IT
Information Technology is changing at a rapid rate and at St Peter’s we have invested a huge amount into our hardware, software and systems, plus two high speed dedicated fibre optic internet connections which are protected by a secure firewall managed by a renowned education provider. The school has a dedicated IT room, predominantly for the use of Upper School pupils with enough desktop computers for two classes. Lower School have the use of a bank of laptops. Each class also has access to iPads, cameras, visualisers and data collectors. Printers are positioned throughout the school and children are encouraged to use IT in all of their subjects.
All children from Reception to Year 6 have a dedicated Computing lesson where children are taught about publishing, typing, e-safety and coding as part of the curriculum. Children develop IT and coding skills through the use of a variety of apps and websites such as Espresso Coding, Scratch and Google.
In recent times, the school has had the need to work online so every pupil and member of staff has been given a Google for Education account. This allows the entire school community to communicate using the Google suite of products including Gmail, Calendar, Meets, Hangout, Docs, Sheets, Pages, Jamboard and most crucially, Google Classroom. The School Google account is a safe ‘walled garden’ account so children can only communicate with their teachers and peers. This development has seen a great advancement in the way we can work collaboratively and not need to be physically on site.
We take e-safety seriously and all year groups follow a dedicated programme of study and observe Internet Safety Week. Everyone in the school community signs a charter of good digital behaviour and is expected to work safely and respectfully online. 80% of the jobs that our children will have in the future don’t exist yet so we recognise the importance of keeping up to date with knowledge, skills and devices.