Digital Working
We are extremely lucky at Hartley to have an outstanding level of digital tools to support our children in their learning. In Reception and Key Stage One, the children have access to iPads and in Key Stage Two, every child is given a Chromebook. These devices stay in school and are used to support the teaching of our curriculum in many different ways - some of which you will be able to see below. This list is most definitely not exhaustive as we are constantly finding new ideas and ways of using technology to support the curriculum.
Virtual Classrooms
Each class in Key Stage Two has a 'virtual classroom' alongside it on Google Classroom. On this classroom, work can be uploaded for specific children or whole classes; teaching slides can be added so that children can go back over their learning; questions can be asked to the teacher; feedback on work can be given; homework can be set and much, much more! The children are all extremely confident in using Google Classroom.
SEND Support
We use 'Read&Write' software to help support children who might need that extra bit of help with understanding meaning of words, reading longer texts or changing the colour of the screen. It's an extremely useful and powerful support for lots of children. We also use Widgit - a software that adds pictures to words when they are typed so children can see a visual representation of the vocabulary.
Research Skills
As part of our computing curriculum, we teach our children what a 'web search' actually is; how they work; different search engines and the pros and cons of each; citing sources and more. We want our children to be able to find high quality, reliable information.
Subject Specific Uses
Art
In art, examples include using the camera on the Chromebooks to create a stop-motion animation film about the rainforest; researching different artists; exploring an art gallery and creating digital art in the style of pop-art.
Computing
In computing, obviously our devices are used more than other subjects generally. However, a good example from Year Two is linking with their science (and maths) unit on minibeasts when they used a pictogram maker to record how many minibeasts they had found on their minibeast hunt.
Music
In music, children get the opportunity to use Chrome Music Lab to help with composing their own piece of music. The children can think about tempo, rhythm and pitch of music as to what kind of mood it creates.
Writing
Our devices will never replace hand written work, but there are many benefits of typing work on Chromebooks. Children can share their work immediately with their teacher who can help them edit their writing together, changes and edits can be seen and online feedback can be given for the work.
Virtual Reality
Year Four used the Virtual Reality Goggles to explore an underwater environment - this was in the build up to them designing and making their own ocean grabbers.
Bee Bots
In Reception, our children practice programming a set of instructions into the Bee Bots. This helps this estimate numbers, length and direction in their maths.
PE
We use a variety of online programmes for some of our PE/after school sessions. Some examples of this are Drum Fit and Five-a-Day; both of these are fitness programmes. Five-a-Day is a dance programme and Drum Fit uses fitness balls and drum sticks to create rhythms and dance fitness routines! We also use filming to be able to watch dance and gymnastic routines back to analyse the performances.
Click the button to see some examples of how we use our devices to aid long term memory recall.