Poke your head through a classroom door at The Portsmouth Academy and you may be surprised at what you see. At first, it might look like any Year 7 English class engaging with their teacher.
But look a bit closer and you’ll notice that there’s something different about how the children are working. It’s a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in an office block - because instead of using exercise books and pens, the children are all tapping away on computers.
This isn’t a one-off: every Year 7 child at The Portsmouth Academy has their own individual laptop that they take with them from lesson to lesson. They don’t have any exercise books and no one has a pencil case.
The one bit of equipment they bring to school with them every day is their laptop, and when the next cohort of Year 7s joins in 2022, they will do the same. In five years, every student at the school will have their own device.
A new digital strategy
The move was part of a new digital strategy at the school, explains principal Rachel Grey.
“A couple of years ago, it became glaringly obvious that our students were incredibly unskilled in how to manage and organise work on a computer - it was things like how to find their email, knowing what their email address is or how to remember their password,” she says.
“We were hearing from employers that students weren’t prepared for the workplace, not just digitally but also in collaboration, teamwork and all the other social and emotional skills. And while we want our children to get the GCSE results they need, they also need those workplace skills. The one-to-one devices are a way to unlock their learning and ensure they become 21st-century learners.”
Where to start?
So, for schools looking to introduce something similar, where do you start?
Choosing the device has got to be the first step, says Richard Denham, digital development officer at Thinking Schools Academy Trust. At The Portsmouth Academy, they use HP devices and Microsoft Windows software because Denham believes these offer the best of both worlds.
“It’s a laptop, so we can teach people typing skills, but then there’s also a touchscreen, and it folds to become a tablet, which is particularly useful for students to learn. It’s much more visual and actually being able to draw on the device with a stylus is just invaluable,” he says. “We also want to set people up for the world of work, and Microsoft is the business standard in workplaces.”
The second stage is looking at the cost of introducing these devices. There is an initial cost involved, but this doesn’t have to come wholly from the school budget. At The Portsmouth Academy, for example, there is a payment scheme in place. Parents can either make a one-off payment of £420 (or £150 if their child is a recipient of free school meals) or by monthly instalments over 15 or 30 months. After the final payment is made, the device is the child’s to keep. If a child doesn’t wish to purchase a device, they still have access to one during school hours.
Being aware of the challenges around embedding the devices is the third step, says Denham - and The Portsmouth Academy has experienced plenty that others can learn from.
Staff confidence can be a stumbling block, says Denham. The willingness to learn has to be there, as does the dedicated time to instil confidence and upskill the staff.
“Teachers want to teach. It’s about making sure that you’re not just shoehorning technology into their existing pedagogy; you need to look at how the pedagogy works for digital skills. Sometimes, a slight remodelling is needed but, actually, it’s not too difficult - and the teachers can see that it will build students up for the future.”
Safety matters
As well as getting staff on board, the school also had to deal with concerns around the physical safety of students. Denham says leaders were conscious not to put big banners outside of the school publicising that students had a device on them and stressed to students that their safety came before any device.
“We told students if someone tries to steal your device, just give it to them, no questions. If you lose your device or it gets stolen, it’s fine. We can get a replacement and we will deal with the police if we need to,” he says.
There are also challenges about online safety, he adds, that can be mitigated by using great hardware and software. The system updates itself regularly and there is internet filtering built into all the devices. At home, parents can oversee this filtering.
“Giving a student a device is a bit scary, but the point is, we’re teaching them to behave and be safe on the internet. That can’t happen without a device,” he says.
While it’s important to consider the challenges, to ensure roll-out is smooth, it’s also important to look at the impact the devices can have on teaching and learning. After just one term of use for the Year 7s, staff can see a difference compared with the cohort before them, Grey says.
“The students are becoming self-sustaining learners. The use of the device enables them to be independent and to take control of their own learning. Children aren’t just waiting for the teacher to tell them what to do next anymore, they’re on to the next activity while their teacher is working with someone else. It’s really easy for staff to be able to stretch and challenge children - and it saves a lot of time.”
Tools for reading
For Chiara Fraser, the school’s associate leader for English and literacy, the devices have been a game changer for whole-school reading. Often, in secondary school, reading is left to the English department, but reading skills need to be developed in all lessons. For some students, there are barriers that prevent them from accessing a complex science text, for example. But the accessibility tools on the devices are changing that.
“Traditionally, reading a piece of information in a science lesson can be quite difficult. That can deter a teacher from asking children to do that by themselves and, instead, it is done as a group-reading led by the teacher,” Fraser explains. “But the accessibility tools on the devices ensure that every child in the room, regardless of their ability, can access reading texts in a variety of different ways and different forms.”
The tools can change font size, text type, text colour, all to suit a child’s learning needs. As a result, Fraser is confident that every child is reading in every lesson.
The devices also help to speed up reading fluency tests for the new Year 7s, she adds. In previous years, it would take about 45 minutes to do a one-to-one reading test with a child, but the same test can be done in 20 minutes with 250 children using the Reading Progress app on the devices that then generate data straightaway, allowing the teacher to instantly see where interventions are needed and respond quickly.
“Of course, it’s terrifying for staff to have that first lesson where there are 30 children sitting with devices in front of them,” says Fraser. “But once that first lesson is out of the way, they settle into it. We’re all still learning but, generally, it’s a positive move forward.”
Find out more at www.microsoft.com/en-gb/education/
