ICT in St John’s P.S. is regarded as an essential ‘must have’ in the delivery of the entire curriculum, from digital storytelling through to regular classroom based video conferencing and online assessment. The school is in the unique position of having two state of the art ICT Learning Centres - the first equipped with 31 workstations and the second equipped with 16 Apple macs and a total of 141 iPads. The school building has InteractiveWhiteboards in all classrooms. An ICT Technician was appointed to the school in 2016. Children at our school experience a broad and balanced ICT curriculum. This allows for the creative use of ICT and has the potential to improve pupils’ thinking skills whilst providing them with opportunities to become independent, self-motivated and flexible learners. ICT is used across the entire curriculum to equip pupils with the skills and knowledge to handle and communicate information, solve problems and pose questions in the current digital age. Children are encouraged to process, present and exchange their ideas through ICT and translate their thinking into creative outcomes that show an awareness of audience and purpose. Children use ICT to collaborate within and beyond the classroom, to share and exchange their work and to exhibit and showcase their learning. All staff use ICT to enhance the teaching and learning process in their classrooms. ICT is infused through almost every curricular area of the school and children experience ICT on a regular basis and in a variety of ways. All teaching staff have completed their Level 1 accreditation in Promethean ActivPrimary and also the introduction to Apple Mac and iPad technology through the Nerve Centre teacher training programme. In recent years our children have utilised ICT in a number of high profile projects. In conjunction with the Nerve Centre, our children created a Digital Book of Kells that celebrated the enduring cultural legacy of Colmcille. This culminated in a spectacular street production using digital image as a backdrop. The Atlantic Philanthropies Contested Space Project also engages children in a collaborative initiative to provide them with technological and social learning opportunities which promote reconciliation in the city. Working with the University of Ulster at Coleraine Education Department, our children also developed a series of videos using iMovies that have been used in teacher training across Northern Ireland. St John’s is striving to become a centre of excellence in ICT.
