ICT

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is taught as a time-tabled subject at Milbourne Lodge.  All pupils from Year 3 upwards enjoy weekly lessons in the ICT suite ; equipped with a network of PCs and MacBooks.  There is broadband Internet access although content is filtered and closely monitored. Pupils are not issued with individual email addresses, and there is no unsupervised use of the ICT suite allowed.

Pupiils in the pre-prep department are taught in their own classrooms, which are equipped with interactive whiteboards and PCs. 

It is important to be vigilant at home as well as at school and there are useful sections for pupils and parents about ‘Staying Safe Online’ on the website www.thinkuknow.co.uk

It may also be worth reminding parents that Facebook is only supposed to be for children of 13 years and above. 

Teaching ICT is a wonderful challenge as the subject is so dynamic.  Whilst the core topics of word processing, spreadsheets and multimedia presentations are covered using Microsoft Office 2007 there are a host of other exciting software packages (many of them free to download and use at home for extension work) which our pupils enjoy.  The list grows annually.

There is a tremendously close link between the Art and ICT departments at Milbourne Lodge and we are always keen to stress the creative digital media aspect of our teaching.  Many joint projects are created: and our current exhibition success at the National Gallery (Take One Picture) is the result of a joint initiative.

Film , animation (in particular ‘claymation’) and 3D modelling are some of our particular strengths .  Recent success has included winning the junior section of the Reed’s School Film Festival.

We are also keen to stress the cross-curricular aspect of ICT learning, and there is tremendous scope within ICT for talented visual learners to really stretch themselves and expand their areas of strength and interest. 

Finally, a selection of current ICT and Art work can be viewed here:

Videos : www.vimeo.com/channels/mlcreative

Artwork/Photography/Digital Images: www.flickr.com/photos/mlcreative