 |
|
|
|
|
Liz Hunt Personalised Learning Consultant reviews her work as Hands on Support Consultant at the end of the initiative.
Well the two years for Hands On Support funding have now
lapsed and what a time it was! The general feedback from schools was that it
was very worthwhile and everyone would like more if the funding could be found!
Hands On Support was the initiative that brought ICT support directly into the
classroom. The HOS Consultant would come out and teach alongside the class
teacher, making use of school equipment – whatever the condition or
circumstance. For this reason the initiative was very popular. It gave
teachers an opportunity to realise the potential of their classroom and
available equipment.
Over the two years more than 330 lessons benefited from HOS. These ranged from
Reception classes to year 6 and covered all areas of the curriculum. Many of
the lessons were conducted with several members of staff in the room resulting
in hundreds of staff across the county having training. Some schools had
support with new equipment, some with peripherals that had sat in a cupboard
for years. HOS gave them support at a time in the year when it was relevant
for teachers to be using this equipment with their class.
In the first year a large amount of the requests for HOS seemed to centre on
spreadsheet work, control and also data handling. The second year kept the
trend for support with spreadsheets and control but also included more and more
support with new Interactive Whiteboards to assist teaching across all
curriculum areas. It has ensured that more pupils across the county have
opportunities to use peripherals such as data loggers and digital movie
cameras.
It is a shame that it has come to an end, but all good
things do so eventually.
For schools that feel they would like more support, whilst this initiative may
have come to an end, the same style can be adopted through your ICT Consultant
on a Traded Service basis. Please call the team on 01865 – 428034 for further
information.
The HOS Matrix and self evaluation tool is still available for staff to use as part of their CPD. This can be found at http://matrix.ncsl.org.uk
