Wealden Times | WT232 | September 2021 | Winter Interiors supplement inside

Robotics and Emerging Technologies
How Ashford Prep School and Reed’s are keeping up with the latest advances
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Mr Nick Tiley-Nunn, Headmaster
of Ashford Prep School
How are you keeping children
abreast with the latest technological
developments? In terms of keeping
up with the latest technological
developments, our Digital Steering
Group always has an eye on emerging
opportunities and latest developments
in educational technology. We have had
1:1 devices in the school (iPads in Prep
and Microsoft Surfaces in Senior) for
a number of years and the confidence
with which children use these devices is
staggering – they are incredibly skilful
and responsible users of technology.
This has been vital to ensuring that
even in the challenging context that we
have all lived through over the last year,
our pupils have not simply survived
educationally but genuinely thrived and
the school has been operating as close
to business as usual, even when their
physical classroom was the kitchen table.
What type of emerging technologies
are you currently focusing on in
lessons? Our curriculum at the Prep
School is broad and covers a range of
technologies. We have a growing focus
giving our children the opportunity
to experience augmented reality (AR),
not only in their computing lessons,
but as a way of enriching the wider
curriculum and providing learning
opportunities that would simply
be impossible without technology.
For our youngest learners in Early
Years, this might be colouring that
comes to life in front of their eyes
through Quiver, ranging to real-time
exploration of human anatomy with
AR t-shirts. We will be exploring the
impact of using AR to redefine learning
opportunities through our own small
scale action research project this year
including looking at how to integrate
AR into classrooms and corridors of
the school with interactive displays.
Do pupils get to try their hand at
robotics? Absolutely! We are very
excited to have got our hands on a
brand-new set of Sphero Bolt robots,
which will allow our children to
apply what they have learnt in their
coding lessons and use it to control
their very own robot to complete
tasks and missions. We hope to
be able to offer this opportunity
to other schools in the local area
through community initiatives.
What proves most popular with your
pupils? The use of Minecraft in lessons
has proved hugely popular, particularly
in Upper Prep. I was blown away when
I got to see first-hand how they had
used Minecraft to create their own
working example of how pollination
takes place, with the children acting
as virtual bees in the environment
that they had created collaboratively.
It reiterated the huge potential for
working together as a team to create
something that they would not have
achieved on their own. This ability to
work collaboratively, perhaps without
even being in the same room, is a
21st century skill that I believe will
become increasingly important given
the changes to working life that we have
witnessed globally over the last year.
How can you help them to develop
an interest in a particular new
technology? I think that fostering
the ability and confidence to work
iteratively; making little tweaks
when something doesn’t work, is
key. However, I think that the most
important factors in helping young
people to develop an interest in
anything, not just technology, is breadth
of opportunity and time. Put simply, if
you want a child to develop an interest
in something, they have to have the
opportunity and time to experience it.
It greatly concerns me that at
times we seem to have a very narrow
perspective of what the formative years
of education are all about as a nation.
For me, it’s about nurturing happy
and confident learners, broadening
horizons and inspiring minds, and
ensuring that every child moves on to
secondary education with everything
they need to be the best that they can
be as they become young adults. Time
to explore, create and truly challenge
children rather than a race to arbitrary
milestones needs to be prioritised.
We need to seriously ask ourselves
what skills, knowledge, understanding
and (perhaps most importantly)
values we want the next generation
of citizens to have. Technology will
have a big role to play in the world
that our children will inherit, so my
view is that the earlier they can use
this technology with confidence,
responsibility and most importantly
balance (nothing replaces the joy of a
good book or time outdoors) the better.
ashfordschool.co.uk
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