ICT at Hyde is successful, not only in terms of examination results, but also in terms of the good attitudes their young people have to learning and the relationships between students and staff.  In common with other teachers in the school Keith starts by saying that "there is no substitute to developing good staff student relationships," whatever it is we are going to teach.  Keith considers himself lucky to have a good staff who "like kids!"  He points out that we all have good and bad days and that we are individuals.  If a student upsets you one day, you have to make it clear to them that you have started afresh the next day.  Walking around the department you hear staff apologising to students when they have made mistakes and recognising that they can learn from students.  An example of this is that students led a training day for staff on how useful Facebook and Bebo are to them, and showed teachers how to use them.  The importance of this relationship cannot be over stated.  With some students it may take 18 months to get the relationship to work, but the ethos across the department is that as teachers we can never give up on young people and that we can never bare a grudge.  As a result of this, students at Hyde know that they are "liked and respected" and that their teachers genuinely want them to succeed.

ICT is an exciting subject to young people, yet in too many schools, while students often enjoy ICT and using computers at home, they do not enjoy their ICT lessons.  Sometimes this can be because of the courses taught and the way that ICT is often taught for such a short time in the week at KS3 that it is difficult for the relationships to develop, but start by getting the relationships and learning environment right, before all else.