Just before Christmas, the Learning Technologies Unit hosted a Transversal Study Visit. This included 11 head teachers, inspectors and advisers from France, Germany, Belgium, CZ, Turkey, Spain, Guadeloupe, Ireland, and Norway.
The delegates attended a course designed by the University entitled “Effective use of ICT to Develop Numeracy Skills in Compulsory Education.” As part of the visit, the delegates participated in workshops and seminars led by colleagues within the School for Education Futures. They also had the opportunity to visit both a primary and secondary school. Tividale Hall Primary School hosted the Primary School visit and demonstrated many aspects of ICT including how to use digital cameras to record their different strategies for mathematical calculations. The school’s Techno Team of 6 pupils gave an excellent presentation to the delegates to highlight how staff and pupils are working together.
The secondary school visit was to Perryfields High School, the delegates were able to observe mathematics lessons and work with the department to look at interactive whiteboard resources. During the week, the team also had presentations from RM and Texas Instruments. Dai Meredith said “my Mathematics and ICT departments have found the visit extremely valuable to share practice and to hear about the challenges in other countries.”
Diana Bannister who organised this visit commented: “it was incredible, we had delegates from 9 countries but we still all faced the same issues: finding high quality resources, providing training and professional development and using innovative approaches which motivate and engage pupils using ICT.” The School for Education Futures will be hosting further Study Visits and we are always looking for new schools who are willing to host visits in partnership with us. If you would like to express an interest, please contact DianaBannister@wlv.ac.uk
This photo shows the group receiving their certificates at the end of the week.
