Djanogly City Academy Nottingham

Winners:

Becta Excellence Award Winner for Best Whole School (2008)

ICT Excellence Award Winner for Assessment (2007)

ICT Excellence Awards Special Achievement (2007)

Futures Vision award for personalised learning (2007)

Becta Excellence Award for Leadership & Vision in ICT (2006)

The Academy specialises in ICT. Recently termed "the most innovative school in Europe " (Futures Vision 2005), the Academy is at the forefront of ICT in education.

"My vision for ICT is all about helping youngsters to achieve their individual potential."

Mike Butler, Chief Executive, Djanogly City Academy

Djanogly City Academy Nottingham has long benefited from the use of ICT successfully embedded across the curriculum. Students have a minimum of three hours of ICT at key stage 3 and all students follow a key stage 4 ICT programme (currently the GNVQ ICT course, soon to be replaced by the DIDA course). Where appropriate, students are fast-tracked through the examined course by starting it as early as year 8.

We pioneered laptops in the classroom several years ago through involvement in the Microsoft Anytime - Anywhere scheme and staff and students have worked over a wireless network for over four years now. The benefits to this way of using ICT in the classroom have been researched and documented in a number of case studies carried out by Toshiba and Microsoft.

Our vast experiences with ICT have led us to where we are today with the Academy. The Academy and its new 21st century building will transform the teaching and learning process with ICT like no other school has before.

As a CTC, we consistently bettered our league table results year on year and more dramatically our value-added scores (as assessed by YELLIS, Professor David Jesson and Fischer Family Trust). We are already the most successful academy, having exemplified government policy to have successful schools take on the challenge of transforming failing schools. After only two years of taking responsibility for students from the former Forest School, we had raised standards of attainment from only 8% to 60% of year 11 students gaining five or more A*-C grades.

Through the use of Tablet PCs, a very sophisticated network, and an innovative physical infrastructure to guide new teaching and learning methodologies, students learning with ICT will become a transparent part of the learning process. Through the elimination of traditional computer suites and interactive whiteboards, teachers and students are engaging on a whole new level.

Djanogly City Academy Nottingham is currently involved in a number of initiatives that support and embrace our ICT specialism. Through such initiatives we have developed excellent partnerships with other schools and educational establishments. These include:

SSAT ICT Register FOCUS School – East Midlands;
Video training – to minimise the costs of CPD/Inset in ICT for schools ;
Primary Schools ‘Laptops Scheme’ – in partnership with Toshiba and the DfES, we have been providing laptops and a wireless server to a number of primary schools on a rota for specific curriculum projects to raise the levels of ICT provision on offer. We have actively worked in close collaboration with our key feeder schools to aid transition and support their ICT provisions;
Microsoft Innovative Teachers Programme – we have six accredited teachers on this programme, charged with developing and disseminating best practice;
Microsoft IT Academy – providing training in Microsoft Office through a non-profit scheme for schools and local businesses;
Serco reference site – includes MIS Support & Guidance with LEA;
Toshiba Ambassadors Programme – European Reference Site;
Becta – guidance and advice for the academies division;
Support SSAT SLICT programme, both as host school and with Principal as accredited facilitator;
Supporting DfES CPD programme in ICT through video case studies;
Nottingham City Schools ‘Transforming Secondary Education’ (TSE) quadrant member – working in collaboration with local schools to develop partnerships and strategies for raising standards city-wide;
'Plasma Screens in Schools' project – looking at the impact of digital displays on ‘school pride’ and celebration of success, and opening channels to advertising in schools;
Microsoft Partner School – a scheme awarding and supporting schools with a proven record for best practice using ICT in being change agents on a system-wide basis;
Pupils TV - We work in partnership with Sala to look at the impact of large visual screens in schools through a range of projects and initiatives.

The Academy welcomes hundreds of visitors from schools throughout Europe every year, the majority of whom come to witness our innovation in ICT. This has always been our ethos, to welcome others and to engage in two-way dialogue for mutual benefit.

We currently offer a range of courses, from ‘Computing for the Terrified’, to advanced courses in ‘Digital Photography’, through our partnership with a local FE college, Broxtowe College. To facilitate this community provision, our site and facilities are accessible until 10pm weekday evenings and all day on Saturdays.

We have engaged in a number of projects involving local business partnerships and other sections of the local community, such as the Boots Wellbeing Project. This involved the installation of corridor and private kiosks and a plasma screen to look at the impact on school and community pride.

The project, in association with Boots plc, local newspaper The Evening Post, Mercury Solutions and Ramesys involved working with local businesses and establishments to encourage a greater sense of community amongst our students. The screens display promotions and offers from appropriate/suitable local businesses with an emphasis on discounting for the academy students.

This scheme has been welcomed by the local community and we have now extended this to 12 plasma/LCD screens across both sites which host a vast array of visual elements, from student work, live TV, web pages, bulletins and notices to mini-adverts from local businesses and communities created by our students using the latest in video-editing and Flash technologies.

Our involvements in projects like Gemini have allowed us to extend the notion of a community onto an international level. Here students and staff have worked on collaborative projects with schools in Africa.

The Academy has also been involved in several ventures with a number of schools and educational establishments in China. We have had ongoing partnerships for many years through programmes funded by the British Council and supported by innovative work we’ve been doing on online communities and e-learning environments, particularly the Online ICT A-Level course.

Want to find out more about ICT @ Djanogly City Academy Nottingham? Check out the services on offer at the ICT Register website run by the SSAT.