Beacon Community College, Crowborough, East Sussex

Open Integrated Learning Systems in Learning Support / English Departments

Global English is used with any students who are operating below their chronological Reading and Spelling Ages on entry in Year 7, in order to begin to rectify the situation.

The group which was used in the trial was taken from the 10 Year 7 classes, and was made up of those pupils who were at least 18 months below the 'norm' in reading and spelling. They went into the Learn Centre, in blocks of 25, 3 mornings a week for 5 weeks, during their tutor period, together with 2 teaching staff and a teaching assistant.

The English programme is used in its automatic delivery mode so, after the 2 initial assessments, work is presented to a student at an appropriate level for each individual, and each can proceed at an appropriate pace. The choice of module to be accessed and when is initially that of the teacher, but this can be negotiated. Teachers have time to provide support on an individual basis, as and when it is necessary.

Worksheets from the programme continue the exercises into the classroom and the home. Since students are being 'extracted' for this work, there is no attempt in these circumstances to select material, as is possible, in order to link the content of the work on the computers to that in the classroom.

The software remediates for those who are behind the rest of the year group in the acquisition of basic literacy skills, and reinforces classroom work in, or practice on, reading and spelling. It narrows the 'gap' between the more and less able, on entry to the school. It will ultimately be a flexible resource for focused use in the classroom.

Baseline testing was carried out Vernon's Spelling Test and Young's Reading Test on the whole Year Group in October by the English Department. Each group was assessed again after their 5 weeks' use of the programme, using the same tests.

Motivation has been an important factor, and this has positively affected concentration levels and time on task.

Students have been very keen, particularly at the beginning. We do not feel that this degree of intense use would be appropriate for too long, however. Teachers have been very enthusiastic about the programme, the students' attitude to it, and the results achieved.

This is an 11-18 Community Sports College, occupying a split site, and with approximately 1800 students on roll, 300 of whom are in the VIth form.

Intake is from a rural community, there is competition from local Grammar Schools, and the students have a wide ability range.

The school is committed to the development of individualised learning programmes, achieved through flexibility of both structure and resourcing.
Students are given a considerable degree of responsibility for their own learning, and supported through a wide choice of academic and vocational courses.

Extensive research took place before decisions were made as what kind of ILS should become part of the ambitious plans for IT provision. The investment of time at this point has proved very cost effective. The criteria used in the search for a suitable system were related to such foci as curriculum relevance, the facility to feed back appropriate information to both student and teacher, the ability to deliver discrete tasks over a period of time which could be integrated into classroom activity, flexibility in the role played by the software both in the classroom and in its support for varied curriculum areas, and the capacity to expand and adapt to fit developing need.

Telephone: 01892 603000
Contact: Rosemary MacKinnon

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