Scoil Bhride Tullamore

Revised ICT plan for Scoil Bhríde 2007.

Name: Scoil Bhríde
Tullamore
Co.Offaly


Tel: 057 9321194



Roll No. 18524k.



No. Of Pupils on Roll: 172



Special Classes: 2.



Principal: C. McMahon.



I.T. coordinator: J. Healy

Web address: www.scoilbhride.ie Email: info@scoilbhride.ie

Current ICT status: Intermediate stage.



School Profile:
An administrative Principal
Seven mainstream teachers
Two Special classes
Three learning support-resource teachers
Two English language teachers
Part-time secretary
Three special needs assistants.

22 working computers

(1 in Principals office)
(1 in secretary’s office)
(5 laptops, mobile to the classrooms)
(13 in ICT room)

A small number of older computers (Win 95) were previously assigned to classrooms. These are now recycled. Three win. 98 machines and a windows millennium edition computer are also assigned to classes.These computers are no longer in receipt of Technical support/Updates from Microsoft,though they remain in good working order.Three have operational network cards.

1 digital camera.
4 working printers.
Selection of educational software.
Full broadband connection available in The ICT room,and to all 24 network points in the building.
1 working scanner (in sec. Office.)
24 network points including:
ICT room, Secretary’s office, Principal’s office, Staff room.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

ICT in Scoil Bhride is used to help the teachers to teach, and the pupils to learn, more effectively. This is done by:

Fostering the awareness of print
Encouragement of the development of reading skills.
Supporting the development of word recognition
Enhancing the children’s understanding of textual information
Enhancing the standard of presentation of children’s work.
Helping children with the writing process-draft, edit, redraft.
Creating a print-rich environment.
Monitoring progress
As a stimulus for extra research on a particular topic of interest.
Enriching the range of sources and information available to the children.
Facilitating communication with the wider community via the school website.

Management and planning

One member of staff is responsible for the facilitation within the school. The Ict coordinator is currently John Healy.
The duties include:
Update of the existing ICT plan.
Maintenance of computers
Ordering of software.
Maintenance of a school website
Publication of a school newsletter
Development of an Internet acceptable use policy.

No maintenance contract currently exists. Major technical work is carried out by NIS (Rahan) or OCS (Tullamore).
This is provided for a fee if required.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Currently there are13 working computers in the IT room. Of these computers, four were purchased in October ’07 under the ‘framework for public sector procurement’ scheme. These carry XP Professional(sp 2) as their operating systems.These computers were financed by the facilitation of Summer courses and other activities within the school during the summer months. A further five computers were purchased in Sept.’05 and also have XP Professional operating systems. Two computers were obtained under the Tesco computers for schools scheme.They too have ‘XP Professional’ operating systems.The remaining three computers carry an ‘XP Home’ operating system.

Eight of these computers are furnished with a Microsoft Office suite and all have access to the network and Broadband, with content filtering.
The computers have access to a networked Minolta colour printer.

These computers are networked on a peer-to-peer basis. We currently do not have a server. The IT room contains a fuseboard and a switch which manages the network traffic.

There are also two network points in the secretary’s office, two points in the Principal’s office, and two points in the staffroom.

Currently there are no network points in the classrooms.
We also possess five laptop computers which can be brought on and off the network as teachers wish.

The principal has a computer for office use and access to OLCS, NEWB, etc.Tthe secretary’s office also has a computer and monocolour printer for school related use-printing letters, notes, recording and storing important databases and files, etc.
Both of these computers also have broadband access.

The school participated in Broadband for schools programme 2005. This has enabled the IT coordinator to remove the school website from his home PC to a school PC to maintain the school website www.scoilbhride.ie. The web design programme ‘Dreamweaver’is used to update the website.This software was purchased in 2005.
The school also has an external DVD rewriter drive which is used to create DVDs of special occasions and capture school life and occasional projects. The school also has a digital movie camera.
The school has one 5m.pixel digital camera which is used for recording school life. These pictures are displayed on the website or, more frequently, on the monthly school newsletter or on individual teacher’s displays.

The school has one Minolta colour laser printer, located in the Principal’s office. The school also has a Magicolor printer, networked in the IT room. It is school policy that due to the high costs involved in maintaining toner for these machines, that printing shall be done in black and white when possible and colour printing should be carried out only when necessary.
. This will be organised and facilitated by the ICT coordinator.

Since 2005-2006, all classes have timetabled access to the IT room. The time available to the classes has increased in the 2007-8 academic year.
There are two special classes in the school. A laptop and dedicated printer are available to these classes..
Both special class teachers have access to any software which is being used by mainstream classes. These pupils will have access to software such as Word and number shark.
We have applied in June 2007 for funding under the Dormant Accounts fund .Should this application be successful, it could yield €3,500 for purchase of hardware.




Staff development

Scoil Bhride has a young and vibrant staff who have good ICT skills. All staff are made aware of any courses etc which may update these skills. These courses are normally organised by NCTE/Laois Ed. Centre. For example,in 2007,five members of staff completed courses in ‘ICT and the curriculum.’

The ICT coordinator has completed IT courses on ICT and the curriculum, Network management , Macromedia Dreamweaver, web design, and an online course.

Antivirus policy

Currently the school network is virus-free. Anti-virus software has been purchased from Cara technologies and is installed on all computers with an XP home operating system(or later)This was organised by the IT coordinator in conjunction with NCTE .Further Antivirus software was also purchased for the older computers. The licence for this software is held by the IT coordinator. This software is regularly updated online(at least once monthly) by the IT coordinator. All new Teachers will be reminded that any new devices must be scanned before being used on the network.

Culture

The ICT culture is a positive one. The school website, newsletter provides a forum for the pupils work. Classroom displays are supported by computer produced content and labels.
All children have internet access.
The sixth classes 2005-2008 have participated in ‘Etwinning’, a European wide initiative in Learning through Ict,involving cooperation and collaboration with other schools,including schools in Spain and Poland.
Also, ICT gives many opportunities for Team-teaching. All Teachers will be made aware of these possibilities.


INTERNET AUP

The school has an ‘Internet acceptable use’ policy which was ratified by the BOM in 2005.This was developed by the IT coordinator in conjunction with interested parties. All newer teachers will be made aware of this policy before allowing the children in their class internet access.

Commercial agencies

Scoil Bhríde has availed of Tesco’s computers for school scheme,which has provided two computers,televisions and software to the school. We have also participated in Edalive’s community software plan, which has provided the school with multi-user software. However the school community is aware of the motives of such schemes and will take informed decisions on any such schemes going forward.


Future objectives

The objectives in our previous plan(2002) were as follows:

Development of a computer room
Purchase of 3 new computers and 5 new printers
Purchase of new software
Development of a networked system.

These objectives have been achieved.. The IT room has been developed. New computers have been purchased. We have developed a networked system. Five printers are no longer necessary, now that our network is in place.

The objectives for our 2005 plan were:

Completion of the network and the broadband programme.
Purchase of software with network licences.
Development of the network throughout the school and into the mainstream classrooms-when finance allows.
Extension of the IT room to accommodate more desktop computers.

Implementation:
1.The network was completed in the IT room,and the broadband programme implemented.
2.Any software purchased(2005-7) carried network licences.
though some office packages(single user) were purchased for use with the newer computers.
3.The network has yet to be extended to the classes,due to financial constraints. However, the work has been priced(€7-8000) and will be a priority going forward.
4. The computer room has been extended and now accommodates four additional network points.

Objectives going forward:
Extension of the network to the classes
Purchase of a digital projector to be used in the classes
Consider the introduction of digital whiteboards.
Further purchase of networked software.
To facilitate upskilling of Teachers and Pupils.
Purchase of 8 computers so that all mainstream classes will have a computer in the classroom.


Road-Map for IT skills acquisition.


2n 3 class
Turn on computer.
Turn on monitor.
Open a folder by double-clicking.
Close a file/window.
Recognise/open Internet Explorer.
Navigate the Internet, be familiar with the ‘home’, ’history’, tabs.
Move a file on the desktop.
Open a Word document.
Use Paint programme to create a drawing.
Save a document
Use some content-rich software.
Shut down computer and Monitor.



4/5 class

All of the above
Using a range of Internet search tools.
Printing documents
Import an image or animation into a document
Use Microsoft publisher to create a newsletter/calendar/flyer/greeting card/brochure publication.
Create graphic representation using Excel.
Create a video story from text.
Create a presentation using Microsoft Powerpoint.
Use suitable content-rich software.
To participate in an etwinning initiative, including email.
To upload to school website.
To blog(on school website)

This plan is due to be updated in 2009.