Working with IT specialists Compusys PLC, the school has moved away from traditional language laboratories with audio cassette recorders and video recorders to multimedia rooms equipped with innovative computer technology that allows pupils to learn at their own pace and transforms the role of the teacher from presenter to facilitator of learning.
The school’s re-think on how to teach languages more effectively came about through its decision to seek specialist status as a language college. Knowing that there were already a high number of specialist colleges within Surrey and that the Government had made it very clear that its priority in terms of education was inner city schools, Ashcombe School had to find ways of making its bid for specialist status stand out from the rest. One of the ways they decided to do this was to find a radically innovative approach to the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages.
David Blow, Senior Deputy Head teacher comments, “We thought with the advances in computer technology, why do we need audio cassette and video recorders? Computers can handle all of this! It was with this basic idea we went to Compusys. It was with their insight interest in the intellectual problem that we were able to bring this project together.” |