Wokingham

Wokingham DC Shinfield Infant and Nursery School is at the forefront of using information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance their work – and that’s official! Shinfield Infant and Nursery School is one of the first schools in the UK to receive the prestigious new ICT Mark – and the first in the Wokingham district!

The new quality mark recognises schools that can demonstrate they use ICT to support all learners and all school activities. The ICT Mark is awarded by Becta, the government’s lead agency for ICT in education, and recognises the success that Shinfield Infant and Nursery School has in developing a strategic approach to its use of ICT across the whole school. Officers from Wokingham District Council provided support and encouragement to assist the school in moving towards the award.

The school was praised for its good provision of ICT and has particular strengths in technical support and using ICT across subjects taught at the Wokingham DC school. A range of ICT is used, with one particular initiative seeing pupils using a video camera, in conjunction with a secondary school, on a book project. The infant school children recorded themselves saying what kind of story they liked and this was taken into consideration by the secondary school pupils when they planned a suitable storyline for a book they were writing for the infant school.

In year two, the higher achieving pupils are given a different task which challenges them appropriately, whilst in year one a pupil with visual difficulties has additional equipment to produce enlarged text. The special educational needs co-ordinator uses ICT to support and reward learning in the classroom.

Teachers have undergone a good variety of training both in school and at a local secondary school and teaching support staff have undergone Learndirect CLAIT training, which provides information on the Windows operating system and Microsoft Word 2000, and this has impacted on their ability to use and help with ICT in the classroom.

Mandy Turner, headteacher at Shinfield Infant and Nursery School, said: “We are delighted to receive the ICT Mark. It recognises our approach to ICT and the positive impact that it is having on our school as a whole. The school is one of the oldest schools in the Wokingham district and to have been awarded this prestigious award shows that we are able to combine tradition with the best of forward thinking in planning an innovative and stimulating curriculum. All credit must go to former headteacher Ann Nolan and both former ICT co-ordinator Elaine Brown and current co-ordinator Charlotte Jakins who all played a large part to achieve this award.”

Wokingham Cllr Frank Browne, executive member for children’s services, said: “To have Shinfield Infant and Nursery School amongst the first in the country, as well as the first in the Wokingham district, is a major achievement and something of which we should all be very proud. To gain this new award is a wonderful achievement and they should be congratulated on this success. This demonstrates the excellent ICT management and teaching that is taking place in the district’s schools."

Wokingham District Council