Whitburn Academy in West Lothian ended up in prestigious blue chip company last week to carry off a top prize at the national business awards for Scotland.
The school won in the category of “best use of technology in business”, which was sponsored by ntl. It beat three other contenders, including Royal Bank of Scotland. It has been using IT for the purpose of “freeing the teacher to teach and the learner to learn”.
Andrew Sharkey, head of the faculty of technology at Whitburn, said: “The school has made a determined attack on paperwork; greatly reducing the time spent on this allows more time for teaching and learning.”
The result of IT-based management of the school, Mr Sharkey says, has been more informed management of learning, better pupil motivation and improved attainment.
Mr Sharkey added: “The application of IT solutions is innovative because no one else has attempted to apply the solutions across the whole range of school activities or to the depth that we have.
“Our systems are all cutting edge, in many cases bespoke or untried in education.”
