Highly Commended

Dyke House School, Hartlepool

Information

Dyke House has a large ICT team all of whom seemed very dedicated and were actively searching for ways to improve the school.
The school is well integrated with the adjacent City Learning Centre and makes effective use of its facilities.
There were many examples of ICT systems in place to make life easier in the school, such as a biometric dinner/library system, a self-created VLE, Promethean voting pods and Assessment/Tracking systems.

The school is fully extended into the community with an extensive facility for out of hours use.  They are committed to student teacher training, a modern apprenticeship scheme and outreach into local primaries including loan of technicians to other schools.

Overall - A school where ICT strategy is informing whole-school development, and where there is abundant evidence of the way in which ICT has been embedded into the school's infrastructure and systems in order to make more efficient use of time and resources and to encourage students to be creative and to experiment.  A fully extended school with ICT being used to reach out and draw in the wider community.

Whinney Banks Primary School, Middlesbrough

Information

The integration ICT into subjects has resulted in a marked increase in interest and motivation. ICT work viewed was impressive with young pupils showing  skills with digital cameras and older pupils working on stop motion animation.
The Head Teacher and Staff were enthusiastic regarding ICT.
ICT strategy is extended into the local community with parents involved especially with regard to E-Safety.

Overall - A school which is taking a measured and confident approach to the embedding of ICT across subjects.  Advanced use of the learning platform is motivating children to complete homework tasks.  The school is working towards fully embedded use of ICT with strong leadership and a clear strategy.