Specifications

Parents were invited to the school classroom to ‘play’ with
iPads and see how their child was learning, using new
touch technology. This was great fun and parents were
reluctant to hand the iPads back afterwards. One of the
applications being used for maths, had brightly coloured
bubbles floating across the screen. Three of these bubbles
had sums, such as 6+4, with three bubbles containing
their answers. Children and parents had to match the right
answer to the question and ‘pop’ both the bubbles with
their finger. If the answer was correct, the bubbles popped
and disappeared. Once all the bubbles had been popped,
the application (App) moved onto the next level.
“My background was school improvement using game-
based projects, such as the Wii and DS consoles, and this
had a huge impact on learning,” revealed Darren Price, the
Deputy Head of Skegness Junior School.
“Last year we introduced iPads and iPods into our school
and applications and saw the potential”, said Darren, “It
was a big outlay initially to purchase four classroom sets of
iPads, but the applications are cheap and they link well into
the curriculum.”
Darren Price says that iPads are not a gimmick, although
they are a novelty amongst the children, but it’s what you
do with them and how they are integrated into different
subjects, that matters. The school has a heavy focus on
maths as well as improving literacy.
They are developing writing skills using various applications.
One of their favourites is Epic Citadel, which allows pupils
to ‘walk’ round cities. Demonstrating this application for us,
it was easy to focus on a point of interest and then zoom
in. Dennis said the children then wrote about what they
saw. This then paved the way for a group discussion as to
why one chilld had focused on one aspect of the city, whilst
another chose a different view.
The school use photo applications a lot for video production,
filming the children doing lots of bits and pieces, especially
science experiments. In a film the children can only relate to
pictures, and can write about it, thus enabling each child to
create an individual piece of writing. Unlike text, where each
child then needs to visualise what the meaning of the text
looks like.
The school purchased four sets of iPads for classroom use,
either as a whole class or for smaller groups to work on.
This gives them flexible working, using them for the right
child at the right time.
Darren Price is encouraging other schools in the area to visit
Skegness Junior School and look at how they are working
with the children to encourage and develop learning using
iPads and other interactive technology.
Skegness Junior School
www.skegness-jun.lincs.sch.uk
SUCCESS STORY
Skegness Junior School
At Skegness Junior School we are creating an exciting
learning environment which encourages all to achieve
personal success. One of the school aims is promote high
standards of literacy and numeracy with a heavy focus on
maths.
Using iPads in the classroom
• 01754 769967 • [e-mail] • www.wedgwood-group.com
www.teachingtechnology.co.uk_25