Little Milton Primary School's head teacher, Eve Hunter, uses the whiteboard

Gill Oliver visits Little Milton Primary School where the governors and head teacher were determined to use technology to transform their village school.

A 200 year-old village school in the depths of the Oxfordshire countryside may not strike you as the obvious place to find James Bond-style gadgetry, but Little Milton Primary is the exception to the rule.

Walking into one of the classrooms, overlooking an ancient walnut tree and fields stretching into the distance, there is nothing to distinguish it from any other Victorian schoolroom around the county.

Neat-looking but simple desks and chairs are arranged in groups, but there is no high-tech modern equipment on show.

A closer look, though, reveals that each desk has a small button on the side. Push it and a state-of-the-art computer screen and keyboard pop up.

Press it again and the whole kit folds away again, leaving the wooden-look desk appearing as though the technology had never been there.

"The children absolutely love it and think it's fantastic," said head teacher Eve Hunter.

"When I show parents of pre-school children around, the first question they ask is Do they make these for the home market?'"

PC-integrated desks designed by Isis in use at Little Milton Primary School

Eve is quick to point out that installing this technical wizardry was not just a whim, but part of a larger and more serious initiative that was vital to the school's future.

Up until 2007, Little Milton was what is known as a first school', catering only for children up to Year 4. After that, pupils were forced to go to another junior school outside the village. The school head and governors were determined to change this state of affairs by adding in the facilities for a combined Year 5 and 6 class. Thanks to their ingenuity, they have achieved their aims.

When Eve joined the school as head teacher in 2001 there were just 27 pupils. Today, this has grown to 64 including the new Year 5 and 6 group.

The room designated as the extra classroom was being used as a walk-in storeroom so was something of a challenge to work with.

"We realised the children wouldn't be able to have separate desks and computers because the room was too small,"

explained Eve.

"A member of staff remembered receiving a brochure from a company that did classroom design and passed it on to me."

She called Isis, a design-led furniture manufacturer for educational environments, and asked them to come and see what they could do.

James Clarke of Isis Concepts, based in Tetsworth, just five miles away from Little Milton, worked with Eve to custom-design a workable but affordable solution for the school.

The end result was a package of 16 PC-integrated desks using 152x51mm computers, chairs, storage and an interactive whiteboard and overhead projector.

The total cost was around £20,000, paid for mainly by the Church of England school's devolved funding from its diocese.

Such was the level of support from the local community that parents also raised an additional £3,000 towards the cost of the interactive board and projector.

James believes this type of design-for-purpose approach will eventually become the norm rather than the exception in schools. "Teaching isn't about chalk and talk anymore. It's about transforming classroom environments through building in flexibility to allow teachers to use all four walls," he pointed out.

"We thought what Eve and the governors at this school were doing was very exciting and wanted to be part of a project that had that sort of vision," he added.

There are also thoughtful details to the project such as a master switch for the teacher's use, which can automatically disable all the desk mechanisms to prevent over-eager pupils accessing their PCs at inappropriate times.

The integrated PC mechanism in the desk has also been designed so that when it pops up there is still a significant desktop area for the pupil to work on.

Alternatively, the keyboard can be pulled out and forward if the child is doing a lot of typing on it.

The black plastic chairs are contemporary in design and on caster wheels, similar to those you might find in a stylish office.

Pupils at the school are obviously proud of their new classroom.

"It is really nice because you don't have to get up and walk to somewhere else to use your computer, you just press a button," said nine-year-old Catherine Westhead.

Her classmate, James Bruce, also 9, agreed: "I really like the way that when you press it you don't have to fiddle around because it comes up by itself."

Eve Hunter is delighted to be able to offer a Year 5 and 6 at Little Milton. "It is lovely to be able to keep the children on and for them not to have to face the upheaval of moving to another school at that stage."

For her and the school's teachers, parents and governors, this innovative solution has meant mission accomplished.

2:58pm Monday 14th January 2008

Pupils Holly and Digby use one of the new desks

Print

Email this