BSF: Helping Schools to Maximise Their ICT Provision

Ambition has never been higher for education with Building Schools for the Future (BSF) constituting the largest capital investment made in UK schools for more than 50 years. With the potential for transformation significant, schools are consequently under enormous pressure to make best use of this investment working with an extensive range of stakeholders to realise their education vision.

It is clear that that new buildings alone cannot deliver the kind of transformation sought in secondary school education. With ‘personalisation’ and ‘anytime, anywhere learning’ the new buzz words, schools are becoming more learner-centred and increasingly using ICT to help them achieve this. Encouraging home-school links is a key part of helping students to become life-long learners and engaging them in their education. A school is at the heart of a community so ensuring local children are given the best possible access to learning resources is a fundamental role of BSF. The integration of ICT services into all new and refurbished BSF buildings is key for creating the important relationship between homes and schools.

Officially opened on 15 September 2008, the newly built Brislington Enterprise College (BEC) is set to become a world-class centre of e-learning excellence, using the latest innovative technology to engage and educate its students. BEC has benefited from Bristol City Council’s £30 million investment through the BSF programme. At the heart of the new school is a custom built Enterprise Learning Zone which will ensure learners have access to the very latest technology to enable BEC to become a modern and innovative education environment.

With over 1,400 students, BEC aims to create the best possible setting for young people to learn with new technology available to support classroom teaching. The Enterprise Learning Zone is equipped with the very latest teaching and learning tools such as laptops, interactive whiteboards, tablet PCs and handheld internet-enabled devices which will revolutionise how teachers educate students. By enabling teachers to engage students using electronic learning resources and communicate with students through the managed learning environment, they are able to offer students as much individual assistance and guidance as they need. The school is fully wireless-enabled which students to be able to access their work from different locations throughout the school and offers flexibility for teaching staff to share resources.

The school-wide managed learning environment, N-able, will also allow students, teachers and parents to access information from any internet-enabled device allowing education to be seen as not something which just takes place at school. By encouraging parents to get involved in their child’s education, schools are able to promote education to the wider community. The BSF programme is about more than just bricks and mortar it’s about making communities really focus on education and create a culture of learning for life.

The time and investment spent on Brislington will ensure that the school’s ICT provision will stand the test of time. Technology is constantly changing, so ensuring that the BSF schools are able to meet the demands of improved technology is a key challenge facing institutions and suppliers. Bristol Brunel Academy was the first BSF schools to open its doors in September 2007 after an investment of over £24 million. From the very beginning, ensuring that the ICT installed in the school would support changing and developing technology was an important part of the project.

Richard Goucher, Director of E-Learning at Bristol Brunel Academy commented: “Since we opened in September 2007, we have worked together with Northgate to provide efficient ICT which is imbedded into our curriculum. ICT is an important part of our teaching at Brunel. We don’t have a crystal ball for how education will be delivered in 30 years time so we have to work very closely with our partners to make provision for possible future requirements. We have moved away from a formal classroom structure and offer students the flexibility of portable devices which appears to be the way education is moving forward. As the first BSF school to open we are attempting to lead the way by creating a school which meets the needs of our learners now and in future. We are keen to really promote home school links and get parents involved in their children’s education.

“Our long term vision is for every student to have access to internet enabled devices which can be used to gain access to the school network via the online managed learning environment. Working with Northgate we are able to explore new technology which will benefit our students and make full use of our existing ICT resources - collaboration is key to the success of our school.”

Ultimately, BSF is all about enabling and supporting improvement in teaching and learning across the UK and enabling pupils to learn anytime and anywhere in a manner which reflects their needs. It is about ensuring that every learner has the opportunity to fulfill his or her own potential and that every teacher has all the support he or she needs to help learners achieve this. It is an immensely exciting opportunity for education in the UK and with the right leadership and engagement with the BSF process, every school can achieve its vision.