ICT

Pupils at the Dragon enjoy access to up to date computing facilities and software within a networked environment that encompasses all aspects of the school.

Lessons

Lynams pupils have one lesson per week in their ICT suite, starting in Reception. They progress from playing educational games to using applications and web-sites to support the curriculum. The emphasis is on having fun and building basic skills and confidence. Years 4 and 5 have two timetabled ICT lessons a week. The focus is on re-enforcing these skills and teaching new, core skills on productivity software such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher and Paint Shop Pro. These skills are then built upon through the curriculum during years 6-8. Classics, English and Geography are timetabled specifically for this, although all subjects use the ICT rooms to enhance teaching.

In addition, in Year 8, all pupils do a Geography fieldwork project which is produced on computer. These are sent on to senior schools and account for 20% of the Geography Common Entrance mark.

When the activities timetable allows us, we run an ICT activity. Those involved have previously created Flash MX games and animations, made websites using Dreamweaver MX and experimented with Access databases.

Facilities

We have six dedicated ICT teaching rooms at the school - five at Bardwell Road and one at Lynams. One of the five ICT suites - E Block Hall - is used solely by children in Years 4 and 5 for both lessons and during free-time. This allows children in those years to acquire core skills in a familiar, less frenetic environment. The remaining four ICT suites are used by all children at Bardwell Road and are generally quite busy places! MIDI keyboards are installed in ICT2 at Bardwell Road and allow music to be composed and recorded using sequencing software.

Camcorders and digital cameras are available to all at both sites with editing facilities.

In addition to the dedicated ICT suites, digital projectors and interactive whiteboards are provided in classrooms at both sites and enhance learning and lesson delivery. These allow teachers to present material from either the dedicated classroom computers (at Lynams) or from laptops (at Bardwell Road). Every full-time member of the teaching staff has a laptop. Part-time teaching staff or peripatetic teachers have access to either a shared laptop or to the computers in the shared staff-working areas.

The network extends to all areas of the school, including classrooms, the library, science laboratories, the Art & Design Centre and boarding houses. In total, there are around 250 computers available for pupils to use.

Network, Email and Internet access

All members of staff have network and email accounts. All pupils at Bardwell Road have network and email accounts. Pupils at Lynams share network and email access by class. All incoming and outgoing email is filtered and monitored. All websites are subject to continued filtering, evaluation and monitoring. Pupils and Staff agree to abide by the Dragon's network, internet and email guidelines.

Departments have intra-departmental shares and also areas shared to pupils and other members of staff. Electronic teaching resources are now catalogued and shared from within these areas.

All pupil work can be seen by any member of the teaching staff.

Intranet

All the academic departments contribute to their own intranet sites, placing suitable downloaded material, teacher created documents and external web links for use within the curriculum and in free time.

Information screens

These are positioned around the school and display daily information such as the latest news, School calendar information, dining-hall menus and notices for pupils from staff.

Staff and ICT

Teaching staff have access to regular in-service and in-context training sessions.

Access hours

Two of the five computer rooms at Bardwell Road are open from 8am-8pm each day. The other three are open during lesson and organised activity times only. The Lynams ICT suite is only open during lessons and activities.

Future developments

We are investigating a remote application portal for staff. All staff can retrieve emails externally. We began our 'thin-client' project using Windows 2003 Terminal Services in September 2004. These 'thin-client' devices are now successfully used in two of our six ICT suites. Our intention is to extend the use of Terminal Services for pupils beyond the ICT suites and into the classroom using robust, wireless, child- friendly devices.

ICT administration

The Director of ICT, Paul Dunleavy, runs the department. He has support from Guy Musson and Di Black for teaching years 4 and 5 at Bardwell Road and Lynams respectively. There are 3 support engineers to help ensure the smooth running of all the servers, desktops, laptops and other networked devices.

For more information contact:
Paul Dunleavy
Director of ICT