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Redhill Primary School: a class act

by Graham Jones
Redhill School‘I’m quite used to making all the usual pleas for equipment and we collect every voucher going for computers, like the Tesco ones.’
Mrs Noel-Storr
Head of Redhill Primary School


Many five to eleven-year-old children at Redhill Primary School, Priorslee, Telford, can use Microsoft PowerPoint skilfully – because they use it regularly. Added to this, they use Microsoft Word and access the Internet without any qualms. To the children in this Midlands school, computing technology is a normal part of their day. They see it as a tool, much like a book or a pencil.

Head teacher Mrs Jenny Noel-Storr believes that, computing should just be an integral part of the everyday world of school, rather than a separate subject.

  • She said: ‘Computing permeates all our classes. It’s not because I’m an IT freak, but because it has a powerful impact on learning. IT is part of the world, so it should not be seen as separate.’

Every classroom has three PCs, which the children can use at any time. There are no ‘now let’s use the computer’ sessions; instead, the PCs are there to be utilised.

  • Mrs Noel-Storr explained: ‘I didn't want computing to be seen as a once a week treat. To get the best out of any tool, I believed the children should have constant reinforcement. If computers are in every class, the children will get used to them, and the Internet, as part of the curriculum.’

As with so many forward-thinking individuals, Mrs Noel-Storr’s attitude comes from personal experience. When she was a class teacher in the early 1970s, she had the chance to take home an old BBC Computer during a half-term break.

  • ‘At the time my son was six years old and I remember him on the BBC Computer during the holiday. He started using a program called Logo and, within two days, he'd cracked it. Seeing how involved he was, and the huge impact it had on his learning, set me thinking,’ said Mrs Noel-Storr.
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Created: 04/02/2004  Updated: 05/02/2004
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