActivPanel on a mobile stand, so you can move it around classrooms.
3. Use your ActivPanel across all areas of teaching – it really does help with the whole curriculum.

Access this case study as a PDF – St Bernadette’s Grant Case Study