High quality information services are essential to the school’s mission; the use of information and communication technology devices as the primary method of communication and work in the school is becoming the norm.
The quality of our information services affects the work of the whole school: all curriculum areas, administration systems, management systems, technical support and staff's continuing professional development requirements. It is increasingly difficult to achieve excellence in scholarship without recourse to electronic resources
Technology is increasingly transforming the style of learning and teaching through the use of high-quality software, internet resources, data logging, computer rooms, projectors and classrooms with electronic study areas
The Information Services Steering Team exists to provide high quality information systems, facilities and services to boys and teachers in the school and to advise on matters involving ICT which seek to extend and enhance scholarly uses of digital resources and information technologies to support teaching, learning and administration.
It aims to maximise the ICT skills of pupils and colleagues, as well as make efficient use of the school's resources to collect, catalogue, preserve, and re-use data resources which result from or support administration, teaching and learning in the school.
Aims
To use ICT to enhance learning and improve the boys' achievement and the quality of their experience in all areas of school life
To ensure that the boys learn to use ICT tools to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information responsibly, creatively and with discrimination
To promote initiative and independent learning amongst the boys, so that they are better able to make informed judgements about when and how to use ICT to best effect
To give all the boys and teachers access to ICT in their classrooms and homes so that they can access school resources 24 hours a day, seven days a week
To ensure that all our teachers use ICT effectively to help pupils attain the highest academic standards
To optimise the use of electronic content and networked applications to enhance teaching and learning
Organisation
A senior manager, the Deputy Head (Communications), is responsible for developing (with the Head, the Bursar and Governing Body): an ICT vision for the school. He is responsible for strategic and operational planning and resource deployment across the school: monitoring how well ICT is embedded in administration functions and curriculum delivery; and developing strategies to evaluate the impact of ICT investment on standards. The Deputy Head (Communications) leads the strategic ICT Steering Team, which discusses and proposes implementation priorities and developments. The Steering Team comprises:
The Technical Services manager, who leads our work on network management and development in liaison with external providers of services and products. Three technicians, responsible for network servers, customer service and AV resources, work to the Technical Services Manager;
The Director of Studies who leads the departments in developing the use of ICT within their subject and monitors cross-curricular ICT delivery and good practice in learning and teaching.
The Assistant Director of Studies, who manages the school’s database (SIMS) and information systems.
The Head of ICT: ICT additionally constitutes a distinct academic department. The Head of Department is responsible for delivering all discrete ICT teaching, ensuring that colleagues are aware of relevant hardware, software and service developments and helping with teacher training.
New staff trainer. This colleague is responsible for making sure all teachers new to the school are up to speed with ICT, whether it's in terms of curriculum delivery (IWB training) or administration (SIMS).
Full documentation on all aspects of Information Services policy is available from the Deputy Head (Communications).
Provision
MTS is one of the leading schools in the UK in terms of ICT provision. The entire campus is networked, there is a desktop in every classroom and there are data projectors/interactive whiteboards in over 90% of full sized classrooms that are in regular use: this will be nearly 100% by September 2008. Internet connectivity is amongst the fastest in the UK (100Mb/ps) and there are wireless hotspots in all main public areas, such as the Library, the Sixth Form Common Room, central IT area, the Undercroft and in the Art, Economics & Politics and Physics departments: this will extend to the ‘Lun’ (boys’ tuck shop), D&T and Geography by September 2008. A 5-person Technical Services Team, led by the Technical Services Manager, manages all aspects of ICT and AV within the school, including the website, which is the province of the Webmaster who also offers DTP support for school publications. The network is supported by 14 core servers and a 1 Gb fibre-optic backbone. In addition, the Technical Services manager is responsible for the school’s reprographics and audio-visual facilities, CCTV installations and door-entry systems.
There are 15 dedicated computer facilities across the campus: 4 central labs used for ICT teaching and cross-curricular ICT; 3 digital Language Labs in Modern Languages; computer rooms of appropriate sizes in: Art; Chemistry (laptops); Economics & Politics (laptops); English; the Library; Careers; Design & Technology; and Music. In addition, two more facilities for Drama (film-editing and chromakey) and Physics (data-logging lab) will be completed by September 2008. The School uses SIMS as its DBMS; extensive software is available to enhance the boys’ studies across the curriculum. The school also has video-conferencing equipment to develop links with other schools and uses SMS messaging to communicate direct to parents’ mobiles. An Exchange server offers standard Outlook and OWA clients. We have a high quality website, part of an ongoing project to develop school communications through a bespoke intranet, social networking and VLE functionality.
All staff are provided with a login and a password to access the network by Technical Services; a separate password is assigned for both SIMS (the school database) and email. The network is W2K based. It is extensive (around 400 PCs in total – 300+ used primarily by boys and 80 used primarily by staff), with total campus coverage. The school has 100Mb LES internet connectivity.
All networked PCs run Windows XP and extensive software supports teaching and learning, including MS Office, Internet Explorer, Inspiration, Virtuoso Language Lab, Photoshop and Corel Draw. There is also substantial subject-specific software for the teaching of all subjects, this is particularly extensive in Design and Technology, Modern Languages, Music, Mathematics, Science, History and Classics.
The School enjoys excellent relationships with a number of blue-chip players in the IT industry. MTS is Sony’s “Digital Centre of Excellence” in Europe and was the first school in the world to deploy Sony’s state-of-the-art Virtuoso Language Laboratory in 2003. There are now 3 dedicated digital Language Labs and MTS has the exclusive right to install this language learning software across the campus. The School was one of a handful that trialled PS3 and PSP for educational use in 2005. We are a flagship school for the London Grid for Learning and we are using our connectivity to develop closer ties with schools here and abroad through our video-conferencing facilities. There is usually an annual ICT conference, attended by over 100 delegates and in 2004 we organised a nationwide ConnectED tour covering 8 venues across the country from Scotland to the West Country; we remain closely linked to ConnectED magazine.
Pupil Entitlement
The aim of ICT at Merchant Taylors' is to help boys achieve their full potential by equipping them with the transferable ICT and information literacy skills and knowledge they require for work in other subjects at school, in Higher Education and in the world beyond. ICT skills are taught discretely by the Head of ICT and also through an increasingly structured approach to cross-curricular delivery by subject teachers. Specifically, the school aims to:
Give boys a positive attitude towards ICT and to equip them with the knowledge which will enable them critically to evaluate aspects of ICT;
Ensure that every boy in the school develops skills and knowledge of ICT by giving them experience in using a wide variety of software applications;
Give each boy the opportunity to learn how to make use of those aspects of ICT which can enhance the way in which he carries out his work in school: in learning, researching, problem solving and presentation;
Enrich and extend learning throughout the curriculum, using ICT to support various modes of teaching and learning;
Provide stimulus and support to boys with special interest or ability in computing and give them the opportunity to study computing and the design of ICT systems in more detail;
Give boys the confidence to take advantage of advances in new technology and to make the best use of the opportunities provided by changes in the ways they can now work.
Precise details of the boys’ curriculum experiences of ICT in teaching and learning and the assessment and recording of progress are available in a separate document from the Head of ICT.
Faculty Entitlement
Colleagues are encouraged to use appropriate ICT tools for both administrative and teaching tasks. They generally feel comfortable about using computers and running software packages themselves and make sure that ICT is used in relevant ways in the classroom so a cross-curricular experience of ICT for the pupils is viable. To this end, the school provides training and support to all staff, which enhances their professional use of ICT for teaching and administration. ICT training is delivered through a mixture of one to one timetabled sessions, seminars, expert speakers, sharing best practice and online support material.
Opportunities at MTS
Want to teach Art, Chemistry or Geography at MTS? Details here
