Colquhoun Park Primary School in East Dunbartonshire are celebrating their success! Last month, pupils and staff were delighted to be awarded The Digital Schools Awards Scotland, a national award which promotes, recognises and encourages a whole-school approach to the use of digital technology.
‘’Colquhoun Park Primary is a school which wants the best for their pupils and recognises the impact digital learning can have on their current and future learning. They have travelled far and are on a very positive trajectory’’
This is recognition of the school’s digital journey and the skills of the staff who have worked together to identify and develop classroom activities that promote skills such as digital innovation and creativity; collaborative and self-directed learning; problem solving and computational thinking.
“From my discussions with staff and pupils, it was apparent that children were having experiences of using technology in creative ways. From photography, video clips, voice recordings, to programmable coding devices and simple games development using Scratch, most children have had opportunities to create content through a range of media.”
As a participating school we were required to self-assess our developments in digital technology under common practice areas of Leadership and Vision, Digital Technology for Learning and Teaching, School Culture, Professional Development and Resources and Infrastructure. Miss Clarke, our ICT Coordinator, worked closely with staff and pupils to identify strengths and areas for improvement across the school including training for teachers’ professional development in digital technologies.
‘’The school have made an extremely positive start to their digital learning journey. Staff have embraced the use of technology as a tool for learning and are working together to upskill themselves and deliver rich learning experiences for their pupils. The commitment to the safe use of technology throughout the school was very much in evidence through my conversations with staff and pupils’’
As a school we increased our equity of access to technology using our PEF funding and money raised by the Parent Council to buy additional Ipads and laptops which has supported our journey enormously.The school is well resourced, and the infrastructure of the school can support the full range of activities happening in classes. There is a variety of programs in use, and pupils are given opportunities to learn skills and apply them across the curriculum.
As a school community, our digital journey over the last 3 years has included the pilot and roll out of Seesaw as a way to engage parents and carers in their children’s learning journey and encourage ongoing reporting, target setting and 2 way communication between home and school. Alison Brien, Head Teacher at Colquhoun Park Primary said: “I am very proud of the pupils and teachers who have worked incredibly hard towards the school's achievements in the delivery of digital technology to enhance and support learning. We are delighted with our award and is great to have some positive news to share with our school community. It was also rewarding to receive feedback and recognition about the quality of experience we were providing during lockdown. A boost for all at this time!’
Our Validator commented:
‘’The school has a very strong staff team who recognise the educational benefits digital technology brings to teaching and learning and want to prepare their pupils to be able to function in the ever-changing digital world of the future. They managed to deliver high-quality educational experiences to their community during lockdown, with a good balance of online and real-life experiences. They worked with and for the local community and their efforts were well received by parents and pupils.’’
Colquhoun Park continue on their digital journey and have been invited by the Digital Schools Team to become a mentor school to support others.
