Motivating Students with Apple Technology
Profiles in Success: Leigh Technology Academy
By adopting a comprehensive Mac strategy, Leigh Technology Academy is able to maintain dramatic improvements in its exam results and boost the career prospects of its under-privileged students. Apple technology isn’t just enhancing the quality of a school education, it’s also nurturing new creative skills for a brighter future.
“Ten years ago we were a failing school with poor exam results, doing little for the aspirations of our working class community”, says Mark Poulter, Head of Technology Strategy at Leigh Technology Academy. “In that time we’ve transformed our exam performance, and use Apple tools to support our commitment to personalised learning. Students now see school as much more relevant to the outside world, teaching vitally important skills to help achieve their goals”.
Leigh Technology Academy in Dartford, UK is an independent school that charges no fees. Publicly funded and run, it is part of the Government’s plans to regenerate communities judged to have suffered from decades of neglect in education provision.
Originally a ‘city technology college’, the school has undergone a remarkable transformation in its learning achievements. In 1996, only 26% of students entering GCSE and NVQ exams received grades A* to C. By 2006 that figure had risen to 91%, and ‘the Leigh’ had become one of the highest achieving non fee-paying schools in England.
That success encouraged designation of the school as an ‘academy’ in 2007, and provided an opportunity to further develop its ground-breaking approach to teaching and learning in a deprived community. The Leigh’s vision for its new future was to balance ‘smallness with breadth of opportunity’ by splitting the school into four small colleges, backed by three specialist teaching centres, for business, sport, and technology.
“Ten years ago we were a failing school with poor exam results. In that time we’ve transformed our exam performance using Apple tools to support our commitment to personalised learning. Students now see school as much more relevant to the outside world.”
— Mark Poulter, Head of Technology Strategy and Principal of Darwin College, Leigh Technology Academy
It received funding to build four state of the art colleges to be opened in 2008, each with 375 students, a Principal, and a tutorial system designed to encourage a family atmosphere. Mark Poulter occupies a dual role as both Head of Technology Strategy and a Principal of one of the colleges, Darwin. He explains that students are taught about 70% of the curriculum within their own colleges, with specialist subjects integrated with other subjects in a personally tailored way.
“We have PE teachers who can go into a maths lesson, and take students to the sports centre to learn about forces, for example, through tug of war. We want to show kids who are mad about sport that subjects like maths, English and statistics are highly relevant”.
Technology has had an important role in the Leigh’s evolution and success over the last ten years. “Our whole philosophy is to try anything that might help our children learn better, and gives them what they need to live in a modern society”, says Mark Poulter. “The only rule is that the computer must never be allowed to get in the way of personal relationships”.
The school has always maintained a broad technology platform, seeking to implement what it considered best-of-breed IT solutions, regardless of supplier. However, when the design and equipping of new college buildings were at discussion stage, Mark Poulter and his colleagues took the chance to implement an Apple infrastructure that would match the school’s creative approach to learning.
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