Achieving through Innovation at Newham Improving ... - RM.com

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Increased parental involvement and homeworking A key benefit of the project has been the increased parental involvement in their children’s education and the pupils’ use of notebooks at home, to complete their work. Parents have recognised the significant investment which the authority has made in their child’s education. For pupils to take maximum advantage of this by taking their notebooks home, parents or guardians must collect their children from school. This has ensured that pupils remain safe and has significantly increased the level of parental involvement and interest in their children’s education. “Kaleidos VTLE has reduced the amount of time which teachers need to prepare and allows them, at the click of a button, to set work at various levels for individual pupils.” Graham Pragnell, Head of Education ICT, London Borough of Newham Many parents have also remarked on their child’s renewed enthusiasm to work at home, often showing a level of competence way beyond parents’ expectations. More effective use of teachers’ time Kaleidos ® , RM’s virtual teaching and learning environment, has proven to be an invaluable teachers’ resource for: • planning lessons. Kaleidos has allowed teachers to work independently or as a group, to plan, prepare and share lessons, with their personal notebook. They can do this when and where they want, saving hours of preparation time. • enabling the personalisation of pupils’ work, to suit their own specific level of ability. Teachers now set personalised work which pupils complete at home on their notebooks. This has helped teachers to produce more engaging lessons, capturing the imagination and interest of their pupils. Improved classroom management With the help of specific products, in particular Tutor ® , teachers have found that they are spending less time on classroom management and more time teaching. Tutor allows teachers to intervene during lessons, for example, to expand a discussion to the whole class or for pupils to report back their findings in specific areas. This, along with the improvement in pupils’ attitude and motivation to learning, has made significant positive changes to classroom behaviour and management. Measuring educational improvement The project, and therefore RM, is measured on key performance indicators (KPIs) which reflect a focus on the child and demonstrating educational improvement. The KPIs which have been signed up to include the following: KPI Improved key stage 2 SATS in maths, English and science Measure Versus an appropriate control group of schools which are not included in the project Improved key stage 3 SATS in maths, English, science and ICT Improved pupil attendance at key stage 2 Improved standards of teaching using ICT across the whole curriculum at key stage 2 Independent audit to verify
Partnering with RM When the project began, it was imperative to the project team that it found an ICT company which believed in working in partnership with the authority. There needed to be a common goal – to work towards bringing about a whole-scale change in the teaching and learning in primary schools across the borough. Newham was looking for a flexible partner, which understood its unique challenges within the authority and which could work and respond in innovative ways. The Newham project team felt that RM best demonstrated the ability to work in this way, and there the partnership began. As the procurement process evolved, RM was able to prove the strength of this partnership, in the way in which it approached not just the delivery of an outstanding technical solution, but also its ability to draw in the right blend of expertise and experience into its team. The project team comprises personnel from the authority, head teachers from schools within the project and RM staff. All decision-making which occurs in the project team is based on choosing the best solution for the children within the project, with each member of the project team having an equal voice. Support delivered locally by RM Support is delivered to the project locally by RM. The support team comprises two learning outcome co-ordinators (LOCs) and two on-site technicians, working seamlessly to ensure that schools are supported as and when required. Teachers have remarked on the technicians’ ability to act quickly and effectively, to resolve any technical issues, as and when they arise. This is always carried out with the professionalism and sensitivity which is required when entering a school during the normal working day, often while the teacher continues with the lesson. The LOCs have been so successful supporting teachers that an additional LOC has just been recruited to the project. Training to meet individuals’ needs Teachers have benefited from a range of training and support provided throughout the project. All schools have planned, with the project team, the training and support which best suited their needs. This was then delivered from a range of training options. Typically, the training options selected were as follows: 1. Two half-day in-school teacher-training sessions. These sessions focused on project hardware and software and considered what impact this might have on their specific teaching. 2. Access to regular planning support sessions, where the focus was on teaching and the ways in which ICT could support and enhance this. 3. In-class support sessions, which involved either team-teaching or supported teaching sessions – ideal when teachers wanted to try out something new, but were a little uncertain. 4. A sharing-good-practice training programme for teachers and TAs, run at the Newham central training centre. 5. A LOC designated to each school, to conduct additional training sessions to support teachers. “We have a true partnership with RM, where we have come together to create a workable solution in Newham, for the benefit of the children. I always envisaged that the only way the project would work would be through appointing the right company, the right personnel and through partnership working. We are extremely fortunate to have all three!” Graham Pragnell, Head of Education ICT, London Borough of Newham Most teachers have received at least three training sessions a year and many have received up to five sessions per year, with 94% of training sessions evaluated as good or very good. Next steps for the project The project team recognises, at this early stage, that the critical next step is to consolidate the good progress which has already been made by: • continuing to embed ICT into teaching. • starting to share the good practice in individual schools more widely across the borough. The team is also looking at how research projects could be used to identify particular areas of strength which could then be shared across the authority. An equipment refresh is also planned for 2008, half way through the life of the project.
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