Mobile Technology Pilot

Dear Parents,
For some time we have been researching how mobile technologies can enhance your childs learning and we believe the
time is now right for a pilot project to take place. This pilot is proposed to take place in Year 3 and Year 4 with each class
accessing Ipad Air tablets at a ratio of 1 tablet to 2 children. Our vision for their use is different to many other schools.
Rather than predominantly focusing on fun and engagement (which we believe is very important, but should occur as a
by-product rather than the focus itself), we believe Ipads have the potential to change and improve the teaching and
learning process. Through them we want to:

Improve the quality of feedback your child receives on their work, particularly in Maths and Writing. This has
long been held by researchers and Ofsted as a key to accelerating childrens learning.
Make lesson structure flexible, to fit the needs of groups of children even better than is currently being
achieved.
Help our children become more independent learners and take responsibility to improve their own learning.

Through doing so, we hope the children are even more engaged in their learning and are able to work more
collaboratively and creatively. We also hope many children will show an improvement to their already good behaviour.
We would welcome any feedback you have on the potential pilot and the vision briefly outlined above. If you would like
to voice any support, concerns or ideas from your own experiences, please email them to Mr Richardson who is leading
the pilot: prichardson@wldps.com. All your comments will be taken on board and the pilot and vision may be adjusted
because of your feedback.
We have already spoken to all children to give them the opportunity to share ideas and concerns. All children in Year 3
and 4 have been given an unbiased questionnaire to further inform us of their opinions. On the next page you can see
the main results.
On the reverse of this letter, please find a list of potential parental FAQs with our answers, which we hope will clarify
some questions you may have.

FAQs
Whats your time-frame for rolling out this complex project? We want to explore the realities of the approach in a
small to medium scale pilot before we take it any further. Many of our children and several of our teachers would like us
to move quicker but we want to ensure that we can prove our vision is becoming a reality and significantly affecting
learning in a positive way before we widen the pilot.
What about safeguarding issues? All devices will load the internet through our current school filter. The devices are
managed centrally with restrictions placed on them. We are in the process of upgrading our current classroom
monitoring software which we expect to allow us to view all turned on Ipad screens, in any class, in real time. We will be
raising the profile of Esafety across school partly due to the pilot but also because it is a fundamental element of the
new Computing Curriculum and integrates into all school life. For example, there shouldnt be a separation between
cyberbullying and bullying. All will be dealt with in the same way. Children already know who to approach with any
Esafety issues but we will also add an anonymous contact form into our Digital Wings system to further support children.
Will the pilot take away from the priorities of the school and actually negatively affect my childs learning? Our vision
is very much in line with the target in our school improvement plan and has been grounded in educational research. We
are looking to enhance and transform existing teaching and learning processes rather than throw out established
systems and replace them with unfounded ones. We know, for example, that using the app Showbie children can have
Ipad based work marked by a teacher in oral and annotation form. This matches up exactly with what the children say in
their survey they will get potentially better explanations and feedback than 1-2 sentences written in their book. This
will not happen all the time, it will sit alongside traditional methods and it will be down to the teacher to decide which
are the best teaching and learning methods to move the children on most in their learning in each case.
How much money is being invested in this project? It is the primary focus of the ICT budget. We are leasing the Ipads
and therefore the cost is manageable and scalable. We are planning for the long term and are adapting our ongoing ICT
costs as we move forwards (for example considering other whole class teaching equipment to projectors and interactive
whiteboards which have running costs). As the pilot is 1:2 (half the cost of 1:1) it will not impact on other school costs
such as toilet refurbishments or resourcing a subject area for the new Curriculum.
Who is leading the project and what is their capacity to do so? Assistant Head, Peter Richardson. Our Senior Leadership
Team is fully behind the project and will support where necessary. Mr Richardson is an Advanced Skills Teacher in ICT,
and has helped other schools lead their ICT and integrate technology into English and Maths. He has previously led our
school to the ICT Mark and has a country wide network of education professionals he converses with frequently in order
to ensure the best possible outcomes for our school.
What about training for staff so that effective use is made of the technology? Mr Richardson will lead training for the 3
other members of staff involved. This will be structured and based on achieving the greatest impact on learning first. All
staff involved are enthusiastic and eager to be part of the pilot. Mr Richardsons training will be through networking.
I do not want my child to be on an Ipad all day. I want them to have rich and varied learning experiences in school. So
do we the Ipads will be used frequently but not for all children and not all of the time. This is one of the reasons we are
not considering a 1:1 pilot. Sometimes they will be used instead of books, sometimes to record learning that would not
have been recorded and sometimes alongside books. We understand concerns related to health and will ensure
measures are taken to avoid prolonged use.

Pupil Questionnaire Findings

The children want Ipads and are excited about having them in school. Several of the
children who said they were worried or nervous also said they were excited.

They do not want having Ipads to lose them the chance of building improvements
(e.g. new toilets) or other new resources in their classroom. They think 1 Ipad
between 2 is the best of both worlds. In that situation their concerns are: about
sharing, not getting a go, turn taking and falling out. They would only sometimes
use the Ipads in pairs. Often a small group or half the class would be using Ipads,
one each. We understand their concerns and will put systems in place to minimse
issues over sharing.

PTO

One child raised the issue of overuse of Ipads affecting your eye sight. We understand this concern and as
mentioned above, will ensure prolonged use will not occur.

Before making the children aware of how we plan to use the Ipads, the children told us they wanted to use them
on packages like Bug Club and Manga High as well as games to help them in their learning and for help when
they get stuck.

When we gave the children examples of how we would like the Ipads to help them in their learning, they could
see the following benefits of using the Ipads (each of these came up multiple times):
o You can see what is wrong, We would know what we need to improve
o It can help if you don't understand something
o Because it's quicker
o You don't need to get up as much or ask your teacher
o Good to watch, I understand watching videos (pausing, rewind, fast forward)
o I can understand more challenging questions
o I can go on longer questions to solve
o You don't have to wait
o It might show me a different way to the teacher
o Can watch videos as many times as I want
o If the teacher is busy with other children it will help
o Helps more than in books
o I can try for myself with an Ipad
o Videos have more explanation
o

One child commented that they would rather ask someone instead It has always been the intention
that the Ipads would sit alongside traditional methods of support such as by adult or their peers.

Visual representations of the childrens responses: