Home Access Awards 2011
Winners

We are very pleased to be able to announce the Home Access Awards winners for 2011 following the presentation that took place at our Autumn conference in Manchester on 23rd November.

This year we made a few changes to the awards, adding two new categories, Primary and Secondary School Teacher of the Year. These new categories are specifically to identify those teachers that have fully embraced the opportunities offered by technology and have effectively added it to their basket of tools in the quest to improve pupil engagement and raise the standards of all children.

Our judging panel this year consisted of:

•  Former schools minister and e-Learning Foundation trustee, Lord Knight
•  Annika Small, CEO of the Nominet Trust
•  Chris Foreman, Vice Principle ICT at Homewood School in Kent.

The quality of the entries this year was extremely high and the task of selecting just one winner for each category very challenging.

Most Successful Parental Partnership

The judges made a Highly Commended award to Wembrook Primary School of Nuneaton in Warwickshire

Winner - Beacon Hill School of Tyneside
Beacon Hill School work with parents whose children face profound barriers to learning. The programme recognises the holistic approach that schools need to adopt with such children and the importance of really good communications between home and school, with a high value on the role of parents as educators. Vital communication is made much more effective when technology is deployed. A dedicated, in more ways than one, member of staff has maintained a clear focus on how the children can be best supported in and out of school.

Nikki Scanlon, ICT Teaching assistant collected their award.  

Most Innovative Project

Winner - The Bishop David Brown School of Woking in Surrey
The Bishop David Brown School dared to tread where many fear to go by actively encouraging the use of Facebook as a learning tool with a class of Year 11 boys learning English in their run-up to exams. Not only did the teacher, Chris Edwards, succeed in this, with excellent class attendance and homework completed on time, but proved that it is possible to overcome the worries that many schools have about the use of Social Networking sites.

The approach produced stunning results, all 30 students got at least a grade C in their GCSE exam which was not predicted at the start of the year. This was a truly innovative and successful use of social networking resources.

Headteacher, Stuart Shephard collected their award along  personal prize, an Intel Classmate, for Chris. Edwards.

Outstanding Personal Contribution

Winner - Pam Kitchen of Sawtry Community College of Sawtry in Cambridgeshire
Pam has personally engaged with the whole community over the past five years, including her own time in the evening and at weekends, building trust and rapport with parents & grandparents.

The holistic approach to engaging with the whole community, including working with the library and the local social housing association is really striking, As a result not only has the children’s learning benefitted, but so has their families.

Primary School Teacher of the Year

The judges made a Highly Commended award to Julie Langridge from St John Baptist School of Bromley in kent

Winner - Koulla Louca of Preston Park School from Wembley in Middlesex
Koulla  is a year 6 teacher using ICT to engage children, some from quite challenging backgrounds with 93% EAL, in their home and school learning. She has used technology to make maths fun and to narrow the attainment gap at the school!

She also supports her colleagues in getting the most from ICT. And in her spare time she is the Year Group Leader, the Maths Coordinator, a Leading Teacher in her Local Authority and studying for an MA!

Koulla collected her award trophy and Intel Classmate PC.

Primary School of the Year

Winner - Thames View Infants School of Barking in Essex
Thames View School has taken what ICT offers and applied it across the school and extended it to home and the role of parents. They have gone beyond having loads of laptops, although the digital divide has been fully addressed, but they have really integrated technology into the learning. Something done on the computer in the classroom might end up as the bedtime story that night. The school deploys a mixture of IT resources including the Nintendo Wii.

The Head and his team have really succeeded in pulling everything together that is at their disposal to make learning engaging. I strongly recommend a visit to this school.

Claire Smith, Deputy Head collected the trophy on behalf of the school.

Secondary School teacher of the Year

The judges made a Highly Commended award to Victoria Ward from Ursuline High School in Wimbledon

Winner - Kirsty Tonks, Director of e-Learning at Shireland Collegiate Academy in Sandwell.
Kirsty has shown great commitment, energy and leadership in moving the school to another level in the use of technology in terms of planning, family engagement and community cohesion. The school has had a roller coaster experience with OFSTED in recent months, and Kirsty has plunged into resolving a number of issues in record breaking time.

Her work has involved using ICT to help experienced teachers share good practice with less experienced ones, overcoming the thorny issues of attendance linked to religious observation, developing the Family Portal for families and the Learning Gateway to improve tutor time experience, leading to a 50% reduction in pupils late to registration over the past 12 months.

Kirsty continues to develop new and effective activities in what is already an outstanding school in the use of technology.

Kirsty collected her trophy and Intel Classmate PC.

The judges made a Highly Commended award to Longfield Academy of Longfield in Kent

Winner - Writhlington School of Radstock in Somerset
This scale of this school’s project is impressive with every single child involved, over 1,000 pupils, and incredible backing from the parents. This has meant that there is no digital divide at the school, 100% engagement from teachers, and technology supports learning at home with their electronic homework tracker

The strong leadership from the top and regular staff training, has ensured full integration throughout the school and has been the key to their success. A parental portal helps maintain the links with parents.

Commendably they are also very willing to share their experiences with other schools through visits and open days.

Mark Everett, Headteacher, collected their trophy on behalf of the school.