School Overviews

Round Diamond JMI

Round Diamond is a bigger than average sized primary school for pupils aged 3 to 11. It is situated in Stevenage and has 343 pupils. The proportion of pupils with special needs, including those with statements, is above the national average. The school has a special unit for 12 children in Years 3-6 with speech and language difficulties.

The school's current ICT equipment includes: 2 computers per class and a suite of 8 networked computers. Computers in Years 5 and 6, the library, school office and head's office are also connected to the network. The school has a portable LCD projector which is used regularly across the school. In addition a digital camera, scanner, digital video camera and I-Mac computer are used to support children's learning. A comprehensive database of curriculum resources (including on-line materials) is being developed to support teachers.

Through a planned time-table, pupils in classes have access to the computers in the suite over the course of the year; the suite is in almost continuous use. These lessons as well as developing ICT skills, enhance pupils' learning in other curriculum areas.

The school's ICT Co-ordinator was released from full-time classroom duties at the start of the 2001/02 academic year to work with groups of children across the school and to develop the subject further. The school's Ofsted inspection in May 2002 confirmed the soundness of this decision and the impact it has had on raising teacher confidence and standards.

The school is due to move to an area near a new private housing estate within a year. It is envisaged that a new purpose built computer suite and a fully networked school will further enhance the school's ability to provide for children's learning needs.

View Lesson Plans supplied by Round Diamond

• www.rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

Watchlytes School

Watchlytes School in Welwyn Garden City is a 9-class Infant and Junior school with a separate part-time Nursery unit. It was originally built as an open-plan school, with large units, each containing a small "quiet room" and a large area containing a sink and space for children to work in groups. The quiet rooms are now used for whole-class teaching and the outside areas are mainly used for design & technology, art and group activities that require a larger space than that available in the classroom.

The school has 12 Research Machines Window Box PCs, each with its own suite of applications software. In addition, the school was donated 8 PCs by a local company, and these are all loaded with Windows 98 and Word 2000 at present. A network was installed at the end of the Spring term 2002.

The computers are arranged in suites in each of the four units, the number of computers in each suite varying from six to three. One printer via the network serves each suite, and all the computers are connected to the Internet. This arrangement allows the children to be able to work in groups of 6 - 12, each suite of computers being shared between the two classes in each unit. The suites can therefore be set up for numeracy and literacy groups, as well as for researching the Internet, and using CD-ROMs and application software to support the rest of the curriculum. Although the equipment is shared by two classes, the number of computers available generally allows for two different activities to be taking place at the same time.

The school has a well-catalogued bank of materials on CD-ROM and floppy disk, as well as the software available on the Window Box computers. It is hoped that, before long, software will be available to all computers via the network, and that all pupils and teachers will have access to their own personal folders for saving and managing files. It is also planned that teachers will have software available throughout the school for assessment, target-setting and other administrative tasks.

View Lesson Plans supplied by Watchlytes