Hoe Valley School is a brand new, 21st Century school which uses ICT to enhance and support students’ learning, streamline the business operations of the school and automate administration, assessment and reporting. Our ICT strategy makes full use of currently available software and equipment to add real value to the experience of everyone associated with the School.
Hoe Valley School students will be technologically capable, confident and flexible to enable them to thrive in whatever direction their future careers take them.
Examples of our whole-school approach to ICT are:
- We are a Google School – all staff and students have a login to access Google Classrooms for class based and home learning. This allows students to interact with one another in a monitored and safe space, to share and collaborate with one another when producing documents and reduces all of those lost worksheets!
- ICT is taught as a discrete subject (Computer Science) to all students as well as being fully integrated into all curriculum areas through quickly accessible student devices in each classroom
- We use a cloud-based Management Information System called Arbor to store student information, track progress and monitor attendance, behaviour and punctuality. This is all shared in an open and transparent manner with our families who have their own parent portal
- As a cashless School, we have appointed Squid to ensure quick and safe financial transactions between home and School
We have implemented an ICT strategy that is education led not technology led and have identified those areas where ICT can enhance the curriculum and learning, promote enrichment, break down learning barriers, foster collaboration, support CPD for teachers and stimulate creativity and curiosity at all levels.
Project based learning is central to our vision which requires the facilities for investigation and access to information from multiple sources in multiple formats. Results need to be presented in differing ways using multi-media inputs and outputs that give full range to the students’ creativity of expression.
We believe ICT has a crucial role to play in delivering the learning experience we want for our students – not for its own sake, but because of the value it adds to our relevant and inspiring curriculum.