Good Practice Bursary - South LIG Collaborative

During the Autumn Term Perryfields High School took part in a small scale action research project in collaboration with Shireland City Learning Centre focusing on raising the achievement of boys at Key Stage 4 in English.

The programme was linked to the completion of a GCSE Media Coursework task, which involved students in analysing  a magazine advert, commenting  on denotation, connotation, target audience, purpose and ideology.

During the programme students trialled online materials on the Learning Gateway and gained hands on experience of creating TV adverts at the City Learning Centre. We are currently collating the outcomes which will be distributed to schools via the English Best Practice Website next term and the online materials on advertising will be available to all schools on the  Learning Gateway.

What is clear is that we cannot underestimate the importance of digital learning for our 21st students both in terms of engagement and learning outcomes.

Another highlight from last term has certainly got to be working with a talented NQT from Warley High School & College of Sport who devised a programme in collaboration with the CLC and Tony Hisgett from the Strategy Team to support the teaching of a Local Area Study for her Year 9 history group. Students were asked to create a documentary on Coal and Chain Making in the Black Country during the Industrial Revolution using original photos and video footage. The students created some impressive footage, which was accompanied by some excellent commentaries.The work was recently showcased at Warley as part of an HMI Best practice visit to their History department.

What the teacher thought !

How did the CLC programme enhance pupils learning and levels of attainment?

Developed their historical knowledge and understanding as well as their ICT skills.

Developed skills of historical enquiry through individual and collective research

Pupils have analysed a wide range of historical sources and evaluated their usefulness

Pupils have reached thoughtful conclusions about coal mining in the Black Country

Finally they are really enthusiastic about history

What the students said !

This programme helped me improve my knowledge and understanding of the 19th century and improved my ICT skills

It helped because the video clips and pictures showed it better than just in a text book

Using Photoshop to design T-Shirts

Shireland City Learning Centre hosted a Maths Day for 30 students from Langley High School and Warley High College of Sport.  The Sandwell LA Maths Consultant, Mike Rikhuss along with the Maths teachers from the schools, led this project.

The focus of this project was to create an Interactive Maths Dictionary using Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver.  Students had the opportunity to take part in innovative workshops led by a Web Designer Matt Guest, and created fantastic interactive web pages and animations.  This project has been a great success and will be developed to carry out again with a larger number of students and use other new creative software.

Post 16 students from The Meadows School took part in a cross-curricular programme involving ICT and Art.  The focus of this project was to create promotional t-shirts for their school using 'identity' as a starting point.  Students were very excited using the digital camera to take images and worked effectively to create simple layouts using Photoshop.  Having learnt how to use Photoshop to manipulate, students created three design variations for their t-shirts.

By the end of the project, students were very enthusiastic about their t-shirts and were very proud to wear them on as part of their school assembly.  Their work has been entered as part of the Becta Awards under the Digital Still Image category and has been displayed at The Meadows School and at the City Learning Centre.

Their teacher commented that the programme "gave students an opportunity to work in an environment out of school using community facilities which have creative software not available in the school"

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