Robert Owen Memorial Primary School

Contact

Jill Kennedy
Smyllum Road
Lanark
ML11 7BZ
01555 662486

Introduction
Robert Owen Memorial Primary School is a non denominational school with a maximum capacity of 396 pupils. The school is located in the town of Lanark in the Education Authority of South Lanarkshire. There are 262 children in the school at present, plus a learning support base for 10 pupils and a nursery class with 60 part-time places. The school was opened in 1973. The construction of the new school started in August 2005 and will be finished in 2006. The Nursery and Infant departments are currently in temporary accommodation on the existing site and P4-7 remain in the old building. SLC working in partnership with RM have invested in ICT to enhance learning and teaching. The school therefore has an excellent provision of hardware. There are 2 computer suites. The main suite has 15 networked machines with projector, mono and colour printers. The Infant suite has 5 networked machines with mono and colour printers. There is an additional projector that can be used in classes or to give presentations in hall. There are also 15 standalone machines located in classrooms. The standalone machines run software to enhance cross-curricular ICT and to run support for learning packages e.g. Wellington Square, Word & Number shark and SuccessMaker. The school has also invested in digital cameras, cardreaders and scanners to promote cross-curricular ICT. The school hopes to invest in whiteboards when the new school is opened.

The initiative
I jumped at the chance to be part of the project as I had been toying with the idea of creating a website for my own school for about 2 years but was apprehensive due to no content advice being given by my local authority. Also having been seconded for 2 years as an area ICT Co-ordinator I was being asked by more and more schools how they could go about developing a website.

Purpose
Initially a meeting was arranged with SMT to consider content of site, content of questionnaires to be sent to parents, website policy and any concerns.

Outcome
•We wanted to develop a school website to increase the already strong home/school links.
•To reduce the amount of paper sent home. The website would allow parents to download Newsletters, assembly dates, school dinner menus, etc.
•Creation of website would also be an ideal focus for starting computer club and allowing pupils to use ICT skills for a purpose.
•To promote the school
•Publishing children’s work

Planning

Who?
•A website team made up of 6 pupils and 4 members of staff was created. The team generated/consulted rest of pupils/staff/parents about what should and shouldn’t be on the website. Questionnaires were sent to parents and the results collated.
•School ICT Co-ordinator(PT) responsible for leading development/ publishing content. Website team collect information for site and e-mail/post!!! to ICT Co-ordinator for uploading. Hopefully other staff members will be trained on uploading after Christmas break.

What?
•Website team spent time looking at other websites for ideas on content/layout of site
•Also used questionnaire results to plan content. Lots of ideas were generated from questionnaires but it was decided to start small and gradually expand website to incorporate other ideas in the future.
•The school handbook was used for basic information about the school.
•Web content policy was created with SMT. Essential to reassure parents and ensures everyone involved in producing the website knows what is expected.
•Website team needed extra training in use of digital camera, cardreader, scanner. Training on how to download animated gifs from Microsoft site.

When?
Work was started on the website when I was seconded as an area ICT co-ordinator. I met weekly with the web team to discuss ideas/collect information that I would then upload. Since returning to school in August it has been more difficult as members of staff involved have been absent and we have tried to cram meetings into lunchtime! I am also now on maternity leave so I am relying on the team e-mailing me content! This situation will be resolved in the New Year when I return to school and use my weekly PT time to meet/upload/train other staff/pupils.

IPOD
We are planning to use the ipod to record interviews with members of staff and record songs from Christmas shows and Lanimers.

Producing & Publishing
I would have liked another session using take2theweb as the positioning of graphics and text was initially a nightmare! I have been using dial-up at home, as our network at school has been down due to building work, and it takes an eternity to upload.
I must admit that with repeated use the software is now much more user friendly. Now that I have set-up the page structure I am sure that other members of staff will find adding the content easy!!

Promoting
We had hoped to invite parents to attend the website launch in September but due to building work we have postponed until the New Year.
•The launch will take place after school.
•The website team will give a powerpoint presentation on how they developed the site/issues they had to address.
•Questions will then be taken.
•The parents will then be invited to the computer suite to browse the site.
•Any queries will be addressed before the website goes live.

Conclusion
Being part of this pilot has been extremely worthwhile. I (and the webteam) can now share experiences with other schools on the stages they need to go through to successfully create a website and software they could use. The interest from parents has been overwhelming and I am sure when our site is launched it will be well used.

Strategic overview and beyond
In the future I would like to incorporate more of the parent requests eg e-mail bulletin, homework help, etc. into the site. I would like to make further use of the ipod and incorporate digital video as I have been trained with Pinnacle software. I would also like to invite parents onto the webteam/write article for PTA/Lanimers/School Board.

Jill

If you have a broadband internet connection you may wish to listen to Jill's recording.