Costello wired up for top ICT award (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Costello wired up for top ICT award

4:59pm Thursday 21st January 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A SECONDARY school is in with the chance of gaining national recognition after being shortlisted for a prestigious technology award.

Costello Technology College has been chosen from hundreds of other schools across the country as one of ten finalists in the ICT Register Show-case Awards, sponsored by Toshiba and Brother.

The school’s entry team had to write a statement explaining why it should win, which included evidence of new systems that have been put in place to benefit staff, pupils and parents.

Innovative use of ICT has been introduced at the school in Crossborough Hill, Basingstoke, including a portal for parents to communicate with staff and find out key information regarding their child’s education.

Assistant head teacher Dominic Tester said: “The awards recognise excellent contribution to technology in terms of enhancing communication.

“All our parents are given their own username and password. They can see the attendance of their child and their behaviour in school. It gives us another platform to engage with parents on another level. It’s difficult sometimes for parents to come into school so we had this portal put together to ensure a much stronger partnership in engaging parents.”

A web chat for pupils about to start at Costello Technology College was also set up last year, to familiarise the Year Sixes with the school before they moved up last September.

Mr Tester said: “We gave them all log-on details so they could take part in a live web chat. They were in their primary school talking to people here. It meant they had established friendships before they got to school, and this made settling in much easier.”

The school is now relying on public votes to push them through to the final four, and all the finalists will be presented with an award in March at a special ceremony.

Mr Tester said he hoped the people of Basingstoke would back the school so that it can gain national recognition.

He added: “This is a new direction for schools to be going in and we are looking at the cutting edge of technology and are looking for recognition for all the hard work we have put in.

To read the school’s submission, and to vote for Costello, go to tinyurl.com/y8fc5kt. Voting runs throughout January and the four finallists will be announced in February.