Good Practice - Case Study

Roundwood Park

School No: 482

Computer Clubs 4 Girls (CC4G)

As a Mathematics and Computing College, our focus is very much on encouraging all students to take an interest in ICT. At KS4 and 5 there has been a definite imbalance in the amount of girls who would like to pursue an ICT based course and so the club was started to try and remedy this in the future. 

It was also shown on our statistics that boys attain more highly in ICT than girls and we wanted to gain a better balance of attainment. Some girls can find ICT frustrating and technical and we wanted to eradicate these barriers at an early stage.

Initially we used the Year 7 (now Year 8) to trial the CC4G materials in the Spring Term.  Their positive response persuaded us that we should share the CC4G experience with current Year 6 students from two of our feeder schools.  Part of CC4G would mean they could encounter high tech equipment, in secondary school surroundings and be taught by ICT experts with sound ICT skills and knowledge. This complemented the role of our primary liaison teacher and so seemed ideal.

Interest and support from our two closest feeder schools has been great, I prepared a letter explaining the course content, detailing the course dates and times etc. I then created a reply slip stating first come, first served basis. I dropped the letters off to the two schools with an example of the bag and its contents. Within the first week I had over 30 replies!

Initial feedback has been very promising and although it is early days, we should be able to see a marked difference in the ability of our students when they start Yr 7 next year.

The first thing they enjoy is that they have their own machine to work on and not having to share! They love to be able to wear headphones and follow the interactive exercises going at their own pace and level of ability. They love being creative and implementing their own ideas and the subject base is very much aimed at girls e.g. dancing, fashion, celebrity, sound and media. They enjoy sharing ideas and working in groups. It can become very chatty!

Summer School Project

During the summer we invited our now Year 7 girls to a two day CC4G course during the first week of the holidays to expand their knowledge of using computers and integrate amongst new peers.
The first day we spent working on the "Celebrity" campaign, looking at what it is like to be behind the camera and then tested their star potential to see if they can keep their cool when the spotlight is on them. We then fancied ourselves being on Fleet Street? We started to design a magazine that demanded attention and created our own fan magazine full of celebrity pictures and hot gossip making it too hot to put down! We looked at structuring our pages to suit our audience with eye catching headlines and titles which would have put "OK" and "Hello" magazines to shame! The girls had to source their images, write some cool articles and use publishing software to make it look like a real magazine!

The second day was spent working through the "Fashion" campaign, looking to see if there were any fashion experts on board? We then organised a fashion show, experimenting with nail art and make-up. Then finally designing a CC4G outfit and much more!

The girls collected photographs from a fashion show and then produced a review. They decided on the venue, outfits and photographer - not forgetting the models and then remembering the budget they were given.

Their next task was to use the CC4G catalogue to produce a new school uniform. They had to choose a colour and find the clothes then produce a questionnaire, analyse the results and write a report. From their designs they then created their own website for parents to order their children's uniform from! The students learnt new skills on spreadsheets, word processing and Dreamweaver MX to produce their websites.

The feedback from the girls has been extremely encouraging and all have gained new skills in some aspect of computing. They acquainted themselves with new friends for their start in September and also took in the ambience of their new surroundings for the next few years!
"I learnt a lot about CC4G and using backgrounds in Publisher"
"I did not know much about computers and coming to CC4G has helped me"
"I liked making the magazine best of all"
"I have learnt how to be a fashion designer"

The students who attended the summer school have had the advantage of experiencing our ICT suites and exploring our network systems and programmes. They have been able to acquaint themselves with friends made in the summer and familiarise themselves with the staff they met. They have been more proactive in lessons as they are familiar with the set up we use and can explore more confidently when looking for and/or using the software associated with the Year 7 scheme of works.

The future of CC4G

In the future I intend to open this club up to the present Year 7 girls again, focusing on the girls who were unable to attend in the Summer due to other commitments. I also would like to offer this to the Year 5’s at our feeder schools to capture their young imaginative minds! I again intend to run a summer club for the girls who will be starting the school in September 2007.

Mrs Wilkins