Specialist School – KS2 ICT Link

As part of our Specialist Schools remit within Carrickfergus College Mrs Evans (ICT Teacher at Carrickfergus College) runs the Primary ICT Accreditation Scheme for four of our feeder Primary Schools – Woodlawn, Woodburn, Sunnylands and Oakfield Primary Schools.

The Primary ICT Accreditation Scheme is a voluntary scheme for pupils at Key Stage 2.  It is provided to develop, enhance and encourage the use of ICT among primary school pupils.  The pupils come along each week to Carrickfergus College for one hour during which Mrs Evans helps them to complete ICT assignments and at the end are awarded their CCEA Key Stage 2 ICT accreditation. The pupils are awarded a certificate detailing their level of ICT competence.

The pupils complete these assignment and their e-portfolios are built up and exchanged between pupils and teachers.  This gives the pupils the opportunity to have one computer each for the full hour, have the knowledge of the specialist ICT teacher available to them and the opportunity to develop their knowledge in new and exciting ICT packages.

This has been a great success and an opportunity which has been appreciated by the local schools.

“Having the ICT facilities at Carrickfergus College made available to us has been invaluable for allowing our pupils to participate in the KS2 IT Accreditation scheme. Without this link we would not be able to participate as we have very limited resources; 1 laptop between 3 pupils in a class of 30, but at Carrickfergus College there is one PC per pupil. Not only do we have access to the computer suite but we are provided with the expertise of Mrs Evans who has the whole programme and activities organised for us. It is great for our P7 pupils to get a “feel” for the teaching environment in a secondary school as this helps to fuel the excitement and reduce worries for moving school.”

Mrs A Boggs, Woodlawn Primary School.

Each week the pupils look forward to attending and Pupils who have been involved in the scheme have made comments such as:

” It’s great getting to see around the school on a normal day”

” I love having a computer to myself”

“We get lots more time on the computer and we get to learn so much”

“We look at ICT packages that we never knew existed”

“I am not so worried about moving to Carrick College next year because I am in it so often.”