Specialist School Status

What is a Specialist Technology College?

Technology Colleges raise standards of achievement and the quality of learning in design and technology, science and mathematics for all their learners across the ability range. They promote an educational culture which is scientific, technological, enterprising and vocational. They raise the post-16 participation rate in the specialist subject areas, and provide young people with the skills needed to progress into employment, further training and higher education according to their individual abilities, aptitudes and ambitions.

Shoeburyness High School first gained Technology College status in September 1999. Shoeburyness, as an area, lacks the technologies/skills needed for the future. Gaining Technology Status has been achieved by a community effort.

 

The Design and Technology Department

In this area new products are constantly developed, however before students manufacture their work either out of wood, metal, or plastic they first have to go through specific stages - Research, Conceptual Design, Design Finalisation, Manufacturing and Marketing.

 

ICT Provision

We have installed and support over 700 computers, our own high speed network infrastructure and all classrooms have interactive whiteboards.We believe that every curriculum area should have access to their own ICT facilities and we are continually striving to achieve this vision.

 

CISCO Academy

Shoeburyness High School has ben an accredited CISCO Academy since September 2004. The CISCO CCNA program is made available to 6th form students to gain real world IT and networking skills and qualifications. The courses have proved extremely popular and are currently over subscribed. Many students have passed through the CISCO Academy. This represents a remarkable life changing experience for them, and the school is very proud to be able to provide this service.

 

School Plasma Screen Information System

With over 1,600 pupils, it becomes very difficult to keep our students informed about school news and forthcoming events. To overcome this problem, we have installed a number of 42 inch plasma displays around the school which display this information.

The system is also used to show educational slide shows, revision information and sports events etc. We ask some of our students to help to generate the information displayed so that they contribute towards the school environment.

In addition we also have an Information System consisting of a two by two array of 42 inch plasma displays, (a display area 82 inches wide by 46 inches tall). The system is capable of running videos and slide shows across the complete array as well as four independent videos or slide shows or any combination of individual screens.

 A similar system consisting of four 19 inch monitors has also been built for the Art Department so they can show their student's work in four digital picture frames.

 

Community Data Access Centre

The instigation of the CDAC and its internal link areas has been central to the raising of aspirations of students, staff and the community by enabling easy access to modern technology. Whilst the capital sum made available to the school when it attained Technology College status facilitated a great expansion of ICT resources, the interest generated in ICT courses at all levels has dictated that the school has had to fund supplemental computing areas to try address this issue and the expansion is set to continue in the future.

 

Feeder Schools Technical Support

We now have seven highly skilled technicians and engineers, each specialising in their own field of expertise. The number of skilled staff means that we can allocate one technician to one of our primary schools and in the event of a problem in any of the schools, one technician always knows the support history of the organisation and represents a friendly face to the teachers. Support information is documented by the regular technician and in the event that the regular technician is unable to be in attendance at the school, another technician can take their place keeping down-time to a minimum.

Learning Platform (Virtual Learning Environment)

Starting in 2008, all schools have to have a Learning Platform/Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). A Learning Platform is an Internet application that can be accessed from school or home. Specialist IT Staff and Teachers prepare learning content which pupils access as part of a lesson in school, to reinforce lesson content at home, or to complete homework assessments. Content for the Learning Platform can also be purchased from specialist educational suppliers.

The system is capable of marking homework and placing the results into each student's Learning Log so that progress within every subject can be assessed. Every staff member and every student has a unique logon to the system. The Learning Platform we have chosen is called Fronter. The system has the effect of breaking down the classroom walls to enable access to learning 24 hours a day, seven days per week. It is accessed via the school website http://www.shoeburynesshigh.co.uk or directly https://fronter.com/southend.