Richmond Academy in Sheerness invests £30,000 to give all Key Stage 2 pupils iPads
06:00, 17 September 2021
A primary school on the Island is hoping to kick start a £30,000 tech revolution by giving its pupils an iPad of their own.
The Richmond Academy in Sheerness will hand out 172 devices to youngsters in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 in an attempt to focus on “personalised learning”.
It believes by providing the iPads to the children it is the first of its kind on the Isle of Sheppey and will allow pupils to encounter a more modern learning experience which focuses on the individual needs of children.
The academy, in Unity Road, believes technology will play a critical role in providing pupils with the tools they need to have more control over how they learn and engage.
Children will be encouraged to to take their devices home with them to refer back to, carry on with or share their learning with parents.
Each iPad costs £250, and while the school already had some spare, after taking into account costs for pens, cases, trolleys and so on, the total investment comes to just over £30,000.
Head teacher Helen Evemy said: “We recognise the ways people interact, socialise, and work are shifting rapidly and that by the time our current children have become young adults, the world will be vastly different from anything previous generations have experienced.
“This is a further watershed moment in the school’s recent transformation, and we are proud to be the first school on the Island to make such a radical change to our way of teaching and learning to make sure our children will be well equipped.
“We have already begun to see the impact personalised learning is having on the ability to flip learning, provide swift and effective feedback, increase levels of pupil engagement, and extend opportunities for learning beyond the school day.”
Richmond Academy has began using Microsoft’s OneNote app, an online digital notebook for youngsters, which is part of the decision to move to iPad-based learning, similar to the Oasis Academy in Skinner Street, Gillingham, who made the move in February.
Children will still be able to use paper and pen and their own exercise book if they wish.
Classrooms have also moved away from the traditional set up for a new redesign.
The focus has been centred on allowing children flexibility in how and where they sit and it is part of £300,000 spend on upgrading buildings, premises and the school environment.
