Best Teaching Tools

Profiles in Success: Wildern School

The school has started publishing the best student-produced videos on the VLE, as ‘Wildern TV’, where students are able to mark the quality of films submitted, as if they were on YouTube. “Teachers will also add their videos”, explains Oakley. “For example, it’s a particularly good way for a science teacher to show an experiment that might be too risky if performed in front of a class of children, but can be filmed outside school hours”.

Innovation at Wildern School relies so heavily on Apple technology that it is believed to have more Macs — over 300 — than any other school in England. The school has found its Macs deliver a zero failure rate, compared with a 30% failure for PCs. Software licence costs are also lower, partly because the Macs provide more free software, such as the iLife suite which is included with every new Mac.

Ceri Oakley sees a clear link between the school’s technology-led innovation programme and its rapid improvement in exam success. “You’ve only got to look in on any classroom that’s using multimedia tools to see the difference in their motivation and interest levels”, she says. “Apple equipment is so easy to use that it removes a learning hurdle for everyone. Kids love the design of Macs and iPods, and they can use software like iMovie with very little help”.

“There is no doubt that the students who are using new media to present projects are the ones getting high grades”, says Oakley. “The old saying is you don’t know your subject until you have to teach it. You could also say that students don’t know their subject until they have to film it. It’s amazing how a successful video or podcast inspires the whole class. You can see the reticent pupils saying to themselves ‘well that looks fun, I can do that next time’”.

“It’s amazing how a successful video or podcast inspires the whole class. You can see the reticent pupils saying to themselves ‘well that looks fun, I can do that next time.’”

Ceri Oakley, Deputy Headteacher, Wildern School in Hampshire

The school’s reputation has soared since introducing its innovative technology strategy. It has won the Government’s prestigious Future Vision Award for use of technology in the curriculum. It has hosted a number of conferences to share its know how with other UK schools, and has set up links with schools from Dresden, Madrid and Le Havre.

The Government’s Specialist Schools and Academies Trust recently asked Wildern to develop an e-mentoring portal — providing subject and general advice to around 15,000 students at schools across the UK. “Our youngsters who took part found it very useful”, says Oakley. “It was good to know they had someone online at a certain time in the run up to exams. They all got a minimum of five A* to C grades in their GCSEs”.

Wildern School now plans to incorporate e-mentoring into its VLE, offering its own students and those from other schools the chance to get remote support from a wide range of staff, including retired teachers and women on maternity leave, as well as full-time class teachers.

One of the major new developments for the VLE is to extend its usefulness to parents. They say they fully support the VLE, and there is great potential to add tailored services for them.

“We’re setting up a parent focus group to ask them what they would value”, explains Oakley. “For example, they might want to get reports online, which could be really helpful to track students’ progress over time. They might want to log on and see if their youngster is in class while they’re at work. It just goes to show there is so much we can do with technology”.