Digital Devices

There are a wide range of activities that students and teachers will use the device for including audio and video recordings by staff and students providing richer content, demonstrations and feedback to assignments. Traditional learning activities can be made more engaging and immersive, providing many more opportunities for peer collaboration and allowing students to organise and adapt lessons for their own individual needs. Digital inking will provide many opportunities for annotating digital resources, drawing graphs and diagrams. 

Our teachers currently use a wide variety of tools to give the best possible learning experience to our pupils. They will continue to use their professional judgement and will utilise technology to support students in a blended learning environment. The ability to be fully numerate and to read and write fluently is still vitally important and our vision is that the device will help create learning experiences that are engaging, and in some cases truly transformative, whilst giving students the chance to enhance their digital skills.  

Currently, the majority of assessments and external exams are still paper based. Therefore, handwriting and working on paper will be important and students will need to maintain their handwriting. The amount and frequency will vary from subject to subject but handwriting will continue to be incorporated into all areas of the curriculum. The device your child will receive has digital inking capability and the use of the Surface pen in applications such as OneNote or Whiteboard will still help encourage handwriting skills.   

Typing is an important life skill as typing proficiently frees up more time in lessons and at home. Students are already given typing tasks when they join the Senior School and it is a skill that your child should continue to practise as they move through the school as slow keyboard skills may be a barrier to progress. 

Our teaching staff are already making use of many online textbooks and other online and digital resources. These provide far more flexibility as such resources can be combined with ease and are more accessible to all. By utilising the Office 365 applications, all work and resources are synced and backed up to the cloud, providing significant benefits for student organisation as work completed on paper can be captured digitally and stored electronically meaning nothing is lost. By reducing our use of paper will also lower our environmental impact. 

82% of UK job roles require digital skills and over 95% of universities and businesses are using Microsoft 365 with an expectation that all students will be digitally literate. Digital tools can support creativity and innovation, self-directed learning, collaboration and hybrid working. Increasing the use of technology in and out of the classroom will give our students a competitive advantage when they move on to the next stage of their education and beyond.  

Expectations of student behaviour online or offline are outlined in our Acceptable User Policy, which is updated regularly and reinforced to all students. Once the devices are allocated we will be using a leading classroom management platform for teachers to monitor remotely and manage the student use of device in lessons, to ensure that students remain on task and that technology does not distract from learning. 

Experience and research has shown that having a large number of different devices that are not managed by the school is problematic for a number of reasons. Having a single standardised and fully managed device that all students access ensures that technology is used in an appropriate and safe way to support learning.  

There will be a significant amount of change with the large number of devices being introduced in the first year, we are restricting this to four year groups initially to ensure this transition is successful. 

Y11 and Y13 students are not involved in the initial roll out as they are in the midst of their exam courses and we do not wish to cause any disruption to their studies.  

Although Y8 students will not be provided with a device in September 2022, they will have increased access to mobile devices and our computer suites during this year. To ensure continuity for students and teachers, our Y8 students will receive the device in September 2023, therefore, completing their KS3 studies for most subjects using the same methods of learning they and the teaching staff are currently using. Once they move to Year 9 in 2023, they will begin elements of their GCSE courses, and will therefore be set for the start of their KS4 studies with the device. The Y7 students starting in 2022 will start their KS3 studies with the device and will therefore, have continuity in their method of studying.

Year groups that are not included in this first year of deployment, will still be permitted to use their own device to support their learning in school.  

We plan to provide devices to students included in the first year of the roll out towards the end of the summer holidays before the start of the new academic year. Students will be invited into school and given a full induction on how to use the device, expectations for use in and out of school and to sign their Acceptable User Policy. 

We are committed to our continued investment in teaching and learning and therefore the provision of the device will be included in school fees.