One of the most significant influencing factors the specialist School has had on improving the quality of education in the school is the investment in equipment which offers a long term benefit, The purchase of computers has allowed departments such as History, English, Geography, Science, Math’s, Art Design & Technology to benefit form the many enriched activities that would normally only be available in Information Technology Department.
Other equipment such as cookers, sewing machines, CAD printers, projectors interactive white boards, sound and video equipment plus many other items have been purchased in the coming year we are looking to develop our video conferencing equipment.

Some of the rooms that have been recently fitted out with equipment purchased with specialist school funding

The Specialist initiative has supported and given a lead on the use of the Virtual Learning Environment. The VLE has made real progress and it has made an impact on the curriculum with its use for lessons delivery, cross curricular projects and for exam preparation . The wide spectrum of use incorporates revision materials in a wide range of subjects, folders of resources, quizzes, E Portfolios of GCSE coursework, Blogs to record evidence of Personal Learning and thinking skills, The use of Online Assignments, Independent study materials for use by students during periods of Absence , Video resources.

A rolling program of staff training is in progress using Inset days Twilight Inset and Deptmental training. Sessions have been tailored to individual teachers needs with groups for Beginners, Improvers and developers.

During the academic year there are a number of events that have been recorded with Photographs video. Tis is available for pupils to view of the School Intranet h as speak out

Display of Virtual learning environment

The current web site software allows empowers authorized users to modify, add remove or link material to the Web with out the complication of knowing source code it also means that the layout is coherent. The specialist school Pages are part of another web site that allows larger data transfers and the ability to video stream,

Parents are continually informed of the activities of the students though newsletters which are regularly posted to the web

Inset days provide an opportunity to train teachers to take advantage of the software that is available for their use

this includes “Moodle” & “mindview 3.0BE”