Ou Lady of Lourdes

On Thursday Nick and myself (Roger) went to Our Lady of Lourdes school in Palmy with the rest of the ICWC cluster. It was an interesting day looking at their Inquiry Journey and meeting some wonderful children and staff. There was a really great atmosphere around the school with all the children open, helpful and enthusiastic. What a great school!

Main points noted:

• Whole staff PD focus
• Computers as a tool for learning
• Restrict the range of software
• Paid someone to maintain the website (actively collect material from staff and upload)
• Digital camera/ MP3 as class consumables
• ICT aspect to all assemblies
• Inquiry Modelling Book like Maths and Literacy
• What happens when ICT Lead Teacher moves on?
• Internet Safety taught in context
• Curriculum Planning- Inquiry focus whole school units
• Strategic ICT Plan with benchmarks and linked to Literacy and Library plans
• Inquiry Newsletter to inform parents
• Teacher's documentation of planning (unit plan, daily plan, inquiry book, student inquiry books)
• Fantastic AppleBook!- Publish a book of photos and text as a hard back- approx $2 per page...)
  

Action:

• Purchase an MP3/webcam for voice/video recording for podcasts and blog/vlogs
  
• Blog and comment with people outside the school (Buddy Class)
• Look at the steps within our Inquiry stages... (see Coley St visit)
• Whole school inquiry units... or least syndicate/ buddy class units
• Planning shared and displayed
  
• Blog from camp with images- keep parents and school inform and happy! This might need mobile 3G internet broadband connection...