Building Schools for the Future in Tameside

A Day in the Life of a Future Pupil

Sally is travelling to school, chatting with friends on the school bus. She receives a text from a friend on her 'lifestyle' device, a mobile computer that fits easily into her bag. She calls this computer, O.G. and has given it a personality and a face. She checks the text. It's from a friend asking if she will be on the wiki (a website maintained and managed by its users allowing user editable updating in real time) at all today. Sally logs in to the school network via the always on wireless network across the borough and immediately accesses the wiki. She notices that there is an entry about Ben Harper and his album 'Diamonds on the Inside' which she doesn't think is right. She immediately posts her views on the site.

Whilst on, she engages in online chat with a friend and double checks that her homework file that she sent to her History teacher the previous night has arrived ok. It has, and the teacher has already annotated the work with some helpful comments, pointed her in the direction of a few good website's to stretch her thinking and also asked if Sally wouldn't mind helping Lianne with some online mentoring. Lianne has been struggling with one or two of the ideas in class and the teacher has noted that her homework is below par. Sally also notes in the online assessment area that the teacher has already entered a grade for her work. She's done well and knows that mum will be pleased if she logs in from work today to see how Sally is getting on. Though she is a good student her mum still insists on logging in to the system to see that she is in school, was on time and that her grades are good. 'I know you're doing well but I just like to know you're ok' her mum tells her.

Sally checks into the wiki and has a look at the cinema listings and comments made by other wiki students about the Da Vinci Code and whether it is worth watching. Mind not made up – perhaps MI3 would be a better bet!

Arriving at school, Sally and her friends are automatically registered using individual swipe cards. The GPRS system in her O.G. is a double check, monitoring where she is on the 'Tameside Campus'.

Just as Sally is arriving at class her English teacher, Mr Williams is preparing his touch screen for the first class of the day. Using a combination of multi-media, interactive activities, class voting system and high quality resources chosen from a wealth of teaching materials available via the schools learning platform the lesson is fast paced, appeals to different learning styles and pupil work and contributions are easily saved for future reference.

The classroom space is a large, open plan environment with office style desks and dividers. The music playing softly in the background has helped to create an atmosphere conducive to learning as has the particular choice of lighting and the careful use of aromas. Monitors on the walls are displaying images and text associated with key learning points. Pair and group work, along with opportunities to question and debate take place. Student comments are beamed to the presentation screens. Voting systems capture opinions and present the data graphically, engendering more discussion. Learning is always at the centre of the lesson.

Sally, in Year 10, has created a presentation to deliver to students in Year 9. Students are actively encouraged to produce work for a purpose and are given plenty of opportunities to coach or teach other students. 'We learn more of what we teach', Mr Williams is fond of saying.

At the end of the lesson Mr Williams feeds assessment data into the school system. Charts and graphs showing comparisons and analyses assist the teacher in ensuring that acceptable progress has been made. Year on year progress of pupils and his successful interventions have helped Mr Williams development as a teacher. Through an online system he is automatically sent CPD suggestions based on areas he has expressed an interest in and areas that performance management have indicated he needs to work on.

Meanwhile, Sally has spent some time in the school's gym. Her performance is automatically beamed to her O.G. and the data is assessed by a central system, monitoring her health and well being. Sally has chosen to have the information automatically sent to the school's link health professional whose computer systems are programmed to provide early warnings in the event of a potential, serious health problem.

It's lunch time and Sally has already pre-ordered lunch. This helps the school catering staff and reduces food wastage. It also allows Sally to monitor her food intake with her O.G. calculating the calorie, fat content and carbohydrate quantities consumed versus exercise taken. She is leading a healthy life.

Over lunch, Sally and her friends chat about the day so far and their plans for the evening. They decide to go for MI3 and so book online. They also select their seats.

After a hard day at school, Sally relaxes by listening to music on her O.G. whilst watching a video on the device of the band. At the same time she checks in on the wiki and smiles when she sees that she was right about 'Diamonds on the Inside' and a number of other users of the site have posted further updates.

Later, she will access a small number of the thousands of pre selected website's and other individualised resources when she does her homework, and engage in online video chat with friends, swapping ideas about the different projects they are engaged in - team working is encouraged. Before going to the cinema, Sally sends off her completed work to the teachers in box and checks her online timetable, deciding which lessons she is going to attend the next day - it's important to pre-register or a class may be full. Another productive day comes to a close.